Tweeters,

It appears to me that David Graf's attached comments ("Great
Sadness over Eagle Decline") were caused by a misreading of the
message posted by "John" at 5:42 P.M. on Jan. 31. "John" stated that
"the salmon run has virtually ended and thus the eagles were way down
*compared to a few weeks ago* " (my emphasis). The eagle
concentration is a highly seasonal phenomenon and unquestionably
varies in size from year to year depending on the size of the salmon
run.

I believe the eagle concentration on the Skagit is primarily
related to the spawning of chum salmon, as are other well-known
concentrations on the Squamish River and Harrison River in
southwestern B.C. (Somebody please correct me if I am mistaken!) All
of these populations spawn mainly from November through early January,
and by the end of January, high winter runoff usually means that
there are few remaining salmon carcasses. Chum salmon take 3 or 4
years to reach maturity, and the size of the spawning run can vary
greatly depending on which year-class of fish is represented.

I checked some data on the Skagit River and Sauk River (tributary
of the Skagit) chum salmon runs from a 1997 NOAA report available
on-line. The combined average size of these 2 spawning populations of
chum salmon is 49,000 fish. The Skagit population of chum have been
INCREASING at a rate of 6% per year (up to 1993), and the smaller
Sauk population (about 6000 out of 49,000) has been virtually stable.
Perhaps there have been more recent declines, but I don't have more
recent data.

I have not seen year-to-year figures on the peak numbers of eagles
on the Skagit. (Bob Kuntz, Keith Wiggers, or anyone else, do you have
such numbers?) However, in a regional sense, Bald Eagles have
increased dramatically over the last 30 years and are continuing to
increase. Many salmon populations are indeed seriously threatened, but
the Skagit chum salmon population does not seem to be in trouble.

Maybe what we are dealing with here is relatively minor changes in
the timing of the salmon spawning run, which can easily vary by 2-3
weeks from one year to the next depending on the amount of water
coming down the rivers. However, at least in B.C., by the end of
January, most of the eagles have left the salmon spawning areas, and
we see large increases in eagle numbers around Boundary Bay and other
shoreline areas, where they turn largely to hunting or scavenging
waterfowl.

I do not mean to detract from the plight of many species of
animals and plants in the Pacific NW which are in serious decline.
However, Bald Eagles and at least the Skagit chum salmon are not among
these.

Wayne C. Weber
114-525 Dalgleish Drive
Kamloops, B.C. V2C 6E4
Phone: (250) 377-8865
wayne_weber at bc.sympatico.ca



-----Original Message-----
From: HuhShih at aol.com <HuhShih at aol.com>
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, February 01, 2000 1:06 PM
Subject: Great Sadness over eagle decline


>It really is sad to think that the once great Bald Eagle area on the
Skagit
>is now in decline. It is doubly sad that they are in decline because
the
>salmon are in decline.
>
>This is of course due to the world wide phenonmenon of Mass
Extinction
>described so abtly by E.O. Wilson. I wonder if birders will ever get
>organized enough to actually do anything about the impending doom of
our
>eco-system. Or will they just silently vanish into that good night
like so
>many of the birds they once loved?
>
>David J. Graf
>Selah, Washington
>