Klamath Salmon 2005

Erika Meyer

My nine year old daughter is Yurok and Karuk. She has been staying with me in Portland during the school year, and spending her summers on the Yurok reservation with her dad.

Last weekend I went to visit her in Klamath, California. We attended a ceremonial event which culminates with a large feast that usually centers around salmon cooked traditional-style, on redwood sticks, over alderwood coals.

This year, for the first time, I got to the food end of the line and was told something I never expected to hear: "there is no more salmon." The fish run has been thin. They say it's because of the 2002 fish kill.

In September 2002, I was there, and saw the fish kill, watched the salmon in the river sick and dying, then washing up dead along the shores. I took photos and built a personal web site around my experience. It has since evolved into a more general site which I call The Klamath Salmon pages.

I just uploaded some new photos of the Klamath area which I took last weekend.

Enjoy.

By Erika Meyer July 15, 2005