[env-trinity] Santa Rosa Press Democrat

[Byron]

Relief sought for salmon fishermen; Thompson, Woolsey bill urges federal
disaster aid to industry hurt by likely shortened season

Santa Rosa Press Democrat - 4/24/06

By Katy Hillenmeyer, staff writer

 

North Coast lawmakers will seek $81 million in federal disaster relief for
California and Oregon fishing communities where salmon fishing will be
severely curtailed this year, a spokesman for Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St.
Helena, said Sunday.

At a rally of fishermen in San Francisco this morning, Thompson and
co-sponsors plan to unveil the legislation, which would cover losses
suffered by commercial fleets and related businesses that face drastic cuts
in their season.

The restrictions are designed to protect dwindling numbers of chinook that
spawn in the Klamath River. Thompson, a critic of the Bush administration's
management of the river, also wants Congress to appropriate $45 million for
Klamath restoration under the proposal, Thompson spokesman Matt Gerien said.

"Not only do we have a bill that will help the fishermen who are affected,"
said Gerien, "we also have recovery legislation so this isn't a problem year
after year." He noted Reps. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, and George Miller,
D-Martinez, are co-sponsors.

But it's uncertain whether Thompson's latest bid to bolster the hard-hit
fishing industry will succeed. Although he worked for a year to expedite a
disaster declaration for the 2005 salmon season, which was cut 60 percent,
federal regulators found no justification for relief.

"This year's season was even worse than last year's," Gerien said Sunday
when asked about the new measure's prospects.

Woolsey and Miller could not be reached Sunday for comment but were listed
among those invited to today's rally of commercial, sport and tribal
fishermen at Pier 47.

Fort Bragg fisherman Jim Martin, skipper of an 18-foot recreational salmon
boat, planned to participate, although the proposed bill focuses primarily
on commercial fishing and related businesses.

"I don't think it will help the private recreational fleet," said Martin,
the Recreational Fishing Alliance's West Coast regional director. "But we're
better off standing together as fishermen."

Federal regulators are expected by next Monday to finalize an advisory
panel's ocean salmon fishing recommendations, which cover 700 miles of
California and Oregon coastline. As drafted, the rules would postpone
commercial harvests of wild salmon off Bodega Bay until July 26 and off Fort
Bragg until Sept. 1.

Normally, the season would run May through at least September.

After years of drought, a massive salmon die-off in 2002 and successive
spawning shortfalls, "the goal, of course, is to let salmon rebound so we
don't have this roller coaster ... year after year," said Todd Ungerecht, a
policy adviser for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Ungerecht said NOAA officials have not reviewed Thompson's latest proposal
and were not in a position to begin assessing economic effects, given the
complex patchwork of season lengths, catch limits and other restrictions
that are pending from Oregon's Cape Falcon to Point Sur.

"I'm not saying there isn't a desire to assist communities," Ungerecht said,
noting parameters for the season have yet to be finalized. "But when it
comes to the areas where they are allowing fishing, it'll take some time to
figure."

 

 

Byron Leydecker

Chair, Friends of Trinity River

Advisor, California Trout, Inc

PO Box 2327

Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327

415 383 4810 ph

415 383 9562 fx

bwl3 at comcast.net

bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org

http://www.fotr.org

http:www.caltrout.org 

 

 

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