The Salmon season on most of the West Coast has been cancelled this year:

The Pacific Fishery Management Council voted Thursday to ban commercial and recreational fishing of chinook salmon off the California coast and most of Oregon this year to reverse an unprecedented decline in the Sacramento River, traditionally one of the West Coast’s most productive wild salmon runs . . .

This year’s West Coast salmon season is projected to be one of the worst ever after surveys found a near-record low number of chinook, also known as king salmon, returning to spawn in California’s Sacramento River and its tributaries last fall.

Scientists are studying a long list of possible causes of the Sacramento River collapse.

Many researchers point to unusual weather patterns that have disrupted the marine food chain along the Pacific Coast in recent years and left salmon without the tiny shrimp and fish they need to survive.

Fishermen and environmentalists say too much water is being diverted from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which juvenile salmon must swim through on their way to the ocean.

Every time I pick up a newspaper or watch a news broadcast or log on to the web I see another environmental, economic or cultural warning light blinking red; yet the big issue today among the three wealthy U.S. senators contending to the next president is who is a regular guy and who is an elitist.