King of Fish: The Thousand-Year Run of Salmon

by David R. Montgomery

In King of Fish, Montgomery traces the human impacts on salmon over the last thousand years and examines the implications both for salmon recovery efforts and for the more general problem of human impacts on the natural world. What does it say for the long-term prospects of the world's many endangered species if one of the most prosperous regions of the richest country on earth cannot accommodate its icon species? All too aware of the possible bleak outcome for the salmon, King of Fish concludes with provocative recommendations for reinventing the ways in which we make environmental decisions about land, water, and fish.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Environment, Nature, Science Nature, Conservation, Food

306 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 8, 2003

About the author

David R. Montgomery is a MacArthur Fellow and professor of geomorphology at the University of Washington. He is an internationally recognized geologist who studies landscape evolution and the effects of geological processes on ecological systems and human societies. An author of award-winning popular-science books, he has been featured in documentary films, network and cable news, and on a wide variety of TV and radio programs, including NOVA, PBS NewsHour, Fox and Friends, and All Things Considered. When not writing or doing geology, he plays guitar and piano in the band Big Dirt. He lives in Seattle, with his wife Anne Biklé and their black lab guide-dog dropout Loki.

Reviews

[Ruby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt like I read the same sentence at least 100 times, nevertheless it is an important sentence. To paraphrase- humans struggle with long term thinking and love to prioritize short term commercial interests over maintaining healthy salmon runs.

I did learn some things although at times it felt a bit sluggish. Makes me want to work with salmon full-time!

[Dave Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Basically the history of salmon, a must for any conservationist and salmon fisher or lover of salmon.

[John Boettner · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an Aquatic Scientist I found this book to be a great read. Written by a geologist, this book provides alternate perspectives into the workings of freshwater systems with an historical outlook going back to the time of the Romans (indeed there is evidence that our ancestors from 9,000 years ago (Kennewick Man) consumed salmon).

This book also provides a look into the miraculous qualities of salmon as a resource that allow the population to withstand such environmental calamities as the Mt Saint Helen volcanic eruption; yet as humanity continues to encroach on its habitat, the salmon resource seems to have met its match as it appears to be marching toward extinction. There is also an interesting look into the consequences of building dams, and the politics behind them.

[Myra Scholze · Rating 5 out of 5]

"No one actually sought to destroy the salmon runs of Britian, New England, and the Pacific Northwest. Decimated salmon runs resulted from individual and collective greed, negligence, and indifference, together with the culmative impact of human activities that gradually degraded the ability of the land to sustain salmon... The success or failure of current recovery efforts will depend on whether salmon are recognized as equal stakeholders in their own survival, or as junior partners whose interests are measured against those of powerful and influential economic interests."

If you are in Alaska, if you use fish in any way, if natural science interests you - this is the book for you. Detailing the demise of salmon across the globe, starting with mainland Europe centuries ago and following through to the Pacific Northwest in the last 150 years, Montgomery points to the similarities in the decline and the inaction, again and again, that pervades wild salmon extinctions. The science is clear: salmon need relatively little to survive and thrive in their traditional landscapes, but they do need clean water, available habitat, the ability for adults to reach spawning grounds and then the ability for juveniles to reach the ocean. However, instead of preserving rivers and therefore livable habitat, people have again and again dammed, blasted, destroyed, developed and altered river systems across the globe, choosing short term gains in industry and profit over long term guarantees of sustainable salmon runs. Alaska is the last stronghold of wild salmon, and our stocks are constantly threatened by the very same things that have successfully annihilated salmon for every other part of the western world - development that destroys habitat and alters landscape (lookin at you, Pebble Mine).

The importance of this book, of the need to protect and value salmon habitat and to continue beating back industry's shortsighted and simplistic approach to development in salmon habitat cannot be overstated. These books are literally all over Alaska right now (thanks to The Salmon Project), check out your local thrift store or secondhand bookstore and I bet you can find yourself a copy. Read it, think about it, pass it on to a friend.

[John C. Brewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

It starts off slow, but it picks up speed quickly -- this is a well-done . . . and disturbing . . . book. Can humans be that stupid when it comes to salmon? You bet. And we've proved it over hundreds of years by wiping out wild salmon runs through greedy overfishing and habitat destruction from Norway and Britain to New England and eastern Canada and the USA's Pacific Northwest. Lucky for us, as we learn from this book, salmon are tremendously resilient if given half a chance. And we may have a chance to save the wild ones left in "last stand" rivers in Washington and Oregon if we follow the author's suggestions (which are well-grounded in his impressive research). Unfortunately, many of his suggestions are counter to efforts we're now spending millions on (and, no, fish-factory hatcheries, at least the way they're now run, aren't the answer). Is there a chance we can push past heavy politics and short-sighted profit margins to save the King of Fish? This book shows the way, but will we finally listen?

[Erin Harrington · Rating 4 out of 5]

This absolutely amazing book has completely changed the way I think about and see salmon in Alaska, my home. Which is interesting, because it's not really even about Alaska.

Instead, this book treats 1,000 years of salmon/human history, looking at all the places where man and salmon have interacted and—all to commonly—salmon have lost. What's fascinating about this book is the lens it lends to a contemporary Alaskan, watching our people work to maintain our salmon cultures, livelihoods and economies, while skirting some of the same issues that led to bad outcomes for other salmon regions around the world. It also helped me see the amazing interplay of all our salmon interests.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. We're blessed to have salmon still in Alaska, and in abundance, and this book will help us ensure we don't repeat history's mistakes, and instead have these fish around for all our future generations.

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author has been involved in studying fish habitat for many years, and recounts the history of salmon habitat degradation over time – and I mean time.

He goes back about a thousand years to when kings first decreed the protection of salmon. Because kings were kings, when they decreed something they could make it stick. This hasn't worked so well in modern times.

He describes the history of salmon loss in England, in New England, and in the Pacific Northwest. It's the same song, different location.

Over and over the author recounts how authorities have passed progressive-sounding legislation to protect salmon and their habitat, and over and over local business interests have ignored it. In fact, a recurring theme is that local authorities don't have the will or interest in actually protecting salmon when other business interests supersede it. Timber, textiles, mining, dams, land development, there are any number of powerful interests who express a concern about salmon preservation, then go ahead and do what they want.

Even fishermen aren't immune, and you'd think they want to do all they can to assure the continuation of salmon runs. But it's a perfect 'tragedy of the commons' situation, where each fisherman knows if he curtails his practice, somebody else will get the fish.

Here's a quote that presents the main thesis:

“in most cases where local or state governments managed salmon fisheries, local interests applied substantial pressure to maintain the status quo, protect local people's immediate livelihoods, and avoid sacrifices necessary to sustain the long-term productivity of the resource. Left to their own devices, everyone wants all the fish that they can catch before someone else gets them.”

In recent time governments at all levels have put their efforts and money into fish hatcheries, thinking that all they have to do is make more fish. But the author shows the fallacy of this when the environment the fish need to successfully breed is ruined. He also shows the danger of parasite- and bacteria-infected hatchery fish harming the wild fish, and the ease with which hatchery fish (who are bred to be bigger, like pigs and cows) out-compete wild fish. Here's a quote about that:

“The public and policy makers have been deceived into believing that we can sustain production of a valuable, renewable, and culturally important resource while simultaneously degrading the environment and the conditions upon which that production depends. [Earlier] insights into the dangers of over-optimism about hatcheries remain as relevant today as when first advanced more than half a century ago. Still, hatcheries remain wildly popular in most areas. Who, after all, could oppose making more salmon?”

So is there any hope or are Northwest wild salmon doomed? As in Scotland, there is some hope that private ownership of land will act responsibly to protect salmon habitat, and a few rivers still running wild (mainly on the west side of the Olympic Peninsula) will maintain wild runs. In fact, dam removal on rivers like the Elwha combined with active restoration of the natural environment (like replacing log jams, which slow the river and provide necessary deep pools and gravel beds) has shown that the fish will return if given the chance.

Salmon are amazingly resilient if given half a chance. That's what we need to give them, at least half a chance to continue to be the iconic creature of the Pacific Northwest.

[Josh S · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was repetitive in two ways. First, a necessary and depressing repetitiveness about the relentless ability of us humans to destroy the natural abundance around us through selfish, short-term thinking. Second, some unnecessary repetitiveness in writing that made the book longer than it needed to be.

That said, I especially enjoyed reading this through my own lens as a working epidemiologist. Ecology is, in some ways, a sibling of epidemiology. Both often seek to guide policies of human action which will govern the complex relationships between wild biological populations and wily human ones. This is a hard, if not impossible task, filled with unknowns (both "known unknowns" and "unknown unknowns"). Good data is time-consuming and expensive to collect, meanwhile the situation on the ground continues to evolve rapidly. Decisions are made implicitly even as we try to gather evidence on the best course of action, so we must find a way to craft the best policies as quickly as possible with limited information. Under these conditions, low-tech solutions are almost always superior to technological ones. And an approach which harnesses the lived experience and wisdom of locals (especially those with "skin in the game") rather than depending solely on the presumed brilliance of remote experts (who, if they are wrong, lose basically nothing), is far more sustainable and likely to succeed.

I found the author's final thoughts especially memorable-- if you want a system to succeed under uncertainty, hire engineers, not scientists. Scientists will get lost in how uncertain their uncertainty bars are, losing valuable time in the process. Good engineers will build a system and simply factor in a generous margin of safety.

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exceptional coverage of the issues facing Salmon across the world. David R. Montgomery utilized centuries worth of sources to tell the paralleled stories of Salmon from the North Pacific, New England, and European regions. This book followed the story of the Salmon from its historical abundance to its current and depleted state. I appreciate the boldness of Montgomery in pointing out the failings of governments and wildlife agencies regarding the enforcement of laws designed to protect salmon. I also gained a valuable perspective on Native American peoples and their place in land/resource management. Although salmon populations have been exposed to many negative pressures, Montgomery believes there is still hope. Humility, not hubris, will save the once great salmon runs.

[pj · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really appreciate the stance that montgomery takes on the way we view salmon conservation and his exploration of the history of runs across the world. he situates himself as being an advocate for human adaptation to a world where salmon can thrive while acknowledging that protecting human interest is still a necessary and important component.

a bit … doomy at times (a few of his facts and statistics made me close my book in the world truck because i was upset) but it’s honest.

we aren’t ever going to have back what we once did, and that’s an okay thing, but we do owe it to salmon to be better and to consider the king of fish <3

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author's geological perspective is refreshing, and the book certainly a must-read for the salmon-interested, but readers looking for information about ATLANTIC salmon should proceed with caution, as Montgomery quickly dismisses the entire species and its history as all but disappeared, despite the fact that wild Atlantic salmon do indeed swim on.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long and a bit repetitive ... but so much insight across the globe into the history, complex ecosystems, and future of salmon. And it extends far beyond salmon with lots of random facts/knowledge - do you know the origin of the name of the Douglas fir? As a resident of the PNW this is highly recommended.

[Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great history of salmon and causes of their demise. He presents practical solutions for this issue. I realize that people's livelihoods are at stake and that needs to be taken into account.

[David Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Salmon: Surviving Exploitation

Salmon survive. They’ve got the track record to prove it. David Montgomery reports that salmon have inhabited and thrived on this planet for 40 million years. They’ve weathered tectonic shifting of the continents, rupturing, gargantuan volcanoes, horrific flooding, unimaginable earthquakes – survived it all, only to face extinction in the last 150 years at the hand of man.

In King of Fish: The Thousand-Year Run of Salmon Montgomery traces salmon’s evolving relationship with humankind. He adeptly catalogues example after example, across continents, that whenever and wherever salmon’s priorities intersect with competing economic interests, salmon loses.

The potential extermination of salmon is nothing new – we’ve been working on it for quite some time. The Industrial Revolution in England almost sounded the death knoll for salmon in the British Isles. In 1863 one Brit wrote ‘If in our greed we still continue to overfish, after the numerous warnings we have had, we take the consequences in the probable extermination of the salmon.’”

Over-fishing is a salient dynamic in the ongoing challenges faced by salmon. But it’s neither the singular nor most damning danger threatening salmon. If anything, it’s our obsessive fixation on profit. It is the consistent factor throughout the years, resulting in the decimation of salmon throughout the world.

Economic interests trumps all else. In the 1980s the U.S. helped lead the fight to rationally respond to rapidly diminishing salmon stocks in the Atlantic. A number of European countries – Denmark, Norway, Sweden, even the U.K. – all of whom succumbed to political pressure from their respective commercial fishing industries, worked to throttle these efforts. Why was the U.S. able to maintain such a noble, proactive role? Simple. Ocean fishing of salmon off our east coast shores had dwindled years before; there were no commercial interests to appease.

The direct economic exploitation of salmon is not the species only financial headache. Oft times, competing economic priorities place salmon in harm’s way. The timber industry in Oregon and Washington seriously imperiled salmon’s fate. And then, just the expansion of populations into once rural areas with their needs for water and electricity competed with the spawning requirements of salmon. California’s Gold Rush provides a vivid example. To extract the most possible gold, industry turned to hydraulic mining. “The Sacramento river, prior to the introduction of hydraulic mining in 1853 was, during the running season, so plentifully stocked with salmon that no use could be made of but a moiety of the supply … eleven years after its introduction the Sacramento river was practically rendered useless for commercial purposes as a salmon stream.”

Western societies have not turned a blind eye to the woes heaped upon salmon. No, we’ve leaned on technology driven solutions to solve the problem. Hatcheries offered an appealing alternative. They have a long history going all the way back to ancient Rome. Flash forward to 1850 and the French became intrigued by the possibilities of creating a “veritable fish factory.” Montgomery pointed out that many believed “hatcheries could provide an easy answer to the problem of over-fishing. The promise of increasing salmon runs without having to reduce fishing was irresistible.”

Regrettably, the logic of hatcheries delivering salvation is severely flawed. Montgomery capsulizes the research: “raising fish in a hatchery and releasing them to the wild may not increase the number of adult fish. Instead it simply rearranges when in their life cycle most of the fish will die.” Hysterically, he concludes: “Releasing hatchery fish into a stream is like dropping suburban teenagers into the middle of the Congo and asking them to walk out of the jungle to the coast. Few will make it.”

Compounding these very real threats from above is the role rapidly changing ecologies play, jeopardizing the very existence of salmon. In Salmon Crisis, a pamphlet issued by the Washington State Department of Fisheries, they state it starkly: “The main cause of salmon depletion can be traced directly to the environmental changes that have taken place since the advent of civilization in the Pacific Northwest.”

All is not forsaken. The good news is that there are cadres of conservationists across the globe committed to protecting the world’s remaining salmon. The looming question is whether or not their voice is vibrant enough to offset the institutionalized rhetoric of those controlling the purse strings. Will we muster up the political will necessary to protect this invaluable resource? We can only hope so, because as Montgomery pithily observes: “Extinction by a thousand cuts, whether deliberate or incidental is still forever.”
Originally published in the Anchorage Press, June 26, 2015

[Ushan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Salmon was once one of the commonest fishes in Europe, swarming up the Thames and the rivers of Gaul in Roman times. Laws to protect the fish date to 13th and 14th century England and Scotland: establishing the fishing season, and regulating the weirs. However, the Industrial Revolution brought about industrial pollution, and modern times brought trawlers catching the fish in massive numbers near Greenland, which caused European salmon to almost go extinct; only Norway, Ireland, Iceland and Scotland still have significant runs of wild salmon. The same happened with the salmon runs of New England: they nearly disappeared because of overfishing, pollution, and logging (which clears logjams, which hold in place gravel, which allows salmon roe to develop). The same is in the process of happening with Pacific Northwest salmon. Salmon hatcheries were thought to be the solution; the problem with them is that hatchery salmon are not used to surviving in the wild; releasing them into rivers, says Montgomery, is like dropping a bunch of suburban American teenagers in the middle of the Congo. In the 1930s, the Columbia River and the Snake River were dammed for irrigation and to produce electricity (useful for making aluminum, used for making airplanes during World War II); which caused the fish population to plummet: even if adult fish can go upstream for breeding, juvenile fish are adapted to go downstream through a rapid current, not through a series of placid lakes punctuated by dams. Only one sockeye salmon appeared in Idaho's Redfish Lake (which was once red with fish) in 1992, braving 13 dams on its way from the Pacific Ocean; nicknamed Larry, the fish was clubbed and its milt was used to fertilize hatchery eggs; in 2009, there were 28 fishes. The solution is fishing that is more sustainable, more restrictions on pollution, and possibly removal of some dams. If this is not done, Pacific Northwest salmon will go the way of Caspian beluga sturgeon.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book goes through how salmon runs have collapsed in England, Germany, France, Japan, New England/Nova Scotia and the current collapse in the Pacific Northwest.

What I did not know was that the incredible runs that used to exist in the Pacific Northwest also used to exist in each of those other nations. In each case, the nations knew what they needed to do to save their runs and failed to do so. Before reading this book, I had a lot more faith in the idea that we know so much more than we did in the prior collapses, but on a fundamental level ... no, not really.

So in one way, this book is about how we as a species never seem to learn from our mistakes.



This book is written quite differently from Dirt. Dirt was written in an apolitical manner until the very end, when he started proposing solutions. In King of Fish, the author drops the dispassionate veil and provides both the facts and his opinions about them. I actually prefer the approach that he used in Dirt.

[G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parts are very dry and academic, but this is otherwise an essential and sobering look at how centuries of mismanagement have come close to dooming wild salmon to extinction. Montgomery was strongest for me in talking about habitat and habitat restoration. His descriptions of the original Pacific Northwest ecosystem and how it perfectly supported salmon both intrigued and dazzled me. The chapters on hatcheries and hydropower (dams; the fourth "h" threatening salmon is harvest) were slightly duller, but he made incredible points throughout, and I learned so much from beginning to end. Basically, we're all doomed.

Maybe my favorite part in the whole book was the brief description of how spawned-out salmon help revitalize the entire ecosystem of the streams where they lay eggs and die. Incredible!

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phenomenal book, but chock-full of information. I could only read a little bit at a time because each page is packed with so much information, it could sometimes be a little overwhelming. However, it presents a thorough history of the worldwide popularity and subsequent decline of salmon (both Pacific and Atlantic), without pointing fingers at one definitive cause. Montgomery's writing style is friendly and invites readers of all backgrounds -- from those who know nothing about salmon to current fish biologist -- into his fascinating investigation of the life history of salmon. Highly recommended.

[Lorene Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This excellent story tells the human and natural history of salmon around the world starting with the earliest management techniques in Europe. Montgomery illustrates how salmon management has suffered from death by a thousand cuts. While many gallant efforts have been made to protect our salmon resources, human interests, most often economically driven, have overridden comprehensive salmon protection. These lessons from history serve as a valuable lesson for how to move forward with salmon management and recovery efforts.

[Kelsey Breseman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A compelling environmental case study detailing how and why humans have caused salmon depletion across history and global locations.

The majority of the book has interesting and entertaining local history for England, the American Northeast, and the Pacific Northwest. In the concluding pages, Montgomery ties it all together in a compelling and powerful summary and set of recommendations.

In the author's own words: "Salmon are a very good, possibly too good, example of the disconnect between wanting to have a plentiful resource but being unwilling to pursue actions to achieve that goal."

[Daniel Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written book by this scientist, that explains the demise of salmon in so many places around the planet. It should serve as a warning of what might lose in places like Alaska if we don't begin taking care of habitat etc. It would be too bad if we didn't heed scientists warnings and lost what remains of this amazing resource. Unfortunately, as I learned from this book, there were many scientists or "naturalists" of their day warning about the same things back in the 1800's, and we didn't listen.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read even for someone like me raised on salmon stories since I was in kindergarten; our town had an annual parade in honor of salmon after all! I recieved an whole new perspective on what is causing the collapse of the salmon runs, what approaches have been tried and failed in England and France(who knew they had salmon there at one time?!) and what options we have to prevent a similar fate here. Excellent!

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really thoughtful and well-researched book. I had no idea that salmon (which are so iconic to the Pacific Northwest) were once also plentiful throughout most of Western Europe, Asia, and the East Coast. It provides a very useful historical perspective of land use and how human activities have affected salmon throughout the ages.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book made me afraid of eating any fish, especially salmon. I was very happy when he got to the chapter discussing Alaska, which said that the Alaska salmon fisheries are well-managed and doing fine. Sweet! I can go dip netting again this summer!

[Marina · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The bottom line is that people have the freedom to change their behavior, whereas fish do not. If we are to save wild salmon, then some people will lose money or the ability to do things they wanted to do. But we all lose if we lose the salmon."

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Easy to read history of salmon conservation in the PNW. Glossed over tribal rights for the most part. Was required reading for a class.

[Kimber Hellmers · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit dry unless you are REALLY into the history of fish, and rocks, and the ocean - sort of. Salmon geeks will love it.

[Thor]

A lovely book.

I don't rate books I read for scholarly purposes.