Monday March 16, 2026
Lookout Santa Cruz —
Salmon used to be savvy investors. For millennia, they spread their risk: returning upstream to spawn in California rivers at ages 3, 4, 5, even 6. If one year brought drought or brutal ocean conditions, another generation could ensure populations wouldn’t tank. It was a biological hedge fund, diversified across time.
“Just like you don’t want all your stocks in one company … you also don’t want all your individuals to be represented by exactly the same genetic type” or the same age, said Eric Palkovacs, UC Santa Cruz Fisheries Collaborative Program director.