Escaped Salmon Find home in Los Alerces

We just spent 3 days in Los Alerces National Park, which was created in 1937 to protect the largest stand of alerces trees in the world. Some of the trees are over 3,000 years old and grow only 1 mm per year. The park is composed of a number of large and small lakes connected by natural rivers which all flow into the Pacific Ocean. We were guided by Pancho Panzer who operates the Carrileufu Valley Lodge just outside the park, and we traveled by raft and small boat through the Lago Rividavia and Menendez. The Menendez is closed to all visitors except by the permit that Pancho had arranged. Shown above, it is a spectacular lake surrounded by glacial capped peaks. There are no roads or trails through this section of the park that borders Chile.

The real surprise here is that farmed salmon from the Chile have escaped into the ocean and found their way up the rivers into the park. Just like their cousins in the Pacific Northwest, the salmon travel up the river to spawn and then die. The resident fish are mainly trout and native percas, which are a type of perch. Pancho talked about how they have learned to coexist with the salmon and comsume salmon eggs and dead salmon flesh. The total impact of the ecosystem is unknown since this spawning run has only been occurring for the last 4-5 years; it represents an interesting opportunity to study invasive species. I never imagined that a salmon would ever be called invasive...

There is a ton of controversy over non-native species in Argentina. Clearly the ecosystem will be impacted by a salmon spawning run up a river. What is the right path? Do you try to stop the spawn? What is the right response by the National park system here? More to this story after we go to Tierra Del Fuego tomorrow where a similar problem is occurring and a research team from University of Montana is doing some cutting edge field work. Best to all.