A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
April 21, 2008
3. Watersheds -
King Salmon Off Menu
Harvests banned along coasts of
Bill would establish fish hatchery for smelt -
Yubanet.com
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King Salmon Off Menu
Harvests banned along coasts of Calif., Oregon
By
But even at filet mignon prices, this delicacy will be a rare catch of the day this season.
State and federal regulators, in an unprecedented bid to prevent the fish from disappearing, have shut down king salmon harvests off the coasts of
As a consequence, commercial anglers will struggle to stay afloat. Some will ply waters for a certain eel coveted in
It is difficult for salmon fishermen to shift gears. Special licenses, specific gear and even another type of boat are often necessary to catch other fish.
Despite the hardship, most fishermen are resigned to the moratorium, said Larry Collins, who docks at Pier 45 in
“We don't want to catch the last fish,” Collins said.
The full effects of the one-year ban will not be known immediately. Much depends on the size of the Alaskan harvest, how that state's industry prices its top-grade salmon and whether consumers will swallow premiums.
There are also other fish in the sea.
“Will the average consumer suffer? No, not unless they're picky,” said Pete Leipzig, executive director of the Eureka-based Fishermen's Marketing Association, which represents those fishing for cod, sole and flounder, among other groundfish.
Still, restaurants and supermarkets could be pressed to find appealing substitutes to satisfy palates and pocketbooks of customers who savor right-off-the-boat king salmon.
“We're losing the most premium-quality, best-tasting salmon a consumer can get,” lamented Ghio, chief operating officer of Anthony's Seafood Group restaurants.
Ghio expects fish prices to climb as suppliers take advantage of the looming shortage of fresh, wild-caught king salmon, often called chinook.
The Alaskan harvest
At Whole Foods Market, Mark Curran said the widespread attention to the fishing ban may leave the wrong impression that wild fresh salmon will not be available.
“If you can point the consumer to sockeye – that's the one to get excited about,” he said.
Mike Plotnick, a fisheries research analyst with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said sockeye anglers could reel in the eighth-largest harvest on record.
However, the quota for king salmon has been significantly curtailed to maintain wild runs, honor a treaty with Canada for returning populations and provide subsistence fishing, he explained.
“For the adventurous,” Plotnick said in advising diners worried about withdrawal, “try other salmon species. Are coho or chum available? Those are good eating.”
Processors are waiting to determine demand, but generally don't expect major changes, said Don Giles, president of Icicle Seafoods Inc., based in
Interest in wild-caught salmon is rising across the
At
“We want to make sure everybody can afford to buy it,” said Justin Hall, assistant manager of Pike Place Fish, where wild-caught fillets already go for $30 a pound.
Fresh ... off the farm
Farm-raised salmon is another choice – many supermarkets already carry fillets and steaks shipped in from
The farm-raised salmon industry argues that its fish are safe to eat. In a recent New York Times ad responding to a report on their practices, Chilean salmon farmers said they adhere to strict regulations and the industry “strives to continuously improve the stands of salmon farming.”
Other alternatives include frozen salmon or, for more everyday uses, canned wild pink salmon from
Alarmed by the dwindling numbers, the Pacific Fishery Management Council on April 10 canceled the commercial and sport king salmon seasons in federal waters off the coasts of
The decision imposes the most restrictive West Coast salmon season in history.
Also convinced the salmon run is in mortal danger, the California Fish and Game Commission followed with a moratorium in state waters.
“We don't have a lot of choice,” noted commissioner Jim Kellogg.
Perhaps not. The Sacramento River system, which includes the Feather and American rivers, produces 85 percent of the king salmon caught off the coasts of
This year, a record low 54,000 adult salmon will survive the treacherous migratory journey home to spawn after three years in the Pacific, according to federal numbers. In contrast, 122,000 is the minimum set to maintain a healthy stock. Returning adults numbered 775,000 as recently as 2002.
“We have never been in this situation before with this stock of fish .
. . Every single fish returning to the river mattered this year,” said Maria Vojkovich, who tracks
Spreading the pain
The ocean regulations also sweep in sport fishing, delivering a blow to charter boat operators and others in the recreation services industry. State regulators may not stop at the shore. Commissioners have signaled that on May 9 they will move to restrict recreational anglers from taking chinook from the vast
Wearing a “Fear No Fish” black hat, Bob Boucke, owner of Johnson's Bait and Tackle in Yuba City, recently implored commissioners to allow a one-fish limit along stretches of the Feather River.
“Our tackle business, the hotels, the restaurants and guides will be hurt by a complete closure,” Boucke said at a
There will be painful ramifications statewide as boats sit idle.
“I'm not sure what a lot of the guys are going to do,” said Paul Heikkila, a third-generation fisherman from
Anglers are convinced their way of life is being sacrificed to keep water flowing through the
“We're not the ones who divert water to
Water officials insist the reasons for the collapse are complex and numerous.
“This is a fairly recent and precipitous drop. It is up and down the coast,” said Laura King Moon, assistant manager of the State Water Contractors. “Something bigger than us is going on here.”
The Pacific Fishery Management Council said the roots of the decline “are not readily apparent.” Changes in ocean temperatures, water diversions, habitat destruction, dams and poor hatchery conditions are likely contributors, the agency reports.
As for Collins, the
“We made a good living. Bought a house, raised two kids,” he said. “Now things are looking pretty bleak. It's a dark time to be a commercial fisherman.” #
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20080421-9999-1n21salmon.html
Bill would establish fish hatchery for smelt
-4/20/08
If we want more delta smelt, a finger-length minnow at the center of
He plans to introduce a bill to that effect on Monday.
His bill, SB 994, would establish a fish hatchery in the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta to grow smelt on a scale that would increase the population enough to take them out of the “threatened” category under Endangered Species laws.
He said he came up with the idea when he and a couple of farmers were sitting around talking about the water crisis.
“It’s just a common sense deal,” Florez said.
Brent Walthall, assistant general manager of the Kern County Water Agency, called the bill a “very good first step.”
He said hatcheries, which have aided salmon populations for decades, could be supplemented by using riparian lands to increase the smelt’s habitat.
Westlands Water District in
Walthall also liked Florez’s approach to pay for the hatchery.
Water districts, or even in-delta businesses, would pay for “credits” if their actions adversely affected the smelt, and that money would go to upkeep of the hatchery.
The initial cost to build the hatchery, Walthall said, would be covered by environmental bonds already passed.
“That seems like the right way to do it,” Walthall said.
Whether environmental organizations will feel the same remains to be seen.
While they could not be reached on Saturday, Florez said he did talk to some environmental groups and didn’t get a totally negative reaction.
“They might argue that this is an ‘unnatural’ way for the smelt population to increase,” he said. “But we would argue that with other species, like the California condor, we take them out of their natural environment, raise them and then put them back in their environment hoping they’ll flourish. Under this plan, the smelt would be raised in their natural environment.”
The timing of his bill is critical as U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger will hold a hearing Friday in
Wanger was the judge who ruled last year that state and federal officials had to cut water deliveries in order to maintain enough flow in the delta to protect spawning smelt.
That has created the prospect of water cuts of up to 30 percent, which could cripple the
Farmers, environmentalists and others have spent their energies fighting about the cause of the smelt’s decline, Florez said.
Finding the cause is good, “but it doesn’t create more fish,” he said.
Florez’s bill could be seen by the judge as a viable solution, which could help increase supplies for farmers and the millions of city dwellers who rely on delta water every day, Florez said.
Others have pointed to numerous problems in the delta besides pumping water south.
The Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, made up of local farmers, chief among them Paramount Farming, has filed at least two lawsuits against the state over a power plant in the delta it says is allowed to overheat the water and doesn’t screen its pumps, and for policies that maintain the striped bass, a non-native species that preys on the smelt and native salmon species.
The delta also suffers from invasive mussels, chemical and sewage runoff, and urban encroachment.#
http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/422639.html
Yubanet.com – 4/18/08
NEVADA CITY April 18, 2008 - As West Coast states begin to grapple with the extent of the environmental and economic crisis of collapsing Chinook salmon runs, SYRCL has issued a call for the federal government to aggressively pursue the removal or alteration of a dam on the lower Yuba River that interferes with the endangered salmon's spawning run.
The
SYRCL Executive Director, Jason Rainey, states: "
Referring to Governor Schwarzenegger's emergency request for federal assistance for commercial fishing, Rainey continues, "The Governor is appropriately asking the federal government for relief for the fishing industry. Yet, where have the feds been while local citizens have clamored for sensible measures that might actually recover
SYRCL has been working for over a decade to protect and restore one of the last wild, self-sustaining runs of Chinook Salmon, with the Yuba River representing the only major tributary to the San Francisco Bay with wild (non-hatchery) populations of spring-run, fall-run, and late fall-run Chinook, as well as Steelhead Trout and Green Sturgeon.
The Army Corps of Engineers operates two federal dams - Daguerre Point Dam and Englebright Dam - that no longer serve their original purpose (to capture new hydraulic mining sediment), have caused human fatalities, operate at a financial loss to the taxpayers that own them, and are well-documented as structures that kill salmon and/or block their migration to preferred ancestral habitat.
Gary Reedy, SYRCL's Fishery Biologist states, "Salmon require habitat in the form of abundant clean water. They also need access upstream and downstream. Recovering salmon will require major actions to control water pollution, limit water diversions and provide access to habitats currently inaccessible due to dams."
SYRCL has worked collaboratively with our partners to address the need for abundant cold water habitat through the Fisheries Agreement of the Yuba Accord, which successfully reached conclusion last month with an order from the State Water Resources Control Board after nearly two decades of litigation and negotiation. Reedy serves on the River Management Team of the Yuba Accord, representing the citizen groups that signed the Fisheries Agreement.
Referring to a March 2007 visit to Washington DC to meet with Senator Feinstein and officials with the Army Corps of Engineers, Rainey states, "Despite our efforts in Washington, we couldn't compel Congress or the Corps to even conduct the first phase study of fish passage at a 102-year old dam that the feds acknowledge is a death trap for the Yuba's uniquely wild and imperiled salmon."
In November 2007, Congress overturned the President's veto and passed the Water Resources Development Act. SYRCL's formal request of Senator Feinstein for a $100,000 authorization to the Corps of Engineers for a feasibility study on Fish Passage at
SYRCL, joined by Friends of the River, has been pursuing relief from the Army Corps of Engineers, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and Yuba County Water Agency since 2006 for those agencies' role in impacting the Yuba's salmon, steelhead and sturgeon that are "threatened" with extinction, and which therefore require protections and a recovery plan under federal law.
"The federal attorneys have been stalling through procedural maneuvering. My clients are anxious to get to the substantive issues in this case, and so too, I'm sure, are the wild Yuba Salmon whose existence hangs in the balance," says Christopher Sproul, the lead attorney for SYRCL and FOR.
SYRCL's call comes as experts acknowledge a collapse in the West Coast's Chinook salmon populations, prompting the following actions:
- Pacific Fisheries Management Council decision on April 10th to adopt a complete closure of commercial and sport Chinook fisheries off
- The subsequent action by Governor Schwarzenegger to declare a state of emergency, request federal relief for the commercial salmon industry, and also sign a bill by state Sen. Patricia Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa) to fund $5.3 million in restoration projects for salmon and steelhead;
- The decision on April 14th by the California Department of Fish and Game to close salmon fishing in
- And the federal court decision by Judge Oliver Wanger on April 15th to dismiss the Biological Opinion governing impacts to salmon and steelhead at the federal and state water pumps in the Delta, SYRCL issues the following statement. #
http://yubanet.com/regional/Yuba-River-Restoration-a-Key-Solution-to-Salmon-Crisis.php
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