Impending Extinction of Steelhead Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Impending Extinction of Steelhead - Essay Example This is attributed to human activities. Along with the scientific developments came the human population explosion. Hundreds of habitats are being destroyed to serve as agricultural or residential lands. Excessive harvesting of animal meat has led to the decline of reproducing population. Irresponsible disposal of garbage and chemicals has further narrowed life opportunities for organisms. This paper will explore on the reasons for impending extinction of the steelhead. It will also look at the measures taken by concerned entities in preventing this from happening. Our focus would be in the steelhead habitat in the Washington State. This paper is aimed at providing the reader knowledge of what is currently being done today to address the environmental problem. Steelheads are characterized by a dark-olive color, shading to silvery-white on the underside with a heavily speckled body and a pink to red stripe running along their sides. They can reach up to 55 pounds (25 kg) in weight and 45 inches (120 cm) in length. An adult female steelhead will prepare a redd (or nest) in a stream area with suitable gravel type composition, water depth, and velocity. It then deposits 4 to 5 eggs in "nesting pockets" within a single redd. The eggs hatch within 3 to 4 weeks. The juvenile steelhead ... It then deposits 4 to 5 eggs in "nesting pockets" within a single redd. The eggs hatch within 3 to 4 weeks. The juvenile steelhead rears in the freshwater for 1 to 4 years before migrating individually to the open ocean. It stays in the marine environment for 1 to 5 years after which it returns to the freshwater streams and rivers of their birth in order to mate. This process is called anadromy. Unlike other Pacific salmonids, steelheads can spawn more than once and will but will again migrate through estuaries to the ocean. Migrations can reach hundreds of miles as evidenced by a fish tagged in the Sea of Japan and caught six months thereafter in the Skagit River of northern Washington. Some streams host two runs of steelhead, a summer run (returning in summer and early fall and spawning in early to mid-winter) and a winter run (returning in early winter to late spring and spawning within this time frame). FOOD Young steelheads feed primarily on zooplankton. Adults feed on aquatic and terrestrial insects, mollusks, crustaceans, fish eggs, minnows and even other small fishes including other trout. PREDATORS: Fish, mammals, and birds are the primary natural predators of steelhead. Fish predators include the northern pike minnow, walleyes, and smallmouth bass, channel catfish, sculpins, white sturgeon and even some adult salmonids like adult bull trout, rainbow/steelhead trout, cutthroat trout, brook trout, and brown trout. Fish-eating birds present in the Upper Columbia Basin include great blue herons, gulls, osprey, common mergansers, American dippers, cormorants, Caspian terns, belted kingfishers, common loons, western grebes, black-crowned night herons and bald eagles. Mammalian

Bill Clinton Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Bill Clinton - Research Paper Example Because she was a widow, Virginia Dell Cassidy studied nursing in New Orleans to fend for her and her son, immediately after her son William was born. She left the baby in her parents’ home in Hope, Arkansas. Her parents, Eldridge and Edith Cassidy, had a grocery store in Hope which gave credit to blacks and whites alike, even if the town was still heavily segregated. Because of this, Clinton’s grandparents heavily influenced him in his political career, especially on the matters of civil rights and racism. Edith was also a private nurse in Hope. As a beautiful young widow, Virginia Cassidy went out with a number of men but finally settled for Roger Clinton, Sr. Clinton, Sr. was the owner of the Buick dealership store in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Shortly after the marriage, the family moved to Arkansas. It was a good marriage at first, and Clinton, Sr. was a good father for young Bill. However, Clinton, Sr. was an alcoholic and abused his mother a lot. When Bill was ten, Virginia became pregnant with Roger, Jr., and young Bill remarked that that pregnancy was the couple’s attempt to salvage their marriage. Bill loved his younger brother and enjoyed being an older brother. However, when he was fourteen, his mother divorced and remarried Roger Clinton, Sr. This proves that the Clinton-Cassidy marriage was on for the long haul and William Jefferson Blythe III legally changed his name to William Jefferson Clinton as a gesture of love for his stepfather (Clinton, 2004). He was an active school leader and an A student. He was always on the top three of his elementary and high school classes. He was also a musician. He attended St. John’s Catholic Elementary School and Hot Springs High School in Hot Springs, Arkansas and it was there that he decided to have a career in politics even if he loved music and biology (he contemplated being a musician and a doctor but knew he would be great as a public servant). This decision was rooted on two important events in