Solutions to the Salmon Crisis Proposed by Fishermen, Tribes and Enviros

News Release: For Immediate Release March 13, 2008

Contacts

David Nesmith (510) 893-1330, cell (510) 693-4979
Dick Pool (925) 825-8560
Telepress Call In Number: 877-551-8082

Fishing, Tribal and Environmental Groups Propose Solutions to the Salmon Crisis

A panel of representatives from fishing, tribal and environmental groups will hold a news conference at 10 a.m. in Sacramento on Friday, March 14, to discuss proposed solutions to the current crisis in California Delta fisheries and the unprecedented collapse of the Central Valley chinook salmon runs.

The event will take place during the Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) meeting at the Del Paso Room in the Double Tree Hotel, 2001 Point West Way, in Sacramento, (916) 929-8855. A telepress news conference will held simultaneously; the reporter call in number is 877-551-8082.

The group is proposing immediate, practical and necessary measures that will begin to rebuild the stocks of salmon. They believe these solutions could help prevent future fishery disasters for California.

State and federal fishery managers have already closed early commercial and recreational salmon seasons that begin May 1. The PFMC is expected to craft three options for salmon season, including a proposal for a complete closure of salmon fishing south of Cape Falcon, Oregon, on Friday.

Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA), Caleen Sisk-Franco, spiritual leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, and Dick Pool, owner of Pro-Troll Fishing Products, will speak at the event.

"We're facing a total salmon closure for first time since commercial salmon fishing began on the San Francisco Bay and Delta in 1848," said Zeke Grader, Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. "There are many factors that went into our salmon decline, but none as significant as the loss of freshwater flows to the Delta and San Francisco Bay which are essential for maintaining the biological function of this estuary and sustaining native salmon and other fish populations."

"Our task now will be keeping our commercial and recreational salmon fishermen and business solvent while we focus on fixing the Bay and Delta, restoring flows and with them the fish," continued Grader.

"The regulators here - the Pacific Fishery Management Council - are not to blame for this fiasco, they were simply the messengers," stated Grader. "The fault rather lies with the failure to regulate the diverters and protect the flows needed to maintain the greatest estuary on the west coast of North and South America and the great salmon runs that inhabited and migrated through it."

Dick Pool, president of Pro-Troll Fishing Products and a three-term Director of the American Sportfishing Association, pointed out the economic devastation caused by the salmon collapse and urged the federal and state governments to take both immediate and long term actions to restore the once robust Sacramento River fall chinok salmon run.

“The sportfishing industry is reeling from the unparallel destruction of one of the premiere fisheries in the country,” said Pool. “In a few short years the Central Valley Chinook salmon fishery has gone from a projected 1.6 million catchable salmon in the ocean to a 2008 catch allocation under 35,000. The cause has nothing to do with fishing. Water policies dictated by Corporate Agriculture interests supported by the state and federal water agencies have destroyed the migration and spawning habitat needed by these fish.”

The economic contribution of sportfishing to California is very large, since there are 2.4 million sport fishermen in the state, according to Pool. The activity generates $2.4 billion in retail sales with an economic impact of $4.9 billion. It also generates $1.3 billion in wages and salaries and supports 43,000 jobs in the state.

All of these are threatened if the fishery declines are not reversed. Tackle retailers are already dropping like flies, guides and charter operators have no business and hundreds of small fishing communities are seeing big declines at restaurants, lodges and marine services. Boat sales are dropping precipitously. Fishermen are mad as hell.

“I urge every fisherman and those who care about natural resources, to log onto Water4Fish.org and join the grassroots political effort to demand a turn around,” said Pool. “Our leaders have let us down terribly and we have every right to demand changes. The campaign recently passed 50,000 participants, but we need thousands more before we can get the changes we need.”

Gary Reedy, representing the South Yuba River Citizens League, said while some fishery managers have only pointed to poor ocean conditions as responsible for the dramatic decline in 2007, “we know that many factors above sea-level have been negatively affecting salmon populations and some of these have not yet improved. Now is the time to aggressively protect and restore salmon and their habitat.”

“In the Yuba watershed we can increase both the number and the fitness of juvenile salmon that migrate to the Feather and Sacramento River. Providing access to habitats blocked by dams, enhancing river flows through hydroproject relicensing, and restoration of floodplains and riparian habitat will make a substantial difference in restoring our salmon runs,” he stated.

David Nesmith, Environmental Water Caucus facilitator, will be the moderator for the news conference.

"Fish need water,” Nesmith said. “We must leave more clean, cool water in the Delta and our rivers so salmon can live."

For more information, call David Nesmith (510) 893-1330 or cell (510) 693-4979 and Dick Pool (925) 825-8560.

Practical and Necessary Actions to Solve the Salmon Crisis

Reduce impacts of export pumping and diversions in the Delta.
• Limit total exports through Delta to a maximum of 4.5 million acre-feet per year and eliminate pumping during periods of peak smolt migration.
• Require mitigation for all direct or indirect losses of salmon.
• Construct state of the art screening and salvage operations at water diversions and pumping facilities including state and federal projects.

Improve water quality in the Delta and on Central Valley rivers and streams.
• Eliminate the Central Valley agricultural waiver to pollution discharge.
• Reduce urban pesticide loading in urban storm runoff
• Enforce federal and state clean water laws.

Improve access to blocked salmon habitat.
• Remove destructive and obsolete dams, especially on the Klamath River and Battle Creek.
• Remedy passage and entrainment problems, especially on the Yuba River and Butte Creek.
• Keep the gates up all year on the Red Bluff Diversion Dam.

Improve habitat in Central Valley rivers and streams by enhancing flows, providing cooler temperatures and restoring functional floodplains.
• Implement the American River flow standards and fully implement restoration flows on other rivers such as the Trinity and San Joaquin.
• Increase cold water habitat below salmon-blocking dams.
• Systematically provide for restored functional floodplain habitat including mitigation for levee projects that limit salmon rearing habitat.

Reduce impacts of hatchery operations on fish of native origin.
• Mark 100% of hatchery fished released.
• Implement "Integrated Hatchery Programs" and the standards of the Hatchery Science Review Group.
• Truck all hatchery fish to acclimation pens below the delta.

Provide effective governmental leadership
• Provide funding resources to enable regulatory agencies to do their job.
•  Enforce all existing laws and regulations: State and federal Clean Water Acts, Endangered Species Act, mitigation requirements, and river flow standards and regulations