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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Summit focuses on restoration of Calif salmon runs<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Ventura County Star-12/4/10<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>SUDHIN THANAWALA <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>HALF MOON BAY, Calif. (AP) - Members of Congress and fishermen grilled federal and state officials on Saturday about efforts to restore California's once-abundant salmon runs. U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, who helped organize Saturday's wild Pacific salmon summit, said she was alarmed by dwindling salmon populations and suggested more needed to be done to prevent their demise. "We have evidence and science suggesting we're losing the salmon run, and we're not doing anything about it," Speier told Federico Barajas, a representative of the federal Bureau of Reclamation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Barajas spoke about a conservation plan in the works for the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta aimed in part at restoring sensitive and endangered species and their habitat. The Sacramento River Basin has experienced particularly dramatic losses in its once-healthy runs of fall chinook salmon - the cornerstone of commercial fisheries in Oregon and California. Numbers there have plummeted from about 770,000 returning chinook in 2002 to a record-low 39,500 fall chinook last year. Officials have responded with a ban on commercial fishing the past two seasons that has devastated the industry.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>"It's not just the salmon (we're losing)," said Rod McInnis, a representative of the National Marine Fisheries Service. "It's the communities and the good people who built those communities and are tied together by salmon." Many in the fishing industry blame the decline on the transfer of water from the Sacramento River to farms in the San Joaquin Valley. But Jerry Johns with the California Department of Water Resources said other factors, including toxins in the water and predators, were also to blame. Representatives of the fishing industry say whatever is causing the decline, their livelihoods are at stake. Dick Pool, owner of Concord-based Pro-Troll Inc., which manufactures salmon fishing equipment, said his business is suffering.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>"Last three years have been mighty tough. We haven't made a dollar," he said. "We need some emergency action here if we're ever going to fish again."#<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/dec/04/summit-focuses-on-restoration-of-calif-salmon/?print=1">http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/dec/04/summit-focuses-on-restoration-of-calif-salmon/?print=1</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Saving salmon: Decline of iconic fish hurting economy<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>San Mateo Daily Journal-12/6/10 <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>By Bill Silverfarb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> </span></b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Peggy Beckett is struggling to keep her coastal sportfishing shop open as salmon numbers decline. Five years ago, Peggy and Bill Beckett had plans to one day sell their coastal sportfishing shop to help them get through retirement. The couple spent their entire adult lives fishing for salmon, chartering boats and selling bait and tackle to recreational anglers. But salmon season was closed in both 2008 and 2009 and Bill Beckett died just more than a year ago. Although salmon season was opened this year, Peggy Beckett said there was “no fish locally to catch.” Now Peggy wonders whether she will be able to keep the Huck Finn Center at Pillar Point open another year. She has put every dollar she has into keeping the shop open but is not sure she will be able to renew the lease when it expires in 18 months.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>She first landed in Half Moon Bay with her husband on their boat the Red Baron back in 1987. The couple saw some incredible years together as fishermen, especially in 2002 when a record-high 800,000 Central Valley Chinook salmon returned to spawn in the Sacramento River. Anglers were able to haul in an incredible 700,000 salmon out of the Pacific Ocean that year. Last year, less than 40,000 fall Chinooks returned to Central Valley rivers, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service. The low numbers have brought the salmon fishing industry to the brink of extinction and has cost the state billions in revenue. Locally, Beckett knows she is not the only one suffering through the decline in salmon numbers. The bookings she makes for local charter boats has dropped dramatically. Duncan MacLean, who captains the boat Barbara Faye out of Pillar Point, has been forced to take his boat to fishing waters off the coast of Oregon and Washington this past year to keep food on the table. For MacLean, “fishing was never a living and always a lifestyle.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>But the lifestyle is deteriorating, he told a packed house of fishermen and government officials at a salmon summit at Mavericks Lodge and Event Center at Pillar Point Saturday, hosted by U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo. Speier, along with U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa, invited scientists, state water agency representatives and those affected by the industry’s decline to gather at Pillar Point to discuss what is needed to restore California’s salmon runs. Central Valley Chinook salmon runs, if recovered fully, could provide 94,000 new jobs and $5.7 billion in annual revenue for the state.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The numbers have dropped for a variety of reasons, including pollution and predation. But many fisherman, including Dick Pool and Marc Gorelnik, blame water diversions out of the Delta and the state agencies that allow it for bringing salmon to the brink of extinction. “If business as usual continues, this fish is headed for extinction,” said Pool, the owner of Pro-Troll Fishing Products in Concord. Gorelnik, who serves on the board of the Coastside Fishing Club, blames corporate farms, and Southern California parks and golf courses for draining water away from the Delta at the expense of salmon and the industry the fish supports. “State agencies are playing God, by diverting water to the San Joaquin Valley. Access to salmon is critical to the livelihood of coastal communities,” Gorelnik said. It is not “Mother Nature” at work in the salmon’s decline but something more “sinister,” Gorelnik said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>But it is not all bad news for salmon, said Tina Swanson, executive director and chief scientist at The Bay Institute. “Salmon is a resilient species. If we improve conditions, they will be able to bounce back,” Swanson said. Restoring the Delta’s ecosystem and improving fresh water inflow will be key to the recovery of the species,” Swanson said. A collaboration of state, federal, and local water agencies, state and federal fish agencies and environmental groups are currently preparing the Bay Delta Conservation Plan with the goal of identifying water flow and habitat restoration actions to recover endangered and sensitive species and their habitats in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The plan, however, is in its early stages and is not expected to be completed until 2013. For some fisherman, that may be too long. “We can’t wait 20 years in the future. We need emergency actions. We need help now or we will never fish again,” Pro-Troll Fishing Products owner Pool said. Peggy Beckett, 63, can’t wait 20 years either for solving salmon’s decline. “I’m out of savings both personally and for the business. I can’t afford employees,” Beckett said. She has no retirement and is too old for a career change, she said. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“Salmon is an indicator of what will happen to all of us,” Beckett said.<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 mobile</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></div></body></html>