Progress was detrimental to the environments in which salmon and peoples had flourished. Efforts to increase salmon populations involved eliminating natural predators, developing hatcheries, planting fertilized salmon eggs in river beds, and raising salmon in ponds. The rather arrogant belief that humans could create salmon better than nature proved untrue, and salmon populations continued to decline. But that didn't stop scientists, politicians and others from touting the benefits of fish culture. Over the decades, various interest groups have blamed each other for the plight of salmon.
Industrialists blame fisheries.
Fishermen blame dams. Everyone blames Indians and other minorities. Salmon are infused with a variety of meanings by different people based on where they live and what they do. Indians venerate the fish, while others view them simply as food. What you get is a cacophony of arguments about how to save salmon and all frame themselves as representing the best interests of the fish.