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California Salmon Season Cancelled for Second Year: Earthjustice Response
The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PMFC) today voted to shut down the California commercial salmon fishing season for a second year in a row to protect the shrinking population of Sacramento River Chinook salmon, according to Brian Smith of Earthjustice.
"Conservation and fishing groups have been yelling from the rooftops for years that ‘fish need water,’ but their cries fell on deaf ears," said George Torgun, the Earthjustice attorney who represented conservation and fishing groups and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe in federal litigation to protect water flows for winter and spring runs of Sacramento River Chinook salmon. "With the cancellation of commercial salmon fishing off the California coast for a second year, it’s clear the salmon advocates were right."
The Central Valley salmon collapse occurs at time when delta smelt, longfin smelt, threadfin shad, juvenile striped bass, Sacramento splittail, American shad, green sturgeon and other species have declined to record low population levels, due to increases in delta water exports, toxics and invasive species in the California Delta. Yesterday American Rivers, a national conservation group, named the Sacramento-San Joaquin River as the most endangered river system in the nation.
Here is today's response to the salmon season cancellation from Earthjustice's Oakland office.
"Conservation and fishing groups have been yelling from the rooftops for years that ‘fish need water,’ but their cries fell on deaf ears," said George Torgun, the Earthjustice attorney who represented conservation and fishing groups and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe in federal litigation to protect water flows for winter and spring runs of Sacramento River Chinook salmon. "With the cancellation of commercial salmon fishing off the California coast for a second year, it’s clear the salmon advocates were right."
The Central Valley salmon collapse occurs at time when delta smelt, longfin smelt, threadfin shad, juvenile striped bass, Sacramento splittail, American shad, green sturgeon and other species have declined to record low population levels, due to increases in delta water exports, toxics and invasive species in the California Delta. Yesterday American Rivers, a national conservation group, named the Sacramento-San Joaquin River as the most endangered river system in the nation.
Here is today's response to the salmon season cancellation from Earthjustice's Oakland office.
For Immediate Release: 4/8/09
Contact:
Brian Smith, Earthjustice 510-550-6700
California Salmon Season Cancelled for Second Year
Earthjustice Response
OAKLAND, CA – The Pacific Fishery Management Council today voted to shut down the California commercial salmon fishing season for a second year in a row to protect the shrinking population of Sacramento River Chinook salmon.
Statement by George Torgun, Earthjustice attorney who represented conservation and fishing groups in federal litigation to protect water flows for winter and spring runs of Sacramento River Chinook salmon:
“During the Bush administration, corporate agricultural interests were able to push their way to the front of the line to demand water at the expense of others, especially our native salmon species and the fishing communities that rely on them. Far more water was promised, and delivered, to marginal farms than what the Sacramento River ecosystem could sustain. Conservation and fishing groups have been yelling from the rooftops for years that ‘fish need water,’ but their cries fell on deaf ears. With the cancellation of commercial salmon fishing off the California coast for a second year, it’s clear the salmon advocates were right.”
Impact on Coastal Communities is Significant
This year’s fishing ban is a devastating blow to an industry that has been one of the backbones of the coastal Northern Californian economy. The ban is the second in a row. Last year’s fishing ban was the first ever.
In 2008, the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) assessed the potential damage from the closure of the salmon season and determined the loss to be $255 million and 2,263 California jobs.
In 2008, Congress issued emergency relief funding for salmon fishermen and related businesses, but many coastal towns fear that a two-year shut down may be the end of salmon fishing in California.
Background
In 2005, a coalition of fishermen, conservation, and tribal groups challenged the federal government’s biological opinion on the 2004 Operations Criteria and Plan (OCAP) for management of the State Water Project and Central Valley Project. The 2004 OCAP called for significantly increased water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta over historic levels and instituted other measures, such as relaxing cold water flow requirements and eliminating nearly half of the available salmon spawning habitat in the Sacramento River, that were credited with saving endangered winter-run Chinook salmon from extinction.
Although federal scientists charged with reviewing the plan concluded that doing so would illegally jeopardize protected salmon, political interference by members of the Bush administration resulted in finding that project operations would not harm listed salmon and steelhead species.
Not surprisingly, these operational changes have corresponded with significant declines in protected Chinook salmon populations since 2004.
In April 2008, federal judge Oliver W. Wanger agreed that the Bush administration failed to adequately evaluate impacts on three salmonid species listed under the Endangered Species Act (winter-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley spring-run Chinook salmon, and Central valley steelhead), in violation of federal law. A new biological opinion for the OCAP was ordered and is now expected to be issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service on June 2, 2009.
The court's ruling also followed an August 31, 2007 decision to protect the delta smelt. In that ruling, the court ordered state and federal water managers to limit the giant pumps that draw water from the delta to supply farms and cities in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. The fishing and conservation groups argued, and the court agreed, that keeping enough fresh water in the delta is vital to protecting the fragile ecosystem. A new biological opinion on delta smelt was issued in December 2008. The court no longer holds any jurisdiction over water exports as management has returned to the California Department of Water Resources and the federal Bureau of Reclamation.
More contacts from the original litigation:
Zeke Grader, PCFFA, (415) 561-5080
Hal Candee, NRDC, (415) 875-6100
Tina Swanson, Ph.D., The Bay Institute, (510) 756-9021
Bill Jennings, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, (209) 464-5090
Doug Lovell, NCCFFF, (510) 520-3146
Steve Evans, Friends of the River, (916) 442-3155, ext. 221
John Merz, Sacramento River Preservation Trust, (530) 345-1865
Gary Mulcahy, Winnemem Wintu Tribe, (916) 991-8493
____________________________
Contact:
Brian Smith, Earthjustice 510-550-6700
California Salmon Season Cancelled for Second Year
Earthjustice Response
OAKLAND, CA – The Pacific Fishery Management Council today voted to shut down the California commercial salmon fishing season for a second year in a row to protect the shrinking population of Sacramento River Chinook salmon.
Statement by George Torgun, Earthjustice attorney who represented conservation and fishing groups in federal litigation to protect water flows for winter and spring runs of Sacramento River Chinook salmon:
“During the Bush administration, corporate agricultural interests were able to push their way to the front of the line to demand water at the expense of others, especially our native salmon species and the fishing communities that rely on them. Far more water was promised, and delivered, to marginal farms than what the Sacramento River ecosystem could sustain. Conservation and fishing groups have been yelling from the rooftops for years that ‘fish need water,’ but their cries fell on deaf ears. With the cancellation of commercial salmon fishing off the California coast for a second year, it’s clear the salmon advocates were right.”
Impact on Coastal Communities is Significant
This year’s fishing ban is a devastating blow to an industry that has been one of the backbones of the coastal Northern Californian economy. The ban is the second in a row. Last year’s fishing ban was the first ever.
In 2008, the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) assessed the potential damage from the closure of the salmon season and determined the loss to be $255 million and 2,263 California jobs.
In 2008, Congress issued emergency relief funding for salmon fishermen and related businesses, but many coastal towns fear that a two-year shut down may be the end of salmon fishing in California.
Background
In 2005, a coalition of fishermen, conservation, and tribal groups challenged the federal government’s biological opinion on the 2004 Operations Criteria and Plan (OCAP) for management of the State Water Project and Central Valley Project. The 2004 OCAP called for significantly increased water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta over historic levels and instituted other measures, such as relaxing cold water flow requirements and eliminating nearly half of the available salmon spawning habitat in the Sacramento River, that were credited with saving endangered winter-run Chinook salmon from extinction.
Although federal scientists charged with reviewing the plan concluded that doing so would illegally jeopardize protected salmon, political interference by members of the Bush administration resulted in finding that project operations would not harm listed salmon and steelhead species.
Not surprisingly, these operational changes have corresponded with significant declines in protected Chinook salmon populations since 2004.
In April 2008, federal judge Oliver W. Wanger agreed that the Bush administration failed to adequately evaluate impacts on three salmonid species listed under the Endangered Species Act (winter-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley spring-run Chinook salmon, and Central valley steelhead), in violation of federal law. A new biological opinion for the OCAP was ordered and is now expected to be issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service on June 2, 2009.
The court's ruling also followed an August 31, 2007 decision to protect the delta smelt. In that ruling, the court ordered state and federal water managers to limit the giant pumps that draw water from the delta to supply farms and cities in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. The fishing and conservation groups argued, and the court agreed, that keeping enough fresh water in the delta is vital to protecting the fragile ecosystem. A new biological opinion on delta smelt was issued in December 2008. The court no longer holds any jurisdiction over water exports as management has returned to the California Department of Water Resources and the federal Bureau of Reclamation.
More contacts from the original litigation:
Zeke Grader, PCFFA, (415) 561-5080
Hal Candee, NRDC, (415) 875-6100
Tina Swanson, Ph.D., The Bay Institute, (510) 756-9021
Bill Jennings, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, (209) 464-5090
Doug Lovell, NCCFFF, (510) 520-3146
Steve Evans, Friends of the River, (916) 442-3155, ext. 221
John Merz, Sacramento River Preservation Trust, (530) 345-1865
Gary Mulcahy, Winnemem Wintu Tribe, (916) 991-8493
____________________________
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The Oceans are like the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg. As long as it was alive it laid a golden egg each day but then the greedy farmer decided to kill it to get all the gold inside and found nothing and the Goose laid no more golden eggs because it was dead.
For centuries, the oceans have fed humankind. But in the last century, human greed has raped and pillaged oceanic eco-systems remorsefully with an ecological ignorance that is staggeringly insane.
I don't eat fish because I am an ecologist and I have seen the diminishment of fish in the seas all of my life. I was raised in a fishing village and I was raised on a diet of cod, sardines, mackerel, smelts, clams, lobsters, flounders, and trout. I have seen with my own eyes the steady diminishment of fish, lobsters, and crustaceans. And what I ate as a child I choose not to eat today for the simple reason that there are to many of us on land eating so few of them that live in the seas.
The fisherman has now become one of the most ecologically destructive occupations on the planet. It's time to put aside the outdated image of the hardy, independent, salt-of-the-sea, and hard-working fisherman working courageously to feed society and support his family.
No longer does the average fishermen go to sea in dories with lines and small nets. Today's industrial fishermen operate multi-million dollar vessels equipped with complex and expensive technological gear designed to hunt down and catch every fish they can find.
One manufacturer of electronic fish locators (Rayethon) even boasts that with their product, "the fish can run but they can't hide."
And for the fish, there is no safe place as poachers hunt them down mercilessly, even in marine reserves and sanctuaries.
We humans have waged an intensive and ruthless exploitation on practically every species of fish in the sea and they are disappearing. If we don't put an end to industrialized fishing vessels and heavy gear very soon, we will kill the oceans and in so doing, we will kill ourselves.
Scientists this week revealed that widespread malnutrition is affecting the fish, bird, and animal populations of our oceans. Not only are we depleting their populations, we are starving the survivors.
For centuries, the oceans have fed humankind. But in the last century, human greed has raped and pillaged oceanic eco-systems remorsefully with an ecological ignorance that is staggeringly insane.
I don't eat fish because I am an ecologist and I have seen the diminishment of fish in the seas all of my life. I was raised in a fishing village and I was raised on a diet of cod, sardines, mackerel, smelts, clams, lobsters, flounders, and trout. I have seen with my own eyes the steady diminishment of fish, lobsters, and crustaceans. And what I ate as a child I choose not to eat today for the simple reason that there are to many of us on land eating so few of them that live in the seas.
The fisherman has now become one of the most ecologically destructive occupations on the planet. It's time to put aside the outdated image of the hardy, independent, salt-of-the-sea, and hard-working fisherman working courageously to feed society and support his family.
No longer does the average fishermen go to sea in dories with lines and small nets. Today's industrial fishermen operate multi-million dollar vessels equipped with complex and expensive technological gear designed to hunt down and catch every fish they can find.
One manufacturer of electronic fish locators (Rayethon) even boasts that with their product, "the fish can run but they can't hide."
And for the fish, there is no safe place as poachers hunt them down mercilessly, even in marine reserves and sanctuaries.
We humans have waged an intensive and ruthless exploitation on practically every species of fish in the sea and they are disappearing. If we don't put an end to industrialized fishing vessels and heavy gear very soon, we will kill the oceans and in so doing, we will kill ourselves.
Scientists this week revealed that widespread malnutrition is affecting the fish, bird, and animal populations of our oceans. Not only are we depleting their populations, we are starving the survivors.
For more information:
http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/...
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