[Water_news] 3. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATERSHEDS - 5/2/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

May 2, 2008

 

3. Watersheds -

 

 

Editorial:

Tuolumne salmon at high risk of extinction

The  Modesto Bee

 

All salmon fishing banned on West Coast -

The San Francisco Chronicle

 

Salmon ban aid clears hurdle

The Sacramento Bee

 

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Editorial:

Tuolumne salmon at high risk of extinction

The  Modesto Bee- 5/2/08

 

Native salmon on the Tuolumne River are "at high risk of extinction" because not enough water flows down the river. That assessment introduces a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report released to The Bee on Thursday.

 

The report is likely to be a key component in a multiagency request for a rehearing of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order that allows the Turlock and Modesto irrigation districts to take no additional measures to ensure the survival of salmon through 2016. That order was issued last month, but state and federal agencies can request that it be altered through a rehearing; that request is expected to made by Monday.

 

Rarely does such unequivocal language appear in such a report. Using complex formulations and years of data, the study documents the possibility that there are no native-born salmon left on the river -- meaning the 115 to 211 (counts varied) salmon found this year were either raised in hatcheries or came up the Tuolumne by mistake.

 

Chinook salmon begin life in cold freshwater streams, then migrate to the Pacific. Two to four years later they return, spawn and die.

 

Some 40,000 salmon returned to the Tuolumne in 1985, and 39,727 of them were natives. It's been a rollercoaster ride ever since, with the total population falling to 77 in drought-stricken 1991 and 17,873 in 2000. During the leanest years, 1990-95, none of the returning salmon were natives.

 

Salmon stocks can be replaced with hatchery-raised fish, but they're not acclimated to the Tuolumne's conditions. As the study's author, Carl Mesick, points out, non-native fish don't reproduce as quickly. Native-born fish can repopulate a river much more rapidly, which is what happened on the Merced and Stanislaus rivers following the drought years.

 

Historically, salmon numbers spike two to four years after high springtime flows. But despite huge flows in 2004 and 2005, Tuolumne salmon numbers plummeted in 2006 and 2007.

 

That population crash mirrored a larger trend. The Pacific Fisheries Management Council has banned ocean fishing from Oregon to California due to catastrophic drops in the Columbia and Sacramento basins. Scientists blame, in part, changing ocean conditions that reduced the "upwelling" of foodstocks.

But recent ocean conditions can't entirely explain a crash that began on the Tuolumne in 2002. Instead, the Fish & Wildlife Service report points to inadequate releases from Don Pedro Reservoir.

 

In about half of all years, from 94,000 to 164,000 acre-feet flows out of Don Pedro. In the other half, releases exceed 300,000 acre-feet. Mesick's study says the minimum to sustain a viable native salmon population is 292,882 acre-feet -- or about 15 percent of the reservoir's annual storage.

 

Such calculations are subject to debate. But they provide an excellent starting point for FERC, the irrigation districts, and the agencies responsible for protecting wildlife. FERC should grant the rehearing and pay particular attention to this study and the warning it sounds.#

http://www.modbee.com/opinion/story/286624.html

 

All salmon fishing banned on West Coast

The San Francisco Chronicle – 5/2/08

Peter Fimrite, Staff Writer

 

Salmon fishing was banned along the West Coast for the first time in 160 years Thursday, a decision that is expected to have a devastating economic impact on fishermen, dozens of businesses, tourism and boating.

 

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez immediately declared a commercial fishery disaster, opening the door for Congress to appropriate money for anyone who will be economically harmed.

 

The closure of commercial and recreational fishing for chinook salmon in the ocean off California and most of Oregon was announced by the National Marine Fishery Service.

 

It followed the recommendation last month of the Pacific Fishery Management Council after the catastrophic disappearance of California's fabled fall run of the pink fish popularly known as king salmon.

 

It is the first total closure since commercial fishing started in the Bay Area in 1848.

 

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency last month and sent a letter to President Bush asking for his help in obtaining federal disaster assistance. Schwarzenegger plans to appropriate about $5.3 million for coastal salmon and steelhead fishery restoration projects.

 

The disaster declaration allows state officials to work with Congress on obtaining appropriations for businesses and fishermen and women, some of whom will lose as much as 80 percent of their annual income.

 

Although salmon spawning has been in decline all up and down the coast, the biggest problem is in the Sacramento River and its tributaries. So few salmon returned last fall that the fishery council was required under its management plan to halt fishing throughout the salmon habitat, which is all along the California and Oregon coasts.

 

The commercial salmon season off California and Oregon typically runs from May 1 to Oct. 31. The recreational season was to have begun April 5. #

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/02/BABT10F7PE.DTL

 

Salmon ban aid clears hurdle

The Sacramento Bee-5/2/08

By David Whitney

 

WASHINGTON – Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez declared a commercial fishery failure Thursday, clearing the way for Congress to send financial aid to fishermen and related businesses hurt by the ban on salmon fishing off California and Oregon.

 

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, said West Coast lawmakers are working on an emergency aid package that could be worth as much as $170 million.

The ban has shut down the commercial salmon harvest this year along the California coast and most of the Oregon coast to boost dwindling numbers of Sacramento River chinook.

 

Fishermen from Morro Bay to Washington state depend on the salmon fishery for much of their income.

Gutierrez's action came after West Coast lawmakers sent a letter to the Commerce Department chief earlier this year when it became clear that few chinook salmon were returning from ocean waters to the Sacramento River to spawn.

 

It can take months for emergency aid to clear Congress and the White House and result in checks to fishermen and related businesses, like ice and fuel providers.

About $60 million in aid related to a poor Klamath River salmon season two years ago reached fishermen earlier this year.

 

Thompson, whose district includes the North Coast, said the Commerce Department's quick response should help speed checks this year.

"We usually have to wait for the end of the salmon season to determine what the loss is," he said.

 

The effort will now turn to trying to get a relief package included in an election-year spending bill, Thompson said.

Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, said the declaration is a big help to Morro Bay fishermen, hard hit by the shutdown.

"Our fishing industry is facing many challenges, and this just adds to them," she said.#

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/907013.html