[Water_news] 3. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATERSHEDS - 4/15/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

April 15, 2008

 

3. Watersheds

 

Editorial: Swimming with no fish at all

Lompoc Record – 4/15/08

 

And while IRS agents are trolling for tax scofflaws, West Coast fishermen will be sitting at home, dreaming about what might have been.

 

For the first time in nearly a century and a half, there will be no chinook salmon fishing this season along most of the coast - at least not legally.

 

Federal regulators last week canceled this year's chinook season, for both commercial and sport fishermen, off the California and Oregon coasts.

 

Scientists have watched as the number of salmon swimming up the Sacramento River has steadily declined. They say there have been fewer than half the fish necessary to sustain a full season of fishing.

 

So, there will be no season, leaving commercial and recreational fishermen from Tillamook to Tijuana moping around, trying out new careers or hobbies.

 

This is no small loss for California's salmon fishing industry, which in good years infuses the state economy with more than $150 million in sales. Normally, the chinook season runs from May to October, and the catch sometimes approaches a million fish.

 

But while the salmon get a breather this season, the core problem remains - the deteriorating condition of the Sacramento River Delta, where human demands for more water are hurting fish populations. As long as people get that water, fish species will suffer. #

http://www.lompocrecord.com/articles/2008/04/15/opinion/041508b.txt

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