What’s Going On?

SalmonAid is an awareness festival that allows people to come out and enjoy themselves. At the same time SalmonAid tries to inform people of what happens to wild salmon when dams are being built to block the natural flow of rivers.

Friday was SalmonAid’s kick off celebration where a few native tribes who live off the Klammoth River came down to host guests with a salmon bake. Saturday is SalmonAid’s festival at Jack London Square. What was suppose to happen on Friday was that the some tribes from Northern California near Yreka were suppose to come and bake salmon by first building a large fire pit. Something similar to a bonfire and then filleted strips of salmon would be put on sticks of Redwood. Then the sticks would be inserted in the sand around the fire and the heat from the pit would bake the fish. Flipping of the fish once was the only thing required after a few minutes. Then just serve and eat.

However, Friday was a really windy day at Ocean Beach and the whole salmon bake had to be postponed. Disappointing as it may sound, it wasn’t. The salmon bake was brought inland into Golden Gate Park and it was there were the event turned into a salmon BBQ. Some people picked up some charcoal and lighter fluid at the local Safeway nearby and I helped pitch in by getting the charcoal going on two grills. Once the grills were fired up and ready to go, salmon was tossed onto the grill. The salmon was simply seasoned with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Boy was it tasty!

Turnout for the event started with a group of about ten, but as time progressed into late evening people trickled in and the size was about a good forty. Who would have figured a salmon BBQ in Golden Gate Park? What started out as a strong windy day at the beach ended up being a cool calm day at the park. Thank goodness for the park trees to break all that wind and sandblasting.

For more information on SalmonAid, check out their organization’s website at: http://www.salmonaid.org

A couple things that you can do to help the tribes and other people that live off the Klammoth River is to educate family and friends of this potential hazard of damming up the river. Damming rivers not only prevent the salmon from naturally swimming upstream to spawn, but it allows toxins and other pollutants to build up. Releasing water from the dams will in turn slowly kill off all wildlife downstream. Also by educating the public would hopefully allow legislation to help put a stop to damming up other rivers not only in California, but other states as well. People like the native tribes of Northern California get their food from the river. Some do go off to grocery stores to get food, but part of their diet comes from the fresh wild caught salmon and acorns. Lastly, another way to help is to support the sale of wild salmon and the fisherman that catch them.