[env-trinity] Several Klamath Salmon Disaster Newspaper Articles

[Byron]

$2 million netted for fishermen - Eureka Times-Standard

 

FISH FIGHT TURNS BITTER; Demanding $81 million in aid for struggling salmon
fishermen, angry West Coast lawmakers stage protest in House -- and get $2
million; FEDERAL LIMITS: Restrictions to protect Klamath stocks are
squeezing the industry - San Francisco Chronicle  

 

$2 million OK'd for salmon fishermen; Funds approved by House fall far short
of $81 million sought - Santa Rosa Press-Democrat 

 

House OKs $2 million in disaster aid for salmon fleet - Sacramento Bee 

 

FISH FIGHT TURNS BITTER; REACTION: Modest help from Congress disappoints
commercial fishermen, who say season is 'basically a total loss' - San
Francisco Chronicle 

 

Yurok Tribe wins greater say on Klamath River - Sacramento Bee 

 

 

$2 million netted for fishermen

Eureka Times-Standard - 6/29/06

By James Faulk, staff writer

 

EUREKA -- Congressman Mike Thompson and other West Coast representatives
would not take no for an answer this week when it came to securing emergency
aid for area fishermen. 

 

The group was told by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric
Administration on Tuesday that no money and no disaster declaration would be
forthcoming, at least until next February, to help fishermen deal with a
severely curtailed commercial salmon season. 

 

Lawmakers originally asked for $81 million, but settled for $2 million after
a strange legislative display in which the lawmakers used procedural votes
to force action on an amendment Wednesday. 

 

"What we decided to do was pull out all the plugs," said Thompson, D-St.
Helena. 

 

The $2 million may sound like little compared to the original amount
requested, but it gets the foot in the door, said Thompson's press
secretary, Matt Gerien, and allows for the U.S. Senate to provide even more
money down the legislative line. 

 

The $2 million comes from the U.S. Commerce Department's administrative
funds and goes into NOAA's general fund to help with fishermen. 

 

Thompson's measure passed on voice vote as an amendment to an annual
spending bill funding the departments of Justice, Commerce and State. The
underlying bill was expected to pass this week. 

 

Eureka fisherman David Bitts said Thompson and his staff have been working
hard on this issue. 

 

"His persistence looks like it may pay off," Bitts said. "If it happens,
it's going to happen in spite of NOAA fisheries and not because of them --
this not-till-February thing is basically thumbing their nose at fishermen."


 

First District Supervisor Jimmy Smith also credited Thompson and his staff,
as well as other West Coast lawmakers. 

 

"This is good work," Smith said. 

 

Thompson downplayed the victory Wednesday and said the work would only be
done when the fishermen get the aid they need and the Bush administration
takes responsibility for the problems it created in the Klamath Basin. 

 

Thompson said he met with Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Wednesday, and that she
committed to supporting the funding on the Senate side, and to finding even
more money. 

 

Thompson said the difficulty has been exacerbated by the fact that only a
few congressional districts are affected by this, and that Republicans are
reluctant to support help for the fishermen because it "would be an
admission that the Bush water policy caused this problem." 

 

So it came time to take drastic action, he said. 

 

"We created some ... civil disobedience," Thompson said. #

http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_3993682

 

 

FISH FIGHT TURNS BITTER; Demanding $81 million in aid for struggling salmon
fishermen, angry West Coast lawmakers stage protest in House -- and get $2
million; FEDERAL LIMITS: Restrictions to protect Klamath stocks are
squeezing the industry

San Francisco Chronicle - 6/29/06

By Zachary Coile, staff writer

 

(06-29) 04:00 PDT Washington -- Lawmakers from California and Oregon, angry
at the Bush administration for refusing to aid struggling Pacific Coast
salmon fishermen, brought the House to a standstill Wednesday -- ultimately
forcing GOP leaders to offer a small amount of economic relief. 

 

The issue has simmered for months as West Coast fishermen have struggled to
cope with the nearly complete closure of the salmon season by federal
officials, who are trying to protect critically low salmon stocks in the
Klamath River. 

 

Lawmakers have been urging Congress to pass an $81 million relief package
for fishermen and fishing-related businesses along the California and Oregon
coasts to address the economic fallout of closing the fishery. 

 

"The administration is refusing to even look at it," Rep. Mike Thompson,
D-St. Helena, said on the House floor. "The Republican Congress is ignoring
the fact that working families are being displaced, being put out of jobs
and going bankrupt." 

 

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski have declared
state disasters for coastal fishing communities and are urging Congress to
offer economic relief. But the White House so far has refused to declare a
disaster, and until Wednesday House GOP leaders opposed economic assistance.


 

"It's just unfair that this would happen, especially when this is a disaster
that was created by the Bush administration," said Rep. George Miller,
D-Martinez. "They ought to take responsibility; they ought to be held
accountable for their actions, and they ought to provide relief for these
hard-working families." 

 

In protest, Miller and other lawmakers used procedural moves to slow the
House to a crawl. All morning, lawmakers labored through a series of
15-minute "motion to rise" votes that delayed action on a spending bill for
the Commerce, Justice and State departments. 

 

West Coast lawmakers won a small victory and ended their protest when the
House passed an amendment specifying $2 million for disaster relief for
salmon fishermen. The money is seen as a placeholder so California and
Oregon senators can seek to add more disaster aid to the bill later in a
conference committee. 

 

The troubles for West Coast fishermen stem from the poor state of wild
salmon stocks in the Klamath River near the California-Oregon border. 

 

Chinook -- or king -- salmon are bountiful this year off the Pacific Coast,
but most of them are from the Sacramento River. Salmon from the Klamath
River are at perilously low numbers, and because Klamath and Sacramento fish
intermingle in the ocean, the Pacific Fishery Management Council, a federal
agency, called for strict reductions in the commercial catch to protect the
threatened Klamath stocks. 

 

Fishermen's groups argue that the poor condition of the Klamath salmon is
the result of years of controversial federal water management decisions. 

 

Much of the river's flow is diverted to farmers, and four hydropower dams
along the river warm the water, killing salmon through disease or parasites.
In 2002, more than 33,000 salmon died because of low water, high
temperatures and disease, and large die-offs of young salmon have followed
in recent years. 

 

The restrictions by federal authorities sharply limited the season, banned
fishing in some areas and allowed commercial fishermen to catch only 75 fish
each week, which fishermen's groups and state officials say is economically
unfeasible. 

 

"No one can afford to go far out and catch 75 fish, so no one is fishing,"
said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore. 

 

Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of
Fishermen's Associations, said fishermen in California coastal communities
such as Bodega Bay, Half Moon Bay, Fort Bragg and Eureka have seen their
incomes plummet as the harvest of salmon has dropped by as much 90 percent. 

 

"The younger people, who still have boat payments, they aren't going to make
it," Grader said. "It's pretty bleak." 

 

The issue came to a boil Tuesday at a meeting on Capitol Hill between
lawmakers and officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, which oversees fisheries, including the agency's
administrator, Conrad Lautenbacher. According to Congressman Thompson,
agency officials said they wouldn't be able to declare a disaster until next
year after the salmon season had ended. 

 

Lawmakers were irate. DeFazio asked why the agency didn't just cancel the
salmon season so fishing communities could qualify for disaster relief. 

 

A spokesman for the agency said lawmakers were mistaken and that officials
could declare a fishery disaster at any time based on data they receive from
the state about salmon populations. NOAA spokesman Jordan St. John added
that the agency was trying to allow limited fishing to keep the industry
alive. 

 

"The original discussion was to close the entire fishery," St. John said.
"At the request of fishermen's groups and some of the very same members of
Congress, they worked out some way to keep the season partially open so
there could be fishing." 

 

But Thompson said the agency's plan has been a disaster for fishermen, who
have invested thousands of dollars in fishing permits, fuel, bait and
payments on their boats. Federal officials are opening areas off the coast
for two weeks at a time, but there's no guarantee there will be fish in
those areas during those windows, he said. 

 

"I think the fishing industry is going to evaporate," Thompson said. "It's
not just the people who are going out fishing. This has an impact on the
whole community." 

 

Grader said he hopes for a technological solution: Fishermen are starting to
use new technologies that can distinguish between the salmon from the
Sacramento River and those from the depleted Klamath River. 

 

"We've been trying to use modern technology to do a better job," he said.
"But we've gotten no help from the agencies. There's no leadership." 

 

By the numbers 

80 million 

Amount, in dollars, fishermen expect to lose this season 

 

100 million 

Average year's dollar value of the commercial salmon fishery in California 

 

2 million 

Amount, in dollars, of aid approved by the House of Representatives 

 

29,000 

Number of spawning salmon expected to return to Klamath River this year 

 

637,000 

Number of spawning salmon expected this year in the Sacramento River system 

Source: Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman's Associations  #

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/29/MNGTOJMHB61.DTL

 

 

$2 million OK'd for salmon fishermen; Funds approved by House fall far short
of $81 million sought

Santa Rosa Press-Democrat - 6/29/06

By Katy Hillenmeyer, staff writer

 

The House approved $2 million Wednesday to help salmon fishermen whose
seasons have been sharply reduced this year, but West Coast lawmakers who
have angled for $81 million in disaster aid said federal fisheries managers
are thwarting that relief.

An amendment by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, was added to a 2007
spending bill that funds the Departments of Commerce, State and Justice. It
was passed Wednesday as part of a larger appropriation the House is expected
to back this week.

The measure's passage came a day after Thompson and fellow West Coast
Democrats met with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
officials, who said they must calculate economic damage to Oregon's and
California's fishing-dependent communities before declaring a disaster.

Though conservation-driven delays in the commercial fishing season have
idled many Sonoma and Mendocino coast trollers, NOAA spokesman Jeff Donald
said Wednesday the two months of lost salmon harvests and sales they've
endured is not enough to gauge how hard-hit fishermen will be.

"Legally, we can't declare a disaster based on predictions," Donald said.
"We have to have more economic data from the entire season."

Those numbers could come "as late as February" or sooner, he said, but "we
don't actually have a timeline at this point."

In April, federal regulators adopted ocean fishing restrictions affecting
700 miles of the Oregon and Northern California coasts to protect dwindling
chinook salmon that spawn in the Klamath River.

Bodega Bay fishermen, including Chuck Wise, have relied on what's left of
the crab season for earnings, but they're barred from commercially catching
salmon until July 26.

"Looking at the amount of disaster we're suffering, $2 million is not much,"
said Wise, who presides over the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's
Associations. "We were able to have a little income (from crab) for the
month of June, but there won't be any in basically the whole month of July."

After meeting with top NOAA leaders Tuesday, Thompson criticized the delay
in a disaster declaration, which he and his aides said is critical for
Congress to allot millions more in relief dollars.

"They're derelict in their duty. They're completely callous toward the very
real issues facing working families up and down the coast," Thompson said.
"They're being disingenuous to suggest they need time to figure this out."

In a letter Monday to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger said fishermen will be limited to 20 percent of their normal
season.

"I cannot understand why another day needs to pass without a declaration of
disaster," the governor wrote.

But Donald said California politicians are overestimating NOAA's influence
over funding for fishermen, which he suggested Congress could appropriate
without such a declaration.

"There's this idea that the disaster declaration is going to trigger all
this money. It does not. We're not FEMA," the NOAA spokesman in Washington
said.

"We're trying to look at all the options we have to help these guys out," he
said, declining to elaborate on NOAA policies that might help the industry.
"This isn't something we're sitting around idly watching happen." #

http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060629/NEWS/60629
0330/1033/NEWS01

 

 

House OKs $2 million in disaster aid for salmon fleet

Sacramento Bee - 6/29/06

By David Whitney, staff writer

 

WASHINGTON -- Under pressure from angry West Coast Democrats, the House
agreed Wednesday to open the door to emergency disaster assistance for
commercial fishermen whose livelihoods are in jeopardy because of the
failure of the Klamath River salmon fishery. 

 

The amount of money involved thus far is $2 million, a tiny fraction of the
estimated $81 million in losses that fishermen and fishing dependent
communities are expecting to endure because of the Klamath River fishery
collapse. 

 

House members from Oregon and California tried in vain to convince Commerce
Department officials at a meeting Tuesday that the assistance is critically
needed now to keep boat owners and related businesses financially afloat
through the 2006 season, but they were rebuffed. 

 

They charged onto the House floor Wednesday ready to force a series of
procedural votes on the 2007 funding bill for the Commerce Department and
other agencies to force some relief into the bill. 

 

They were in the process of doing so when Republican leaders agreed to
permit the amendment offered by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena. It passed
on a voice vote. 

 

"This is a huge step forward," Thompson said afterward. "And it's the only
step we had." 

 

Thompson said House supporters were going to work immediately with
California and Oregon senators in an effort to bring the disaster funding up
to $81 million when the two chambers meet later this summer to work out a
compromise spending bill.

 

Within an hour of the House victory, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., released
a letter the senators were sending to the heads of the Senate Appropriations
Committee asking for the needed funding. 

 

"The more time that passes without assistance, the greater the threat of
permanent damage to our rural, coastal economies," the letter said. 

 

Under the restrictions on the salmon season, commercial boats are permitted
to catch no more than 75 fish a week in the few weeks that they can still
fish. 

 

That's fewer than fishermen can catch in an average day, and some said it is
too few to even pay the fuel costs of their boats. 

 

The financial impact is already showing up. Thompson, in his floor speech,
cited calls he had received from a Klamath lodge that caters to fishermen
and has lost $21,000 so far this season from cancellations, fish buyers who
don't have fish to sell to retailers, and from fishermen who are all in
desperate straits. 

 

"We traditionally make between $80,000 and $100,000 a year on salmon, and
now we have nothing," said Barbara Stickel of Morro Bay, one of the families
Thompson cited. 

 

Stickel said she has dropped out of college in San Francisco so she can help
her husband, Tom, in what little fishing remains. 

 

She estimated that as many as 60 families in the Morro Bay and San Luis Bay
areas are in similar situations -- idled at what should be the most
lucrative time of their business. 

 

Asked if she thought she would be able to make it through the year, Stickel
replied: 

 

"I don't know. I am terrified." #

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14273035p-15083215c.html

 

 

FISH FIGHT TURNS BITTER; REACTION: Modest help from Congress disappoints
commercial fishermen, who say season is 'basically a total loss'

San Francisco Chronicle - 6/29/06

By Glen Martin, staff writer

 

Commercial fishermen reacted to news about minimal federal disaster relief
for the truncated West Coast salmon season with both black humor about their
plight and bitter recrimination for the Bush administration. 

 

"Got a towel?" asked Half Moon Bay salmon troller Duncan MacLean, feigning
weepiness when asked about his economic situation. 

 

"Things have not been going good here," MacLean said. "We've been doing
everything we can to get some financial relief for the salmon fleet, but we
keep running into roadblocks -- and now this." 

 

Salmon fishermen had asked for $81 million in federal disaster relief to
carry them through the current commercial season, which traditionally runs
from around May to October. Federal regulators slashed by 80 percent the
amount of fish available to commercial fishermen because of concerns over
dwindling stocks of Klamath River Chinook salmon. However, no significant
restrictions were placed on recreational anglers. 

 

In recent years, numbers of Klamath salmon have plummeted due to lower,
warmer water, dams and parasites in the river. 

 

Commercial salmon fishing generates more than $100 million for the state's
economy in a typical season, according to industry estimates. 

 

This year, fishermen say their fleets will be lucky to gross $20 million. 

 

They said the $2 million in aid approved Wednesday by the House of
Representatives won't stave off financial ruin. West Coast lawmakers are
hoping to increase the amount of aid, which requires Senate approval. It's
unclear how any aid would be divided among the fishermen. 

 

"It's basically a total loss for me this year," MacLean said. "I've been
catching some black cod, but it's a limited-entry fishery. I'm only allowed
to land 3,000 pounds over a two-month period, and that's just not enough to
keep me going." 

 

While local consumers have a range of seafood alternatives to wild salmon,
the same isn't true for the men and women who catch the fish.

 

Not only is black cod a tightly controlled fishery, but so are most of the
other alternatives -- California halibut and rockfish, particularly. 

 

The wild stocks of these species are insufficient and the quotas too low to
allow for a complete commercial switch. 

 

Nor are fishermen putting a lot of hope in the summer albacore runs, which
sometimes can be extravagantly large. 

 

"You can't rely on albacore," said Dave Bitts, a salmon troller who
typically fishes out of San Francisco and Fort Bragg. 

 

"You don't know where they're going to be, except that it'll probably be way
offshore," Bitts said. "And when they do come in close enough, everybody
goes out and hammers 'em, and the price drops fast." 

 

Even in the best of times, albacore seldom fetch more than 65 or 75 cents a
pound, Bitts said. 

 

"On the other hand, there are times when you can get $6 or $8 a pound for
salmon," he said. "There's no comparison." 

 

Fishermen are especially upset about the limits on their salmon catches
because salmon are abundant in offshore waters. 

 

Klamath stocks may be at dire lows, but there are plenty of Chinook salmon
from the Sacramento River system. Federal regulators say they were forced to
curtail the commercial season because Klamath and Sacramento fish mingle in
the open sea. 

 

"It's looking like a good flow year on the Klamath, which should help the
root problem a bit, but it won't make it go away," said Bill Kier, a
Humboldt County consulting fisheries biologist who specializes in the
Klamath system. 

 

Kier said he thinks the Klamath imbroglio is a "red-state, blue-state issue,
and basically this administration doesn't care what happens in a blue state.
Louisiana fishermen got their relief approved right away (after Hurricane
Katrina), and we'll still be screwing with Klamath relief next spring." 

 

Bitts said he knows many people in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, the agency that has the final say over fishing in federal
waters. 

 

"They hold local and regional posts, and they're good, honest people," Bitts
said. 

 

But it seems, he said, "that they don't have any say over what's happening
with the Klamath. It's all being determined in Washington. And back there,
they're telling fishermen to get screwed."  #

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/29/MNGTOJMHBI1.DTL

 

 

Tribe wins greater say on Klamath River

Sacramento Bee - 6/29/06

By Matt Weiser, staff writer

 

Federal agencies agreed Wednesday to give the Yurok Tribe a larger role in
managing the Klamath River, where water diversions and habitat loss have
depleted salmon runs. 

 

The tribe will have a seat at the table with federal agencies that manage
the river, including the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Fish and Wildlife
Service. Previously, it was a bystander. 

 

"We believe the tribe's role and input is going to be more valuable than
ever to help restore a healthy Klamath River and stabilize basin
communities," said Troy Fletcher, a tribal member who works on resources
issues. 

 

The Yurok Tribe owns 13,000 acres on the Klamath River below the town of
Weitchpec in Humboldt County. 

 

Salmon are a key food and cultural resource for tribes. Declining salmon
threaten tribal health and have also triggered fishing limits that threaten
coastal towns in California and Oregon. 

 

"It is a new beginning in our relationship, one that will greatly benefit
both the tribe and the important resources of the Klamath basin," said Kirk
Rodgers, Bureau of Reclamation regional director. #

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/14273018p-15083218c.html

 

 

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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