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The Great Salmon Hoax | 
 enlarge | Author: James L. Buchal
Publisher: Iconoclast Publishing Company
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $1.20
You Save: $13.75 (92%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 1455729
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 382
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 1
ISBN: 0966195108
Dewey Decimal Number: 333.9565609795
EAN: 9780966195101
ASIN: 0966195108
Publication Date: December 31, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: A used ex-library copy. Library markings. Pages are somewhat worn. Cover worn with some creases. Worn edges and corners. Binding solid and tight. Purchasing this item supports the Sno-Isle Libraries Foundation.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Book Description
Fishery agency mismanagement, coupled with natural trends working against salmon, has brought Northwest salmon runs to historic lows. Charged by law to protect salmon, yet promote salmon harvest, fishery agencies do not even count how many Columbia Basin salmon are caught and killed for consumption, or measure the cost-effectiveness of salmon hatcheries. The most basic biological facts about salmon are politicized, as fishery officials misrepresent the effects of dams on salmon to extract federal funding from the Bonneville Power Administration. The result? A $3 billion program focused on fine-tuning fish passage at mainstem Columbia and Snake River dams that fails to recover salmon, because there is no evidence that those dams are a limiting factor in salmon recovery. Packed with hundreds of specific citations to the most recent scientific papers and reports, The Great Salmon Hoax is a valuable resource for anyone wanting to understand how salmon recovery efforts have gone awry, and how we can craft a rational, scientific program for salmon recovery that will bring significant numbers of salmon back to the Pacific Northwest.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Mistakes repeated August 19, 2003
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
A great read for anyone interested in issues related to andronomous fish in the Columbia and Snake river system. The author (who is up front about his participation in the conflict) makes a very persuasive case that hatchery management and, to a greater extent, the harvest of adult salmon are the largest manageble factors decreasing salmon returns in the system. The author does a good job of analyzing and explaining scientific data, but the graphs included in the book are of low quality and difficult to interpret.
I found Mr. Buchal's arguments persuasive. The whole story of how junk science was used to justify the agenda of an interest group at great expense to both the taxpayers and the salmon is not unlike the story of the great acid rain scare in the northeast. There, forest pathologists have consistently found that acid rain was not causing observed mortality and that other explinations were more persuasive. Among plant pathologists the issue is long dead, but the myth of a massive acid precipitation-caused dieoff of high elevation trees persists in the media and among many politicians as well as (predictably) environmental advocacy organizations.
 A must for everyone who cars about our Salmon. January 30, 2003
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is something every person concerned with the plight of salmon should read. Not only is it very correct in finding the fault with our political system but it backs up every quote, statement or fact with an extensive list of references. Its amazing to me how not one person has seemed to point the reason for salmon's decreasing population on overfishing. Even when salmon was placed on the endangered species list, the total fishing harvest of salmon went up. BY ALL MEANS, READ THIS BOOK!
 A very biased book from a mouthpiece of industrial concerns September 5, 2001
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
The author is a lawyer who represented major industry in lawsuits against government agencies trying to keep salmon from going extinct. If you want industry's view of how ecosystems should be managed, read this book. It dismisses the best science available and promulgates the view that decent habitat is not necessary for salmon or other endangered species. For example, the author says that dams and reservoirs are good for fish because they don't have to work as hard to get upstream. He ignores the the scientifically proven fact that reservoirs increase water temperatures, and salmon cannot survive in warm water. He agrees with GWB's notion that all we need is "fish friendly turbines" in dams. This book might as well have been written by the aluminum and farming industries - not the sources I would turn to for unbiased, scientific information. It suggests that healthy ecosystems are unnecessary and that hatchery fish are the same as wild fish. If you want real facts about the salmon crisis, get "A Common Fate: Salmon and the people of the Pacific Northwest" by Joseph Cone. A MUCH better book.
A book with a concealed message February 27, 2001
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
The vast majority of the conservative, rural, and farming community are delighted with this book. They don't seem to have noticed that Mr. Buchal's final recommendations are for the radical restructuring of government. --- You will find his solutions in his chapters 14 and 15 which are fairly light on the more technical aspects.--- Specifically, he wants power over salmon recovery concentrated into the hands of a single individual and for all citizens to organize themselves into special interest groups and to gain a place at the table. This is essentially the structure of the Clinton's reinvention of government, based on group processes, which has emerged in Washington State in the three years following this book's publication. Mr. Buchal appears to have been aware of that plan and to have approved of it. But, his recommendations are well obscured by the extensive review of scientific information which tells the conservative and rural community what they want to hear. Thus, they come to be the backers of a liberal political agenda. --- One wonders if that was not the author's intention.
Required reading for all who live (and fish) in the NW January 3, 2001
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Buchal tells it as it is, with mountains of solid facts and many valuable cases. He sets forth the politics of fish recovery and lists the big boys in this "drama". I live on the Dungeness River, a major, undammed salmon stream, and I'm a participant in the local version of "the great salmon hoax". We've spent perhaps a million dollars with zilch results. Most of the players see it as permanent income, never mind the fish. Buy Buchal's book. Get the facts! At least glance at his web site.
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