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[Water_news] 3. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATERSHEDS - 4/11/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

April 11, 2008

 

3. Watersheds

 

SALMON SEASON CANCELLED:

Regulators vote to cancel salmon season to save ailing chinook - Associated Press

 

Salmon season over before it begins; Federal panel recommends unprecedented fishing ban; 'This is a disaster' says official - Santa Rosa Press Democrat

 

Salmon fishing closed for California, Oregon - San Francisco Chronicle

 

U.S. halts commercial salmon season; Regulators are trying to protect slumping chinook population off California and Oregon - Los Angeles Times

 

Off the hook: Salmon fishing ban OK’d - Central Valley Business Times

 

Dead in the water: Salmon season canceled in California, Oregon; Salmon season: Canceled in California, Oregon - Monterey Herald

 

Coastal salmon fishing all but banned for year - Stockton Record

 

Salmon season disaster; Fishing council urges cancellation along Pacific - Marysville Appeal Democrat

 

Faltering salmon season shakes family; Fourth generation struggles to keep business alive - Inside Bay Area

 

Salmon 'emergency' spawns new limits; precedented fishing restrictions follow collapse of Calif. chinook run - Seattle Post Intelligencer

 

COLORADO RIVER CONFERENCE:

Yuma hosting binational conference on Colorado River - Yuma Sun

 

REGULATION:

Editorial: Time to probe Seeno project - Inside Bay Area

 

 

SALMON SEASON CANCELLED:

Regulators vote to cancel salmon season to save ailing chinook

Associated Press – 4/11/08

By Donna Gordon Blakinship, staff writer

 

Federal fisheries managers have voted to ban chinook salmon fishing off the California coast and most of Oregon this year to reverse the dramatic decline of one of the West Coast's biggest wild salmon runs.

 

The regulations approved Thursday by the Pacific Fishery Management Council are the most severe restrictions in the history of Pacific Coast salmon fishing.

 

The panel voted to allow limited sport fishing for coho salmon on holiday weekends off the Oregon coast, but no commercial or sport fishing for chinook salmon will be allowed south of Cape Falcon in northern Oregon.

 

The council's decision still must be approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service before May 1, the start of the commercial season.

 

Scientists and government officials are expecting this year's West Coast salmon season to be one of the worst ever after surveys found a near-record low number of chinook, also known as king salmon, returning to spawn in the Sacramento River and its tributaries last fall.

 

Sport and commercial salmon fishing also will be sharply curtailed off the Washington coast to protect depressed chinook and coho stocks there.

 

"For the entire West Coast, this is the worst in history," Don McIsaac, executive director of the Pacific Fishery Management Council, said before several close votes led to the fisheries plan for 2008.

 

After the council's vote Thursday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in California, directing state agencies to restore salmon runs and provide some financial assistance to fishermen and businesses affected by the fishery closure.

 

Schwarzenegger said he also plans to sign legislation approved by state lawmakers to spend $5.3 million to restore salmon habitat in California.

 

In Oregon, Gov. Ted Kulongoski dedicated $500,000 in strategic reserve funds and declared a state of emergency, which frees up money for job retraining, unemployment benefits and reemployment opportunities for affected communities.

 

"This will be devastating to the communities and families on the coast that rely on salmon fishing for their livelihood," he said. "Our job now is to help these communities make ends meet during this difficult time and to fight for federal assistance to help them for the longer term."

 

Last month, the governors of Washington, Oregon and California signed letters asking the federal government for a disaster declaration, which would open the door to federal aid for the fishing industry.

 

Congress will be asked to make a fast decision on money to alleviate the suffering of fishermen and any other impacts of the cutback, said Brian Gorman, a NOAA Fisheries spokesman.

 

Scientists are studying the causes of the Sacramento River chinook collapse. Possible factors range from ocean conditions and habitat destruction to dam operations and agricultural pollution. But a proposal to allow limited fishing for scientific purposes was struck down by the panel.

 

In 2006, the salmon season extending from Cape Falcon south to the Mexican border was severely restricted to protect dwindling stocks in the Klamath River, which runs from southern Oregon to northern California.

 

Congress granted disaster relief totaling $62 million for fishermen in the two states.

 

Scientists are studying a long list of possible causes of the Sacramento River collapse. Many researchers point to unusual weather patterns that have disrupted the marine food chain along the Pacific Coast in recent years and left salmon without the tiny shrimp and fish they need to survive.

 

Fishermen and environmentalists say too much water is being diverted from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which juvenile salmon must swim through on their way to the ocean.

 

Two years ago, busloads of fisherman attended the Pacific Fishery council's meetings to protest the proposed cutbacks. This year, little opposition was voiced because most fishermen understand the severity of the salmon decline.

 

"I believe that the council is doing what it has to do," Emley said.

 

Consumers can expect to have a hard time finding chinook salmon at stores and restaurants this year, but they still will be able to buy farm-raised salmon, as well as wild sockeye from Alaska. #

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/04/10/state/n185445D32.DTL&hw=water&sn=004&sc=224

 

 

Salmon season over before it begins; Federal panel recommends unprecedented fishing ban; 'This is a disaster' says official

Santa Rosa Press Democrat – 4/11/08

By Robert Digitale, staff writer

 

For the first time, it appears that sport and commercial fishermen won't be allowed to catch salmon this season in ocean waters off California.

The federal Pacific Fishery Management Council, meeting in Seattle, recommended Thursday a season-long ban on chinook salmon fishing for California and Oregon.

The council said fishermen should be allowed to catch 9,000 hatchery-bred coho salmon off the central Oregon coast. But California salmon trollers and anglers didn't receive even that small of a fishery.

"It's a pretty rough time to be a commercial fisherman," said Larry Collins, president of the San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association.

The regulations must be affirmed by the Commerce Department, an action expected by May 1. The regulations would be the most restrictive ever, federal officials said.

"This is a disaster for West Coast salmon fisheries, under any standard," council chairman Don Hansen said in a prepared statement. "There will be a huge impact on the people who fish for a living, those who eat wild-caught king salmon, those who enjoy recreational fishing, and the businesses and coastal communities dependent on these fisheries."

A fishing ban was widely expected due to the collapse of the adult salmon fishery from the Sacramento River, normally the state's most productive river system.

As a result, fishermen who in past years lobbied long and loud for more days of fishing generally stayed home from this year's council meeting.

"I think that everybody was just resigned to it," said Barbara Emley, a commercial fisher for two decades and also Collins' wife. She spoke by telephone Thursday from the meeting in Seattle.

A fishing ban would mean that consumers will have a hard time locating wild salmon for sale this spring and summer. Some reports suggest the price for wild chinook salmon from Washington, Canada and Alaska could exceed $30 a pound, several times the price normally paid here.

But the lack of Pacific salmon won't make a dent in the overall market due to the availability of fresh and frozen farm-raised salmon.

In 2003, fish farms worldwide produced an estimated 3 billion pounds of salmon. In contrast, that same year, the best this decade, Oregon and California commercial fishermen landed 820,000 pounds of chinook salmon.

Fishermen aren't blamed for the collapse of the salmon fishery, but the cause remains in dispute.

Federal scientists maintain that poor ocean conditions appear largely responsible for the salmon decline, both for the Sacramento River and along much of the West Coast. But fishing and environmental leaders have blamed the lack of salmon on Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta water diversions and other problems within the river systems.

Regardless, government scientists predict that only 58,000 adult chinook salmon will come back to spawn in the Sacramento River and its tributaries this fall.

That number falls far short of the federal government's objective of at least 122,000 returning salmon, and far below the 800,000 fish that returned to Central Valley rivers in 2002.

In the past five years the salmon fisheries added on average an estimated $65 million annually to West Coast communities, according to the fisheries council. That amount is considerably below the economic contribution of earlier years, when the salmon stocks were more abundant and when far more commercial fishermen took part in the harvest.

Last year only 600 commercial vessels landed salmon in California, compared to nearly 5,000 in 1978.

The commercial salmon season typically runs from May 1 to Sept. 30. And recreational anglers normally can fish in some of the state's coastal waters until mid-November.

This year the only salmon fishing off the California coast occurred back in February and March with sports anglers landing fish off Fort Bragg.

Once state and federal regulators realized how low the returning Sacramento salmon counts might be later this fall, they enacted an emergency closure for the Mendocino County fishing grounds beginning April 1. And officials didn't allow recreational salmon fishing to begin anywhere else along the coast.

Now fishing communities will seek disaster aid as they received after the 2006 season, which until now was the worst salmon harvest on record.

Reps. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, and Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, and 46 other West Coast members of Congress already have asked Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez to prepare a declaration of a federal fisheries failure, the first step for providing aid to the region.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the governors of Oregon and Washington have made a similar request.

And commercial fishermen, some still catching crab off Northern California, will look for other ways make money this summer.

Some will try other fisheries.

"That's probably what I'm going to do, go tuna fishing up in Oregon," said Chris Lawson, president of the Fisherman's Marketing Association of Bodega Bay.

The council considered but eventually rejected a plan to allow commercial fishermen to catch salmon for a research project that would have studied where chinook salmon from certain rivers can be found in ocean waters during the spring and summer. That study would have used genetics and Global Positioning System technologies.

The salmon would have been released after a small sample was clipped from their fins. But officials said some still would die and that was unacceptable in a year of such few fish.

The California Fish and Game Commission still must decide the salmon season for the state's rivers and streams. Observers predict sport fishing will still be allowed on the Klamath and possibly some other rivers. #

http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080411/NEWS/804110352/1033/NEWS&template=kart

 

 

Salmon fishing closed for California, Oregon

San Francisco Chronicle – 4/11/08

By John Koopman, staff writer

 

(04-10) 20:24 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- No commercial or recreational salmon fishing will be allowed off the coast of California and most of Oregon this year.

 

The Pacific Fishery Management Council voted Thursday to cancel the chinook fishing season in an effort to reverse the catastrophic disappearance of California's fabled run of the pink fish popularly known as king salmon.

 

"I think it's probably the right thing to do," said Barbara Emley, 64, who has run a commercial fishing boat with her husband out of Fisherman's Wharf since 1985.

 

"It's tough, though. We're going to lose our (fishing) community. People are going to have to figure out what to do with five months of no income."

 

Just hours after the vote, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency and sent a letter to President Bush asking for his help in obtaining federal disaster assistance. In addition, the governor's office announced that Schwarzenegger will sign legislation to appropriate about $5.3 million for coastal salmon and steelhead fishery restoration projects.

 

"California's salmon runs are a treasured state resource and provide significant contributions to our economy and our environment," Schwarzenegger said. "Today's decision by the Pacific Fishery Management Council underscores our responsibility to quickly free up state and federal resources to help the fishing industry cope with the devastating economic impacts closing the season will have.

 

The Pacific Fishery Management Council, meeting in SeaTac, Wash., considered a variety of options for saving the salmon because too few fall-run chinook came back to spawn in the Sacramento River and its tributaries in autumn.

 

Fishing ban the only option

 

In the end, it decided the only option was to halt fishing throughout the salmon habitat all along the California and Oregon coasts, the first time that's happened since the federal agency was created 22 years ago to manage the Pacific Coast fishery. Its management plan required it because of the low numbers of salmon and only an emergency ruling by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez could change the requirement, and that, according to fisheries experts, is unlikely.

 

The council's recommendation will be forwarded to the National Marine Fisheries Service for approval by May 1.

 

"This is a disaster for West Coast salmon fisheries, under any standard," said council Chairman Don Hansen.

 

"There will be a huge impact on the people who fish for a living, those who eat wild-caught king salmon, those who enjoy recreational fishing, and the businesses and coastal communities dependent on these fisheries."

The commercial salmon season off California and Oregon typically span from May 1 to Oct. 31. The recreational season was to have begun on April 5, but was delayed until the council made its decision.

 

The council canceled the seasons after the fall run in the Sacramento River and its tributaries saw the number of spawning fish drop from more than 800,000 just six years ago to slightly more than 68,000 last year.

 

Experts are predicting that a little more than 50,000 fish will be in the river this autumn.

 

The Sacramento fall spawning season was the last great salmon run along the giant Central Valley river system, including the San Joaquin River, and nobody knows for sure what has caused the precipitous decline of the chinook salmon. The National Marine Fisheries Service has pointed to a sudden lack of nutrient-rich deep ocean upwellings caused by ocean temperature changes as a possible cause. But most biologists say it is a combination of factors, including agricultural pollution, water diversions from the delta and damaged habitat.

 

"The reason for the sudden decline of Sacramento River fish is a mystery at this time," said council Executive Director Don McIsaac. "The only thing that can be done in the short term is to cut back the commercial and recreational fishing seasons to protect the remaining fish. The longer-term solution will involve a wide variety of people, agencies, and organizations. But for now, unfortunately, those involved in the salmon fisheries are paying the price."

 

Millions in losses

 

If the ban holds, it would mean the loss of $20.7 million that commercial and recreational salmon fishing brings into the California economy each year. The 400 or so commercial fishermen in the state stand to lose 70 to 80 percent of their annual incomes.

 

Losses in Oregon would top $9 million. At least 1,000 fishermen troll the waters for king salmon between Santa Barbara to Washington state.

 

Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, said he was disappointed that the decision had to be made, but he doesn't fault the council.

 

"We're trying to get a disaster declaration to get (fishermen) through this and get them some money until things can be turned around," he said.

 

The next step, he said, is to get the commercial fishermen actively involved in the decision-making process for addressing water issues in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

 

"We've really got our work cut out for us," he said. "We knew there were problems, but this year they really came home to roost."

 

Tina Swanson, senior scientist at the Bay Institute and a fish biologist, said problems in either the ocean or the river system can disrupt the salmon population, but problems in both areas can be catastrophic. And that is essentially what has happened, she said.

 

"We can't do anything about conditions in the ocean," she said, "but we can control what goes on in the river. We need to do a better job of management to protect the salmon habitat.

 

"This isn't something that happened in just one year. It's been going on for some time."

 

Meanwhile, the people who fish for a living and those who do it recreationally will not be the only ones to feel the effects of the ban. Consumers will be hurt, as well.

 

Salmon in fancy restaurants will likely go for around $40 a portion, about twice the normal price.

 

Michael Weller, executive chef with the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, said salmon is so popular among consumers that they will continue to buy the fish at markets, even if the price rises substantially.

 

At restaurants, however, Weller predicted that chefs will not replace wild salmon with the less-tasty farm-raised variety. Instead, he said, consumers will most likely see greater choices of striped bass or halibut.

 

The price fishermen get for their catch has gone up from about $1.75 a pound three years ago to about $5.50 a pound, but to most anglers, the situation isn't about money anymore. It's about survival of a species.

 

Salmon off-limits

 

The problem: Record low numbers of salmon returning from the ocean to the Sacramento River.

 

What happened? The Pacific Fishery Management Council voted for a ban on commercial and sport chinook fishing off the coast of California and most of Oregon.

 

What's next? The council's recommendation is expected to be approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service by May 1. #

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/10/MNO6103NBB.DTL

 

 

U.S. halts commercial salmon season; Regulators are trying to protect slumping chinook population off California and Oregon

Los Angeles Times – 4/11/08

By Eric Bailey, staff writer

 

EUREKA, CALIF. -- -- Instead of preparing to hit the Pacific's wind-tossed waters next month, veteran fisherman Dave Bitts sat at the counter of a dockside restaurant on Humboldt Bay recently, mulling fate and a cloudy future.

For the first time since the birth of the West Coast fishing industry 150 years ago, Bitts and other fishermen face a season without salmon.

Federal regulators, worried about sagging runs up and down the coast, agreed Thursday to cancel this year's commercial and recreational catch of chinook -- the prized king salmon of the fish market -- off California and Oregon.

The ban adopted by the Pacific Fishery Management Council after a weeklong meeting in Seattle marks the new low point for a trade enshrined in the West since the Gold Rush.

An aborted season will wallop coastal communities in which salmon has long been a financial and cultural mainstay. Repercussions are expected to ripple out, with the ban hurting not just fuel docks and tackle stores but also supermarkets and truck dealerships.

In California, commercial salmon fishing is a $150-million business.

Hardest hit will be full-time fishermen like Bitts, a gray-bearded Stanford graduate who three decades ago chucked plans to follow his family into teaching. He preferred the sea.

Like most North Coast fishermen, a hearty but shrinking brotherhood scattered in harbor towns like Fort Bragg, Bodega Bay and Santa Cruz, Bitts depends on the salmon catch for more than half his income.

After the last two dismal salmon seasons, he and other commercial fishermen knew 2008 would be bad.

The Sacramento River has in recent years been the West Coast's spawning powerhouse. While other rivers suffered, it became the backbone of the industry, with a productive run that reliably dispatched enough fish into the Pacific to keep the commercial fleet afloat and sport fishermen happy.

But lately the number of chinook returning to the river has been dropping. Scientists now predict that fewer than half the fish needed to ensure a sustainable population will return this fall.

Given these bleak realities, Bitts and many other fishermen are greeting the ban as a grim necessity for a livelihood that depends on the fickle nexus of Mother Nature and mankind.

"Going fishing this year would be like a farmer eating his seed corn," Bitts said. "For a sliver of a season and a tiny catch, it's not worth it."

Federal regulators approved a truncated salmon season for Washington and allowed a 9,000-fish catch of hatchery-raised coho salmon off central Oregon.

A normal season in the West is long and prosperous, running from May to October, with more than 800,000 fish caught off California and Oregon.

This year the season ended before it started.

"Fishermen are born with an extra helping of hope," Bitts said. "But I never had much hope for this season."

Now he and other fishermen are pushing hard for financial help and for the government to find a way to fix what ails the salmon.

Last week, Bitts and half a dozen peers flew to Washington to lobby for disaster relief. They warned that the economic hit they will take this year will eclipse that of 2006, when a sharply curtailed season required more than $60 million in federal aid to keep the commercial fleet from sinking in red ink.

The fishermen also are aggressively promoting potential solutions -- such as better practices at hatcheries that raise juvenile salmon and environmental fixes for the ecologically challenged Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

Federal scientists have laid much of the blame for the salmon slump on shifting ocean conditions and a flagging offshore food chain, possibly brought on by global warming.

But fishermen contend that there are other culprits. "We've come to the conclusion there are a whole bunch of smoking guns," said Duncan MacLean, a Half Moon Bay angler representing fishermen at this week's meeting.

Factors as unexpected as bridge construction -- in particular the underwater noise caused by pile-driving tower supports -- may have impeded tiny juveniles venturing to sea, MacLean said.

The fishermen also see trouble in long-enshrined hatchery practices.

A federal hatchery in the state's far north releases baby salmon right into the upper reaches of the Sacramento River for a perilous 250-mile journey out to sea. Studies have found that in some years just 2% survived the trip, said MacLean, who believes the fish should travel by truck.

State hatcheries do haul juveniles by truck, dumping them beyond the delta near the entry to San Francisco Bay. The fish have traditionally been placed first in floating "net pens" to ease their adjustment to a predatory world. By 2005, however, the pens had fallen into such disrepair that state crews stopped bothering to use them. When the juvenile salmon were dumped into the bay, "it was like having a neon dinner sign up," Bitts said. Little fish quickly fell prey to sea gulls and striped bass, he said. Chastened, the state resumed use of the pens last year.

But the 800-pound gorilla remains the troubled delta.

The state's biggest estuary saw a marked decline in several fish species as water exports ballooned, peaking in 2005 at more than 6 million acre-feet. The pumps are so strong they can suck up fish, including migrating juvenile salmon.

Salmon may be benefiting this year from a federally ordered pumping cutback intended to protect the tiny delta smelt. Bitts and other fishermen want permanent cutbacks in the water exported to Southern California cities and San Joaquin Valley farmers.

They are pushing for the state to meet future water needs with conservation, recycling, increased groundwater storage and bolder efforts at desalinization. They would like to see Central Valley farmers shift away from water-intensive crops, and they want regulators to crack down on pesticides that taint delta water.

Salmon are survivors, Bitts said. They can rebound. But they need help.

"It's painful to watch what's happening," he said. "To the fish and the fisherman." #

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-salmon11apr11,0,876260,full.story

 

 

Off the hook: Salmon fishing ban OK’d

Central Valley Business Times – 4/10/08

 

The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) is recommending to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce that the commercial and recreational salmon fisheries in California be closed for the 2008 season.

 

A state of emergency declaration was issued immediately by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger who says many commercial fishing operations will be driven out of business by the ban.

 

He says he will also sign a bill by Sen. Pat Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, which appropriates approximately $5.3 million of the $45 million in Proposition 84 funds to begin coastal salmon and steelhead fishery restoration projects.

 

“Today’s decision by the Pacific Fishery Management Council underscores our responsibility to quickly free up state and federal resources to help the fishing industry cope with the devastating economic impacts closing the season will have,” Mr. Schwarzenegger says.

 

The federal Management Council says this fall’s spawning run of Chinook salmon from the Pacific Ocean to breeding grounds in the fresh water of the Sacramento River in the Central Valley is expected to be just 58,200 fish.

 

As recently as 2002, an estimated 775,000 adult salmon made the same trip.

 

Why there has been a sudden collapse of the Sacramento fall Chinook stock is not readily apparent, the council says.

 

“The National Marine Fisheries Service has suggested ocean temperature changes, and a resulting lack of upwelling, as a possible cause of the sudden decline. Many biologists believe a combination of human?caused and natural factors are to blame including freshwater in?stream water withdrawals, habitat alterations, dam operations, construction, pollution, and changes in hatchery operations,” the council says.

 

The Wiggins legislation will pay for coastal salmon and steelhead fishery restoration projects to address long-term environmental challenges resulting from poor ocean conditions and other factors.

 

The council’s recommendations will now go to the California Fish and Game Commission for a final decision via a process beginning April 15.

 

The California Department of Fish and Game estimates the potential damage from the closure of the salmon season to be $255 million and 2,263 California jobs.  #

http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=8400

 

 

Dead in the water: Salmon season canceled in California, Oregon; Salmon season: Canceled in California, Oregon

Monterey Herald – 4/11/08

By Larry Parsons, staff writer

 

Dwindling numbers of salmon won a reprieve Thursday as West Coast fishery managers shut down salmon fishing for 2008 off the coasts of California and Oregon.

 

The decision, though widely expected in local fishing industry circles, will drive up the cost of salmon for consumers, scrap sport fishing for the fish and force commercial anglers to land other catches.

 

"Every fisherman over the years has learned to adapt," said Linda McIntyre, general manager of the Moss Landing Harbor District. "They are very adaptable."

 

Meeting in Seattle, the Pacific Fishery Management Council decided to allow limited recreational coho fishing on holiday weekends off the Oregon coast.

 

Scientists and government officials are expecting this year's West Coast salmon season to be one of the worst in history. Although commercial salmon fishing off the Washington coast is scheduled to begin May 1, fisheries managers do not predict a good season off either the north or south Pacific coasts.

 

The council's decision still must be confirmed by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

 

The fishery council considered three options: a total ban on salmon fishing off California and Oregon, extremely limited fishing in select areas, and catch-and-release fishing for scientific research.

 

The move was prompted by what officials say has been a drastic collapse of the Sacramento chinook salmon run, which provides the bulk of salmon caught by commercial and sport trollers off the West Coast.

 

The reason for the precipitous plunge in the salmon run isn't known, though there are plenty of possible causes, including dam operations, water quality, farm pollution, marine predators and ocean conditions.

 

The natural range of the chinook, also known as king salmon, in North America goes from the Ventura River in Southern California to Kotzebue Sound in Alaska. The fish has virtually disappeared in some areas where it once was abundant.

 

In 2006, the salmon season from Cape Falcon, Ore., about 30 miles south of the mouth of the Columbia River, to the Mexican border, also was severely restricted.

 

Record low of chinook

 

The Sacramento River chinook run is usually one of the most productive on the coast, but counts last fall found a record low number of chinook returning to California's Central Valley.

 

The salmon fishing ban didn't catch Monterey Bay fishermen by surprise.

 

The early Central Coast season was canceled before it was due to start last week, and local commercial anglers know well about the dwindling numbers of salmon.

 

"They are supportive of this closure. They don't like it one bit, but not one fisherman I've talked to suggests the season should be open," McIntyre said. "They know the science and the data support this action."

 

Commercial fisherman have learned to roll with increasingly strict fishery rules and will go after other catches, including crab, albacore and rock cod, she said.

 

Charter boat operators that provide ocean sport fishing to recreational anglers will feel the impact of the salmon ban more than commercial anglers, McIntyre said. But they, too, can go after other fish.

 

"They will try to adapt ... but I'm not going to sugar coat it, the industry probably harmed the most is sport salmon fishing," she said.

 

Unless there's a remarkable turnaround in chinook salmon stocks, the 2009 salmon season may also be blacked out, McIntyre said.

 

"I would suspect (there) is going to be similar circumstances next year," she said.

 

Sport fishing hit hard

 

The demise of this year's sport salmon season — which traditionally opens with scores of anglers taking to Monterey Bay waters in early April — has taken a huge toll on sales at Gone Fishin', a Sand City fishing supply store.

 

"It will have a tremendous effect in the whole area," said owner Jim Franco. "There will be no month of April.

 

"It's just something happening, but I'm not going to jump up and down and whine about it," he said. "It's not just me, it's the whole area."

 

Salmon lovers may have to turn to other seafood or face skyrocketing prices for their favorite seafood.

 

"We'll probably start looking for alternate places to get salmon, like Canada, Alaska or Washington," said Phil DiGirolamo, owner of Phil's Fish Market and Eatery in Moss Landing. "But there's probably a big price for that."

 

Fresh salmon could go for more than $20 a pound, he said.

 

"We're spoiled around here, all those years getting reasonably priced salmon out of the bay."

 

DiGirolamo said he understands the reason for the salmon ban, but it's a wrenching decision for the Moss Landing fishing community.

 

"Usually at this time of the year the whole island gets excited with the sport season and all the rest of it," he said. "It's a real shame."  #

http://www.montereyherald.com/local/ci_8888096?nclick_check=1

 

 

Coastal salmon fishing all but banned for year

Stockton Record – 4/11/08

By Alex Breitler, staff writer

 

SEATTLE - Fishery managers on Thursday all but shut down salmon fishing in the ocean for 2008, a move that will likely trigger restrictions for sport fishermen in California rivers and streams.

 

The Pacific Fishery Management Council banned fishing off the California and Oregon coasts, with the exception of a very limited recreational catch.

 

The new restrictions on West Coast salmon fishing were said to be the toughest in history.

 

And it's all due to the decline of Sacramento River salmon. The number of fish returning to the Central Valley to spawn last fall was little better than one-third of 2006. The fish have declined for several years.

 

"Obviously, it's a concern," said Cliff Rich, president of the Stockton chapter of the California Striped Bass Association. While focused primarily on bass, some members also fish for salmon.

 

"I think our group believes that if there's an issue with the fish, no matter what it is, it's probably beneficial to close (fishing) until they recover," Rich said. "At least protect what's left."

 

Herman Spalinger of Stockton, representing the 120-member Delta Fly Fishers club, said a one-year closure may not be enough.

 

"We're hoping the devil that this closure will be more than maybe a year or two to get the salmon going again," he said.

 

The California Fish and Game Commission will decide in coming weeks whether any inland salmon fishing is permitted. A spokeswoman said the commission has been waiting for the council to act first.

 

Federal officials have said they believe poor ocean conditions are behind the salmon crash. Conservationists and some fishermen say those experts should turn their attention inland, toward the giant pumps that suck water out of the Delta for two-thirds of California.

 

In an analysis written last week, Peter Moyle, a University of California, Davis, professor and expert on native fish, said salmon have been declining for more than a century thanks to mining, logging, levees, dams and unregulated fishing.

 

Most recently, less food has been available in the ocean, perhaps causing salmon to "starve away." However, Moyle, too, points to the Delta as a long-term cause for decline.

 

The pumps trap fish and change the temperature and water flows in the estuary. Near Stockton, the San Joaquin River is too warm and polluted to support many salmon, and federal funds to restore the river have not materialized, Moyle wrote.

 

"Blaming 'ocean conditions' for salmon declines is a lot like blaming the iceberg for sinking the Titanic, while ignoring the many human errors that put the ship on course for the fatal collision," Moyle wrote.

 

The fishery council has been meeting all week in Seattle to decide a course of action. The council has said that even with a complete fishing closure, the number of salmon returning to spawn in 2008 may not be much higher than last year.

 

That would not only damage the $38.9 million salmon fishing industry, but it could also drive up the price of wild salmon at stores or restaurants.

 

Cutting back fishing is the only thing that can be done in the short term, council Executive Director Don McIsaac said.

 

"For now, unfortunately, those involved in the salmon fisheries are paying the price," he said. #

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080411/A_NEWS/804110327/-1/A_NEWS

 

 

Salmon season disaster; Fishing council urges cancellation along Pacific

Marysville Appeal Democrat – 4/11/08

By Howard Yune, staff writer

 

The season for Pacific salmon fishing might be over before it could begin, leaving sport and commercial fishermen to cope with the loss — and preserve the business and the tourism it drives.

 

At its meeting Thursday in SeaTac, Wash., the Pacific Fishery Management Council recommended canceling this year's entire ocean-fishing season for chinook, known as king salmon.

 

"This is a disaster for West Coast salmon fisheries, under any standard," council chairman Don Hansen said in a statement. "There will be a huge impact on the people who fish for a living, those who eat wild-caught king salmon, those who enjoy recreational fishing, and the businesses and coastal communities dependent on these fisheries."

 

The decision virtually guarantees the elimination of this year's salmon angling in the Sacramento River delta, including the three Mid-Valley rivers, the head of the California Fish and Game Department announced after the meeting.

 

Within an hour of the fishery council's vote, local fishing suppliers were resigned to a year of lower profits and a choked-off tap of summer visitors the salmon run usually attracts to the region.

 

"It's gonna hurt tourism tremendously," said Bob Boucke, owner of Johnson's Bait & Tackle in Yuba City. "It'll hurt the guides, hotels, and the bait shops like mine. All of us will be hurting pretty bad."

 

The National Marine Fisheries Service has until May 1 to confirm the fishing ban, which covers the Pacific coast from the Mexican border to Cape Falcon in northwest Oregon.

 

The long-awaited decision is expected to lead not only to lost jobs and higher fish prices but also cuts in tourism driven by the North State rivers, where state fishing seasons were to open starting in mid-July.

 

John McCamman, acting director of the state Department of Fish and Game, said the agency will cut off commercial fishing this year and will recommend that the Fish and Game Commission also bar recreational fishing. The commission will meet at 10 a.m. Tuesday by conference call.

 

After the council announced the possible fishing ban in March, DFG officials warned that step could lead to blocking salmon angling in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the fish's chief spawning ground. The season was to start July 16 in the Sacramento and Feather rivers, and in the Yuba River on Aug. 1.

 

The scale of the salmon crisis became clear when the fishery council announced in January it had counted fewer than 90,000 salmon returned last year to the delta from the ocean to spawn. That figure was the second-lowest on record and just one-ninth of the 804,000 fish tallied in 2002.

 

Even with a blanket ban on ocean and river fishing, state Fish and Game officials have given a bleak prediction of the chinook's numbers this year — no more than 59,000 fish in the Sacramento system, less than half the department's goal of 120,000.

 

While researchers at the fishery council have identified more than 45 possible causes for the chinook's plight, McCamman said the attention at this week's meetings has turned to ocean conditions in 2005 — when the mysterious loss of plankton, the microscopic food supply of many ocean fish, may have starved a generation of young salmon before they could return to the rivers.

 

Despite the long odds against avoiding a fishing ban, a Linda supplier urged authorities to research the salmon problem more before cutting off the season.

 

Mike Searcy, who owns Star Bait and Tackle, said large water diversions from the Sacramento delta to Southern California — which could disrupt fish migrations to their breeding grounds — could be the chief threat. He also wondered whether DFG could be convinced to allow at least a shortened river season, or curb catches to one per day.

 

"I agree they have to do something, but more information needs to be gathered," said Searcy, who estimated salmon drives nearly 30 percent of his revenue. "My question is, lets say the fall season comes and 400,000 or 500,000 fish come back. What's gonna be the reaction? Will these guesstimates they've been making over the years matter at all?"

 

In Colusa, Pat Kittle has witnesses previous booms and busts in the Sacramento chinook run that courses mere yards from his fishing and hunting supply store, Kittle's Outdoor & Sport Co. A self-described optimist about salmon's future in the region, he nonetheless discussed how he might have to cope if the fish's numbers don't bounce back: whether to lay off an employee, find new things to sell in summer, or perhaps unload his supply of salmon lures and other equipment.

 

For now, though, Kittle called the fish supply salvageable — if humans manage the Sacramento delta more wisely.

 

"It can be gained back if they return the very next year," he said of the fish's future in the region, adding: "I'm 98 percent certain it will go on."

 

Consumers can expect to have a hard time finding chinook at stores later this year, but they will still be able to buy farm-raised salmon, as well as wild sockeye from Alaska. #

http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/pacific_62594___article.html/salmon_season.html

 

 

Faltering salmon season shakes family; Fourth generation struggles to keep business alive

Inside Bay Area – 4/11/08

By Julia Prodis Sulek, staff writer

 

SANTA CRUZ — Ken Stagnaro doesn't want to be the one to end the fishing legacy of his storied family.

 

He's a fourth-generation Stagnaro, with his first child on the way. Growing up on the Santa Cruz wharf, where his family has run fishing and restaurant businesses since the pier was built in 1914, he has roots dating to the days when fish were caught with no more than lines tied to railroad spikes.

 

Through the decades, the Stagnaro family has survived sea storms that destroyed their boats, fishing accidents that maimed their patriarch, the requisitioning of boats by the military during World War II, and the sell-off of their fleet in 1980. In January, Stagnaro's 83-year-old Aunt Gilda — "queen of the wharf" — collapsed and died in a torrential rain and wind storm on the pier just 90 feet from the restaurant that bears her name.

 

And now, after years of ever-tightening fishing restrictions, a critical part of Stagnaro's sport fishing business — salmon season — is being shut down.

 

With the population of wild Pacific salmon at historic lows, the season was closed to sport fishermen on opening day last weekend. On Thursday, commercial fishing was added to the list. The Pacific Fishery Management Council voted to cancel all commercial salmon fishing off the California and Oregon coasts this year. Some recreational fishing of coho salmon will be allowed, but only off the Oregon coast, and only on holiday weekends.

 

Stagnaro didn't plan on such bad news when he sold his house a few years ago to build a handsome charter boat specifically for those salmon fishermen.

 

"It's not that I want to give it up. You just feel you're in an uphill battle with the government," said Stagnaro, 46. "You want to get out of it just to fend off disaster."

 

Up and down the Pacific coast, including the harbors of Moss Landing, Monterey and Half Moon Bay, the news is crushing to sport fishermen as well as a shrinking group of commercial fishermen. Beaten down by increasing regulations, only a fraction of the commercial fishermen who made a living from the ocean in the 1980s remain. Now, about 400 fishermen along the California coast catch about 85 percent of the salmon. In the Santa Cruz harbor, about 10 die-hards remain. None of them wants to decimate the species, but it's hard to bear.

 

"I'm not going to have any income until July" when the tuna season starts, said Wilson Quick, who was working on his salmon boat "Sun Ra" in the Santa Cruz harbor this week. "There will be a lot of people going broke — going out of business basically."

 

The bridge over the Santa Cruz harbor would have been lined up bumper-to-bumper with the trucks and trailers of sport fishermen heading to the launch ramp last weekend. Bayside Marine would have been selling out of beer and bait. Instead, shop owner Todd Fraser said, "It's dead."

 

In Moss Landing last weekend, members of the Bay Sportsmen fishing club gathered anyway to commiserate during a "non-opener" party hosted by the harbor master. They roasted a lamb and hired a band.

 

"There are people here who wait all year for this — and it just doesn't come," said Richard Kent, 65, of Sunnyvale, who stood around the lamb spit in Moss Landing. "It's like closing all the golf courses for some people."

 

But they all understand the bleak picture: In the fall, the number of chinook salmon that returned to the Sacramento River, which provides most of the salmon caught off the coasts of California and Oregon, fell to record lows. Scientists primarily blame poor ocean conditions that have disrupted the food chain, as well as the diversion of Sacramento River water to Central Valley farms, leaving shallower, warmer waters for struggling salmon to spawn.

 

With the fish population in so much trouble, most fishermen accept the ban, said recreational fisherman Pat Miller from Santa Cruz. "No one wants to catch the last salmon ever caught in life."

 

Stagnaro sure doesn't. His family came to the United States in the 1870s, when his great-grandfather Cottardo Stagnaro emigrated from Italy.

 

At the peak of the family's holdings in the 1960s, the Stagnaros owned two restaurants, a fish market, a dozen fishing and sport vessels and two speed boats.

 

Now, it's down to Stagnaro's charter fishing boat "Velocity," which he runs with his cousin, Dino; and the restaurant, owned by his last surviving uncle, Robert "Big Boy" Stagnaro, 79, and his two grown sons.

 

In a gray-and-green vinyl-covered booth at Gilda's earlier this week, with walls of windows looking out to white-capped waters on either side, Stagnaro sat next to his uncle, who still seats the patrons and runs the bar.

 

 The building shakes when cars drive across the wooden-planked pier. Seagulls squawk as they fly by. Sea lions lounging on cross bracing under the pilings yelp below.

 

Stagnaro gulped his coffee.

 

"I can't carry the brunt of ending the Stagnaro legacy of fishing on the ocean," he said. "I try to keep the business going, but ... "

 

"You're doing a wonderful job, Kenny," his uncle interjected, then said of the fourth generation, "They've got to weather the storm. They will. I'll help, Kenny."

 

The old man remembers the days when it was "all blood, sweat and tears put in by the family. We loved every minute of it and to work with a large family — how lucky we were."

 

The younger Stagnaro, his forehead creased with a deep furrow, feels the pressure closing in from all sides.

 

The walls of Gilda's restaurant are covered with framed black-and-white photographs of the 10 Stagnaro siblings (five boys — including Robert — and five girls), the king and queen of the fishing derby, five Stagnaro boats tied up to the wharf labeled "The Biggest Fishing Fleet on the Coast 1961."

 

"I've been immersed in this my whole life," he said. "Sometimes I just want to go to the desert where it's warm and not foggy. Sometimes you just want to break from it."

 

He points to the old Stagnaro ticket shack that sits on the edge of the pier.

 

"Look at that," he said.

 

In the old days, the signage was simple. "Bay Cruises — Fishing Trips."

 

Over the past five years, he's had to plaster several more signs advertising his latest ecotourism efforts to save the business: Whale watching, dolphin tours. Now he even offers "Scattering of Ashes."

 

He lies awake at night, thinking of new ways to make a living with the Velocity.

 

"I was thinking of making it a dockside cafe," he said, "putting tables and chairs out on the deck and selling breakfast burritos and coffee to people walking by."

 

He doesn't want to be the Stagnaro to have it all go under.  #

http://www.mercurynews.com//ci_8888776?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com

 

 

Salmon 'emergency' spawns new limits; precedented fishing restrictions follow collapse of Calif. chinook run

Seattle Post Intelligencer – 4/11/08

By Robert McClure, staff writer

 

SEATAC -- Calling flagging numbers of salmon an emergency, federal fisheries managers slapped unprecedented restrictions Thursday on West Coast salmon fishing.

 

The Pacific Fishery Management Council virtually eliminated fishing for salmon in the ocean alongside most of Oregon and all of California, and substantially restricted fishing for coho along the Washington coast.

 

Fishing for chinook along Washington survived relatively unscathed, though.

 

Gov. Chris Gregoire said she would consider asking for emergency federal aid to fishermen if the restrictions prove financially disastrous here. The governors of Oregon and California already have requested such aid.

 

"We will have zero commercial fishing on salmon between Cape Falcon (in northern Oregon) and the Mexican border. We will have a minimal -- very minimal -- recreational fishery on salmon," said council member Rod Moore, director of the West Coast Seafood Processors Association in Portland.

 

"We need to do it to protect our salmon stocks, in order to follow the law, but it's going to hurt."

 

The council's action was prompted by the precipitous collapse of chinook salmon from the Sacramento River, the backbone of California's salmon fishery. While fisheries managers look for at least 122,000 of those fish to return and spawn every year just to repopulate the run, they're expecting less than half that number this year.

 

As recently as 2002, some 775,000 of those fish returned to spawn.

 

Because those Sacramento chinook range up the coast, mixing with healthier stocks farther north, fishery managers said almost all fishing had to be disallowed.

 

The only exception for ocean fishing is for 9,000 coho to be caught off central Oregon, compared with an average of about 81,000 a year from 2000 to 2005. Catching those coho is expected to result in the deaths of about 55 Sacramento chinook.

 

Representing California's state government, council member Marija Vokovich led the losing side of a 8-4 vote against even that greatly reduced fishery.

 

"I am unable to see where we can afford any fishing. Every fish that doesn't go back to the river counts this year," Vokovich said. "We've never been in this situation with this Sacramento run of salmon that supports two states' salmon fisheries."

 

Oregon recreational fishermen were bitter, saying they should not pay the price for poor water management in California, which they blame for the Sacramento stock's collapse. California has an elaborate water-delivery system keyed on the Sacramento River delta east of San Francisco.

 

"The whole problem is California doesn't know how to manage fish," said Jim Welter of Brookings, Ore., a former commercial fisherman who still fishes for sport. "Everybody on the coast is paying for their inability to manage fish."

 

Council staff members, federal fishery scientists and others aren't so quick to blame California's water-management practices, noting that there are many possible causes for the decline of the Sacramento stock.

 

For example, it's well known that a phenomenon still not fully understood caused the Pacific Ocean's coastal food web to collapse in 2005, killing tens of thousands of sea birds and presumably starving the Sacramento chinook that went to sea that year. It's that year's smolts that are set to return in such low numbers this spring and summer.

 

In Washington, the coho catch had to be strictly limited because of endangered stocks in the lower Columbia River and along the Oregon coast because they, too, head to sea and turn right -- meaning they can get killed along the Washington coast. Those stocks are protected under the Endangered Species Act, unlike the Sacramento fish.

 

The National Marine Fisheries Service can overrule the council's decision. The agency's decision is expected by the time the fishing season usually starts May 1. Salmon fishing already had been greatly restricted for the winter and early spring, although summertime is the prime season. #

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/358664_salmon11.html

 

 

COLORADO RIVER CONFERENCE:

Yuma hosting binational conference on Colorado River

Yuma Sun – 4/10/08

By Sarah Reynolds, staff writer

 

Near San Luis, Ariz., on a stretch of wilderness that overlaps Arizona, California and Mexico, years of crime and environmental degradation have devastated 1,000 acres along the Colorado River.

This area, called Hunter's Hole on the U.S. side of the border, has been known by the U.S. Border Patrol, local police and the Yuma County Sheriff's Office as fertile ground for illegal crossings and criminal smuggling.

But a group of environmental, government and public safety workers on both sides of the border are trying to turn it into something else by restoring that portion of the river.

"If we could just restart the flow of water down, even just to San Luis along that stretch and restore that whole area, it would serve as inspiration maybe to other parts of the border," said Charles Flynn, executive director of the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area. "This is so unique because a community isn't fighting with the government or fighting with Mexico. We're trying to figure it out together."

This was the message of the Common Ground Conference, which brought Mexican environmental scientists and students to Yuma Thursday to meet with their local counterparts, along with government and law enforcement personnel.

The conference centers around the restoration of the Limitrophe Division of the river - a 1,000-acre area that includes the 450 acres of Hunter's Hole on the U.S. side. The project started about a year ago, according to Flynn, when the Heritage Area developed a concept plan to restore Hunter's Hole using input from the Border Patrol and YCSO.

The goal was to duplicate the work done in the Yuma East Wetlands. As the project moved forward, it gained the attention of Mexican environmental groups, who eventually formed a collaboration. They have been working together over the past few months on restoration efforts.

"We were doing similar things in Mexico ... We were kind of in the same interest of restoring. We came to meet and, it's not a large world in the environmental community and we learned about the environmental projects in Yuma," said Dr. Osvel Hinojosa Huerta, a representative for Pro-Natura.

>From an environmental standpoint Hunter's Hole faces many of the same challenges that once plagued the East Wetlands, said Fred Phillips, principal consultant on the Wetlands project.

"It was basically a dump, not the kind of place you could take people walking," Phillips said.

Before the restoration efforts over the past three years, the wetlands were overgrown with invasive non-native plants. The tangled vegetation had made it a haven for crime, drugs and vagrants in Yuma, said Sheriff Ralph Ogden.

Restoring the wetlands has uncovered and curbed the crime in that area and it is hoped something similar will happen in Hunter's Hole.

Border Patrol Agent Betty Mills-Carilli said part of the Hunter's Hole project will clear brush, creating a visual corridor for agents patrolling the area. The border fence, which is supposed to be in place by December 2008, will go through there. But Carilli said they could work with restoration officials to build the fence around, and in complement, with Hunter's Hole.

"That area is predominant for smuggling - alien smuggling and drug trafficking. So, by having the fence in there is going to prevent the illegal flow of vehicles coming through and pedestrians coming through," Carilli said. "(Restoration workers) reached out to the chief patrol agent in charge for Yuma sector."

The project has gained international attention and is in the first stages of securing more funding. A $140,000 grant from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation allowed the installation of groundwater pumps to aid in water restoration.

It is now entering the permitting stage. More funds will be needed to complete all necessary studies, excavate and create channels, construction wells and clear and replant vegetation.

Flynn said they hope to secure approximately $700,000 for that effort.

Hunter's Hole has gained the support of the city, Yuma County, the Cocopah Indian Tribe, state wildlife and environmental agencies and Mexican educational and environmental groups.

Representatives have been lobbying the federal government, both in the U.S. and Mexico, for further aid. Officials say they've received a lot of support but actual federal funding has not been secured at this time.

Thursday's leg of the conference unveiled the Limitrophe Binational Restoration Plan and brought stake-holders together to tour Hunter's Hole and the Yuma East and West Wetlands.

It will continue at 8:30 a.m. Friday with a roundtable discussion at Yuma City Hall, One City Plaza, that is open to the public.

http://www.yumasun.com/news/river_40942___article.html/colorado_binational.html

 

 

REGULATION:

Editorial: Time to probe Seeno project

Inside Bay Area – 4/10/08

 

Once again, Albert D. Seeno is under investigation for possible environmental damages at one of his developments. This time it's at his San Marco project in the hills of western Pittsburg above Highway 4.

 

The California Department of Fish and Game and the city of Pittsburg are examining the Albert D. Seeno Construction Co.'s questionable extensive grading work that is reshaping the hills.

 

One of the concerns of Fish and Game is the possible destruction of a creek and other drainage areas. Also, Seeno's company has graded the top of one of the hills above the Concord Naval Weapons Station, which will be developed by Concord.

 

Pittsburg City Engineer Joe Sbranti has been working with Fish and Game since January to determine whether Seeno has violated any environmental regulations.

 

There is also concern that Seeno is operating under expired permits. Sbranti said his department could not find any current permit Seeno was operating under. The permit the city did find had expired at least five years ago.

That's not the only permit that seems to be outdated or missing. Permits for grading the stream bed are given by Fish and Game, the Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Water Resources. So far, those agencies also found permits to be expired.

 

Nevertheless, Seeno spokesman Kiley Russell said that all of the grading at the San Marco subdivision is in accordance with permits issued by Pittsburg and the regulatory agencies. Perhaps, but are those permits still active?

 

Seeno also is suspected of grading hills after Oct. 15, which is not allowed by Fish and Game. Warden Nicole Kozicki said her agency is investigating whether Seeno improperly altered the streambed and caused erosion.

 

She said grading had been done during the winter, when it is difficult to control erosion during a rainy period.

 

Russell would not comment on the timing of the grading.

 

Save Mount Diablo officials also believe that the San Marco grading shows signs of erosion and slumping in hilly areas prone to landslides.

 

Seeno has a record of environmental abuse and has been fined several times during the past few years. He agreed to a $3 million settlement earlier this year relating to grading at an Antioch development. He also paid $1 million in fines and restitution for violating the Endangered Species Act by killing threatened red-legged frog habitat at the San Marco development.

 

The latest concerns about Seeno's operation in San Marco are real and need to be thoroughly investigated.

 

Pittsburg and the Department of Fish and Game are trying to work with Seeno to find solutions.

 

That is a positive step, but it may not be enough. Much stiffer fines and other penalties should be considered if Seeno is found to have violated environmental regulations. No developer should be allowed to break the law, pay an easily affordable fine and continue business as usual. #

http://www.contracostatimes.com/search/ci_8885774?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com

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