[env-trinity] No Salmon Fishing? By: Dan Bacher of the Fish Sniffer

[Byron]

This is to alert everybody that there may be no salmon season this year on
the coast from Cape Falcon, Oregon to the Mexican border, according to the
latest data from DFG in the Salmon Informational meeting that I went to in
Santa Rosa.

 

Even if all commercial, tribal and recreational seasons are closed, the
spawning escapement goal of 35,000 natural spawners on the Klamath River
will probably not be met. If all fishing in the ocean and Klamath River is
closed, only 29,200 natural fish are expected to spawn in the river. If the
2005 regulations are kept in place, only 18,700 fish - just a little over
half of the minimum escapement goal, are expected in the river.

 

For anybody to fish after May 1, the Pacific Fishery Management Council
would be required to get an emergency fishing rule from NOAA Fisheries. To
protect the Klamath stocks, the ocean anglers will be completely prohibited
or, in the best case scenario, allowed severely limited seasons along the
coast.

 

Two hours of the meeting were spent getting options from the recreational
and commercial anglers, such as creating limited salmon fisheries in certain
areas at certain times to avoid catching Klamath stock when fishermen are
targeting the relatively robust Sacramento stock.

 

However, one angry commercial fisherman from Fort Bragg, Bill Forkner, got
up and summed up the feelings of most of the meeting participants when he
said, "This is all B.S.! You guys (state and federal governments) aren't
addressing the problems of the Klamath River."

 

Roger Thomas of the GGFA urged people to go to the Pombo Hearing in Stockton
to make their feelings about state and federal "management" of fisheries
heard. I spoke up to give people the details of the hearing on the Delta -
and everybody was outraged that public wouldn't be allowed to testify!

 

I also pointed out how the reason fishermen are being kicked off the water
this season is because of the Klamath Fish kills of 2002. The fish going up
the river this fall are the progeny of the Spring 2002 Juvenile Kill and the
September 2002 Adult Salmon Kill. This was a disaster that was directly
engineered in Washington by Karl Rove and the Bush administration. Rove
pressured Gale Norton to give the Klamath water to agribusiness at the
expense of fish, tribes, recreational anglers and commercial fishermen to
curry favor with local farmers so an Oregon Republican Senator would be
reelected.

 

Now recreational anglers, the Klamath Basin Tribes, commercial fishermen and
the entire economy of northern California will suffer because of the greed
of a few.

 

When we combine the Delta crash, the Klamath salmon nightmare and the
precipitous decline of white sturgeon in the Bay-Delta estuary, it couldn't
be much worse for anybody who cares about fish and the environment of
California. These disasters make it urgent that we expose their creators -
the federal government and state governments and Richard Pombo in particular
- for what they have done to our fisheries. They must all be held
accountable for the big money and corruption that created the current
nightmare scenario.

 

Dan Bacher

 

 

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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