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<h1 style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'>California salmon fishing season
likely shut down for second straight year<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>The
San Jose Mercury News – 4/7/09<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";
color:black'>By Julia Scott<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>MILLBRAE — The California Chinook salmon fishery will be
shut down for the second year in a row because of near-record salmon population
losses in the Sacramento River basin system, fishery regulators decided on
Monday. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>The Pacific Fishery Management Council tentatively voted to close
all waters south of Eureka to salmon fishermen for the second consecutive year
to protect the dwindling population of Sacramento River Chinook projected to
spawn upriver this fall. The council will take a final vote on Wednesday but is
expected to uphold Monday's decision.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>Historically low salmon returns prompted fishery officials to shut
down all forms of salmon fishing off nearly the entire West Coast for the first
time last year. That action led Congress to appropriate $170 million in federal
disaster funds to compensate salmon fishermen and fishery-reliant coastal
industries for their losses. Roughly $120 million of that was directed to
California.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>Scientists predict that only 122,000 salmon will return to the
Sacramento this autumn to spawn, twice as many as last year's record-low 66,000
but still a fraction of the 800,000 that have returned in healthier years. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>Maria Vojkovich,
who represents California on the council, acknowledged the pain the
restrictions will cause but said they were necessary to preserve the long-term
survival of the species in the Sacramento River system, the San Francisco-San
Joaquin Delta and the Bay. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>"This is less emotional than last year, but it's not better
at all. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I have something else to say next
year. It's the best we could do," Vojkovich said. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>Half Moon Bay fisherman and salmon advisory council member Duncan
MacLean said the closure was necessary given the numbers, but he is worried
about the survival of the industry and his livelihood.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>"I fear for my future in fishing," MacLean said. "I
just hope I get to do it again in my lifetime."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>MacLean is leading an effort to get another round of federal
subsidies for small fishermen hard-hit by the closure. About $48 million may be
left over in last year's fund. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>Monday's decision allows for very limited commercial and
recreational salmon fishing between Eureka and northern Oregon. The season
remains normal in Washington state, where adult salmon are more plentiful.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>Scientists testified that Sacramento Chinook salmon runs were
likely to rebound slightly in 2010 and 2011, at least enough to allow for some
fishing. The current Central Valley salmon crisis is blamed on a combination of
factors, including natural ocean variations and a host of problems in the
Sacramento River Basin, such as dams, loss of natural ecosystems and damaging
fish hatchery practices. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>Fishermen and biologists advising the council lined up to
criticize a report presented at Monday's meeting that mainly attributed the
2008 and 2009 Chinook mortality rate to unexplained ocean conditions that did
not provide enough food for juvenile salmon and other species in 2005 and 2006.
As a result, few salmon survived to adulthood to spawn upstream three years
later.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>Critics of the report said it discounted evidence of young salmon
smolts dying in the Sacramento River system before they reach the Golden Gate.
Ninety-five percent of tidal wetlands, a key salmon habitat, have disappeared
from the system over time, according to one salmon biologist at the meeting.
Delta levees and dikes also can impede fish rearing. Natural predators like
striped bass take their toll, as does water being pumped out of the Delta to
Southern California. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>Fish hatcheries on the Sacramento, originally conceived as a
solution to the problem of dams blocking salmon from spawning upstream, have
created a new kind of problem, according to the report submitted by the
National Marine Fisheries Service. The juvenile fish are raised in pens and
trucked around the dams, but grow up with a depleted natural immunity to
changes in temperature and forms of disease. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>The real question of the day was how to craft a salmon management
policy that takes all these problems into account and highlights the
interconnectedness of rivers, the Bay and the ocean for a species that spends
parts of its life in each environment. The Pacific Fishery Management Council
only has the power to regulate fishing, and only out at sea.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'> Everyone acknowledged that banning salmon fishing in
California wasn't going to solve the long-term problem.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>"We could do a lot more if we thought in a more holistic
fashion," said Churchill Grimes, director of the Fisheries Ecology
Division of the National Marine Fisheries Service. "The PFMC doesn't have
control over what the Department of Water Resources and others do, and they
have authority over the areas in which their other life stages occur."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Byron
Leydecker, JcT</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Chair, Friends
of Trinity River</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>PO Box 2327</span></i><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Mill Valley, CA
94942-2327</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 4810
land</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 519 4810
cell</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net"><span style='color:blue'>bwl3@comcast.net</span></a></span></i></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org"><span style='color:blue'>bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</span></a>
</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>(secondary)</span></i><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="http://fotr.org/"><span style='color:blue'>http://www.fotr.org</span></a>
</span></i></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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