[env-trinity] Panel to discuss salmon issues

[Josh Allen]

Panel to discuss salmon issues


http://www.charlotte.com/mld/montereyherald/news/14276494.htm?source=rss
&channel=montereyherald_news 

 


By KEVIN HOWE


Herald Staff Writer


Changes in the state's salmon fishing regulations will be discussed by
the state Fish and Game Commission when it meets in Monterey today and
Friday.

The commission has scheduled hearings in the City Council Chambers of
Monterey City Hall, Madison and Pacific streets, beginning at 10 a.m.
today and 8:30 a.m. Friday.

Friday's session will concentrate on salmon fishing issues, including
regulation of the Klamath and Trinity river fisheries, ocean salmon
fishing, and possible adoption of an emergency action curtailing the
sport salmon fishing season.

The commission is considering three possibilities, including catch
limits, shortening the salmon season, or shutting it down for sport and
commercial fishers.

"The indications we're getting is that the Klamath (river salmon) stocks
will be entirely closed or drastically cut back this season," said
Therese Wells, spokeswoman for Save Our Wild Salmon, an organization of
sport and commercial fishermen and conservation groups.

"Total closure of fishing would drive any fisherman here up to Alaska,"
she said.

Sport salmon season on the Central Coast opened Saturday, with fishing
restricted to within Monterey Bay and between Point Arena and Point Sur
to within the 3-mile limit.

A ban on fishing from federal waters -- from 3 miles to 200 miles off
the West Coast -- was imposed by the Pacific Fishery Management Council,
which declared the area an "essential fish habitat."

Federal authorities say salmon are overfished along the Pacific Coast,
while fishers contend that federal officials have mismanaged water flows
on the Klamath River and other major salmon runs, causing a shortfall in
fish replenishment.

Sport salmon fishing is allowed only within the 3-mile limit, according
to Fish and Game, with a limit of two king salmon a day. No coho salmon
may be caught and kept.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council is meeting this week at the
DoubleTree Hotel Sacramento, 2001 Point West Way, Sacramento, to make
its final recommendations to the Fish and Game Commission on the sport
salmon season.

Today's Fish and Game session will open with a public forum allowing
anyone to speak on items not on the agenda, and continue with reports on
wild turkeys in the state, recommendations by the department on wetland
regulation and retention, the state's recreational fisheries and other
matters.

The commission will then go into closed-door session to discuss
litigation items.

montereyherald.com.

  _____  

If you go * What: Fish and Game Commission hearings on salmon fishing *
When: 10 a.m. today, 8:30 a.m. Friday * Where: Monterey City Hall
council chambers, Madison and Pacific streets. MONTEREY 

  _____  

size=1 width="100%" noshade color="#cccccc" align=center> 

Kevin Howe can be reached at 646-4416 or khowe@ 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20060406/64d24d48/attachment.html>