A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
May 5, 2008
3. Watersheds -
After five decades, steelhead trout babies spotted in Niles Canyon
The
Tribes rebuffed again on Klamath dams: They plead with billionaire to step in to save the salmon
"Fishery Failure" Declared for West Coast Salmon Fishery Declaration clears path for Congressional action Published on May YubaNet- 5/2/08
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After five decades, steelhead trout babies spotted in Niles Canyon
The
By Matthew Artz
This week, volunteers with the Alameda Creek Alliance spotted hundreds of baby trout that had just hatched in Stonybrook Creek, about one-third of the way up
The fry, as young trout are known, hatched in and around the pool that Bonnie and
Their appearance also comes nearly two months after the couple was seen exhibiting spawning behavior - the average amount of time for trout eggs to hatch and babies to emerge from underwater gravel.
Steelhead historically swam upstream to spawn in the
However, the construction of a flood control channel and the 9-foot-tall concrete BART weir in the 1960s and early 1970s blocked the path of the trout. As a result, steelhead have been absent from the watershed for several decades.
Volunteers carted Bonnie and
The alliance has escorted a few dozen steelhead beyond the barrier in the past decade, but so few fish are usually rescued at one time that they can't find each other upstream to spawn, Miller said.
The alliance won't know for sure if the young fry, which are about 1-inch long, are steelhead or rainbow trout until later this year. Volunteers will take fin clippings from the fry that die in shallow pools and compare them with those previously taken of Bonnie and
Young steelhead stay in the watershed for a year or two before heading downstream and into the Bay, Miller said. They then return to freshwater streams to spawn.
In a few years, the Bonnies and Clydes of the Alameda Creek watershed shouldn't need any help to spawn.
Construction of a fish ladder and the removal of dams so that steelhead can migrate upstream on their own is scheduled for completion in 2010.
The project would make up to 20 miles of the watershed and its tributaries accessible to steelhead and other ocean-run fish for the first time in more than 50 years, Miller said.#
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_9143523?nclick_check=1
Tribes rebuffed again on Klamath dams: They plead with billionaire to step in to save the salmon
Omaha, Neb. -- American Indian tribes and salmon fishermen were rebuffed a second time Saturday in their bid to win support from billionaire Warren Buffett for a proposal to remove four hydroelectric dams from the Klamath River.
Buffett again told the group that his company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., won't decide the fate of the dams owned by its PacifiCorp utility. He said Berkshire will defer to regulators in
The dam opponents, making their second trip to
"We feel like we've been listened to everywhere except PacifiCorp," said Leaf Hillman, a member of
In January, negotiators for farmers, tribes, fishermen, conservation groups and government agencies battling over scarce water and struggling salmon runs said they agreed to a proposal to remove the four dams. But that agreement faces significant hurdles, including agreement by PacifiCorp.
The tribes view the fight to remove the dams as a fight for their own survival as well as the survival of salmon.
The PacifiCorp dams are up for relicensing. That process started in 2000 and is likely to continue for five or six more years.
Buffett refused to meet with the group last year. This year, he turned to David Sokol, who oversees all of Berkshire's utility companies, to provide responses to questions about the future of the Klamath dams during
"There are a whole series of issues to deal with as part of the federal regulatory process," Sokol said.
Chief among the issues is sorting out what 28 different interest groups want to happen. Sokol said different groups favor at least four separate outcomes. Buffett said it's up to government to balance all those competing interests.#
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/04/MN8910GHGK.DTL
"Fishery Failure" Declared for West Coast Salmon Fishery Declaration clears path for Congressional action Published on May YubaNet- 5/2/08
By NOAA
May 1, 2008 - Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez today declared a commercial fishery failure for the West Coast salmon fishery due to historically low salmon returns. Also today, NOAA's Fisheries Service issued regulations to close or severely limit recreational and commercial salmon fishing in the area.
"The unprecedented collapse of the salmon population will hit fishermen, their families, and fishing communities hard, and that is why we have moved quickly to declare a fishery disaster," Gutierrez said. "Our scientists are working to better understand the effects that ocean changes have on salmon populations. We are also working closely with fishing communities to improve salmon habitat in river systems to support sustainable fishing."
Hundreds of thousands of fall Chinook salmon typically return to the
"This is far below what is needed to sustain the population and we have decided to shut down the commercial ocean salmon fishery for all of
Although the reasons for the sudden decline of the fishery are not completely understood, NOAA scientists suggest that changes in ocean conditions, including unfavorable shifts in ocean temperature and food sources for juvenile salmon, likely caused poor survival of salmon that would have comprised this year's fishery. Loss of freshwater habitat for salmon spawning, rearing, and migration to the ocean is a chronic problem that has made salmon populations more susceptible to the occasional poor ocean conditions. NOAA will undertake a thorough examination of the causes.
Coho salmon stocks off
The disaster declaration opens the door for Congress to appropriate money towards alleviating the financial hardship caused by the fishery disaster.
Under Section 312(a) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the Commerce Secretary can declare a commercial fishery failure if requested to do so by a governor, or at the Secretary's discretion. The Secretary must determine that the commercial fishery failure resulted from a fishery resource disaster due to natural causes, man-made causes beyond the control of fishery managers, or undetermined causes.#
http://yubanet.com/california/Fishery-Failure-Declared-for-West-Coast-Salmon-Fishery.php
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