State and Feds Must Review Relationship between Delta Crash and Salmon Collapse!

Matt

This email was spurred by your front page article on the salmon collapse this morning in the Bee. I have four points to make.

First, I greatly appreciate your extensive coverage of the Prospect Island fish kill, as well as the article you did on the sportfishing panel at the Sacramento ISE Show.

Second, I like the fact that you covered the impact of the looming salmon closure/restrictions on local fisheries in your article this morning in your interview with J.D. Richey.

Third, I wanted to make sure that you are receiving my emails and are aware of the press conference by fishing, tribal and environmental groups at the PFMC this coming Friday at 10 a.m. in the Del Paso Room at the Double Tree Hotel.

Fourth, in your article NOAA Fisheries is quoted dismissing anything other than "ocean conditions" for the collapse. Tell me if I'm wrong, but I think the causes behind the salmon collapse are much more complex.

At the DFG meeting in Santa Rosa last Wednesday, I made a request to the DFG and NOAA Fisheries to convene an emergency conference/meeting of state, federal and independent scientists and fishing groups to explore (1) the relationship between the Pelagic Organism Decline and the salmon collapse and (2) the relationship between Bay-Delta Estuary conditions and the collapse of the food chain and ocean conditions. I believe that you can't separate what happens in the ocean from what happens in the estuary.

The Bay-Delta estuary is the most significant estuary on the West Coast. It well known as a nursery, spawning ground and migration corridor for salmon, steelhead, striped bass, sturgeon, delta smelt, longfin smelt, threadfin shad and other species. It is also essential habitat for herring, smelt, sardines and other species that sustain salmon and other fish up and down the coast.

What happens to the food chain in the bay-delta estuary has an impact from Central California all of the way to the Oregon coast. Disruptions in the food chain of the estuary caused by massive increases in Delta water exports in recent years will certainly have a big impact not only on salmon migrating through the estuary, but ocean conditions up and down the coast.

By failing to explore the relationships between (1) the POD and the salmon collapse and (2) water and forage conditions in the estuary and water and forage conditions on the ocean, NOAA Fisheries and the DFG have made a big mistake to date. It is very convenient for the federal and state governments to point to "ocean conditions" as the cause without reviewing other conditions that impact not only Central Valley salmon, but other salmon runs in California and Oregon, since it absolves them of any responsibility for the salmon collapse!

Thanks

Dan Bacher