Congressman Devin Nunes Attacks Salmon Fishermen With Absurd Claims

Congressman Devin Nunes Attacks Salmon Fishermen With Absurd Claims

Nunes Leads Movement to Blame the Victims

by Dan Bacher

Representative Devin Nunes (R-Visalia), the "water boy" for corporate agribusiness in the San Joaquin Valley, on October 15 made ridiculous claims on the floor of the House of Representatives that salmon fishermen aren't suffering from the fishery closure or are "really out of work" - and that the only reason salmon fishermen can't fish is because the federal government told them they couldn't.

Nunes made the comments as part of his effort to pass a waiver to the Endangered Species Act allowing for increased water exports out of the California Delta as part of H.R. 2442, the Bay Area Regional Water Recycling Program Expansion Act sponsored by George Miller (D-Martinez). Nunes was supported in his effort to lift Delta pumping restrictions by Representative George Radanovich (R-Mariposa) and Representative Dennis Cardoza (D-Merced). Fortunately, Miller's bill passed without the waiver being included.

"I just want to make sure that we set the record straight on this salmon fishing issue," contended Nunes. "A lot of people are probably watching out there and wondering, well, are these salmon fishermen really out of work? The truth is that the salmon fishermen can still fish; they just can’t fish for salmon. And that is because the government—us, this body—and others told the fishermen that they cannot fish for salmon. Every other country in the world can fish for salmon, just us."

However, economic statistics provided by Dick Pool, administrator of Water for Fish, at the recent Obama Ocean Policy Task Force meeting in San Francisco expose the false claim by Nunes and his agribusiness cronies that salmon fishermen aren't really out of work.

“The shut down of salmon fisheries has led to the loss of $1.4 billion and 23,000 jobs to the state’s economy,” Pool stated. “When recovered, the American Sportfishing Association estimates that the salmon fishery will generate $5.7 billion and 94,000 jobs annually."

Contrary to Nunes' lies, the closure of salmon season off the coast of California and Oregon and in Central Valley rivers has had a disastrous economic and cultural impact on the coastal and valley communities that depend on salmon fishing for a large part of their income. The closure of salmon season by the state and federal governments was made necessary because of the unprecedented collapse of the Sacramento River fall run chinook salmon run, the result of massive water exports from the California Delta and declining water quality in recent years. The returning numbers of fall run chinook plummeted from 800,000 in 2002 to less than 60,000 last fall.

These unemployed fishermen can't "still fish" now that salmon fishing is closed, as Nunes contends - herring, groundfish and other fisheries are also closed or severely restricted by the same state and federal governments that helped to engineer the decline of the salmon fishery! The Bush and Schwarzenegger administrations, supported by right wing anti-fishing demagogues, presided over the largest fishery closures and ransacking of fishing rights in U.S. history, including the institution of massive so-called "marine protected areas," while doing nothing to stop water diversions, pollution and habitat destruction that have caused fishery declines.

The huge loss of jobs to coastal and inland communities caused by the salmon collapse is in stark contrast to the state of agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley, which has had a net increase in jobs since the drought began three years ago, in spite of the endless propaganda spewed out by the astroturfing campaign of Nunes, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Latino Water Coalition (created by Schwarzenegger), and Burson-Marsteller, the "public relations firm from hell.

"In fact, agricultural employment in the San Joaquin Valley has generally outpaced all other economic sectors," said Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. "The rise in unemployment is recession-based and focused primarily on the construction, manufacturing and leisure and hospitality sectors."

Jennings reviewed files from the State of California Employment Development Department (EDD) Labor Market Information Division between March 2008 and March 2009. These files revealed that there was no basis for claims that farm labor "unemployment" was caused by the "drought" and court-ordered restrictions on pumping (http://www.counterpunch.org/bacher05052009.html).

Nunes also claims that "there is no correlation between these pumps that have run for 50 years and salmon fishermen not fishing, except for this: the government says, salmon fishermen, you can’t fish for salmon."

Actually, the rewritten federal biological opinion for Sacramento River salmon, Central Valley steelhead, green sturgeon and the southern population of killer whales pinpoints massive water exports and the operations of the dams as posing jeopardy to the continued existence of these species! And numerous federal and state biologists have documented the severe impact that water exports to agribusiness and southern California have had upon salmon, steelhead, sturgeon and other anadromous species in recent years.

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta, was "astonished" by Nunes' almost comical claims - and said that his tirade exemplified the eternally practiced method of "blaming the victim" rather than those that cause the suffering in U.S. politics.

"Over the last few months, Restore the Delta staff has interviewed numerous salmon fishermen whose boats are out of production, and hundreds of millions of dollars have been lost in the salmon industry over the last two years due to the closing of the fishery," said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla. "It is astonishing to Restore the Delta staff, who have always expressed compassion and care for Central Valley farm workers, that the Congressman could attack salmon fishermen, who work hard and pay taxes, for State and Federal water policies that have led to the collapse of California's salmon fishery.

She emphasized, "This exemplifies what we have seen in public discourse and media coverage throughout the last year -- a movement to blame the victims, the Delta farming and fishing communities, and the coastal fishing communities, instead of water exporters who are actually responsible for the Delta's decline."

At the same time that Nunes lies about salmon fishermen, Schwarzenegger, Senator Dianne Feinstein, California Legislators and corporate agribusiness are campaigning for a multi-billion dollar peripheral canal that would seal the doom of Central Valley salmon, salmon fishermen and the coastal and inland communities they support.

To see the video featuring Congressman Nunes, go to http://www.c-spanarchives.org/program/289473-1.His comments start around the 2:57:00 mark. In contrast with Nunes' rant, Representative Blumenauer speaks eloquently in defense of salmon fishermen just before that.



Here is the transcript of Congressman Nunes' remarks in the House on October 15:

I just want to make sure that we set the record straight on this salmon fishing issue. A lot of people are probably watching out there and wondering, well, are these salmon fishermen really out of work? The truth is that the salmon fishermen can still fish; they just can’t fish for salmon. And that is because the government—us, this body—and others told the fishermen that they cannot fish for salmon. Every other country in the world can fish for salmon, just us.

So not only are we not allowing the salmon fishermen to fish, we are also paying them not to fish; several hundred million dollars we have given the salmon fishermen so that they will not fish for salmon. Meanwhile, we have 40,000 people that are without work, and they get nothing.

So there is no correlation between these pumps that have run for 50 years and salmon fishermen not fishing, except for this: the government says, salmon fishermen, you can’t fish for salmon. The government also says, keep the pumps shut off so that people in the San Joaquin Valley don’t have any water and can’t grow any crops to provide Americans food. So this whole argument about the poor salmon fishermen is complete fiction.

I would like to know where my colleagues were—some of them who were in this body—in the 1980s when they ran every Portuguese American fisherman out of the San Diego area. There were several thousand mostly Portuguese fishermen, and nobody came to their aid. They fished for tuna. All those jobs were lost to foreign countries. And now all of a sudden we’re here and we’re worried about salmon fishermen? Bogus, absolutely bogus. Shameful on this body.