The groups also seek federal funding for more collaborative research on effects that ocean changes are having on returning salmon.Д¬iting the warming ocean, Republican Gov. More than a half-dozen Alaska Native groups have petitioned for federal aid, and they want the stateвЂ™s federal delegation to hold a hearing in Alaska on the salmon crisis. This year, summer chum numbers plummeted and numbers of fall chum - which travel farther upriver - are dangerously low. King, or chinook, salmon have been in decline for more than a decade, but chum salmon were more plentiful until last year.

The assumption that salmon that arenвЂ™t fished make it back to their native river to lay eggs may no longer hold up because of changes in both the ocean and river environments, said Stephanie Quinn-Davidson, who has worked on Yukon River salmon issues for a decade and is the Alaska Venture FundвЂ™s program director for fisheries and communities. Many believe commercial trawling operations that scoop up wild salmon along with their intended catch, as well as competition from hatchery-raised salmon in the ocean, have compounded global warmingвЂ™s effects on one of North AmericaвЂ™s longest rivers. Opinions on what led to the catastrophe vary, but those studying it generally agree human-caused climate change is playing a role as the river and the Bering Sea warm, altering the food chain in ways that are not yet fully understood. вЂњWe have to fill that void quickly before winter gets here.вЂќ Nobody,вЂќ said Giovanna Stevens, 38 and a member of the Stevens Village tribe who grew up harvesting salmon at her familyвЂ™s fish camp. вЂњNobody has fish in their freezer right now.

Days under the sea game