[env-trinity] State and Feds Impose Emergency Salmon Fishing Closure on California and Oregon Coast

[Josh Allen]

State and Feds Impose Emergency Salmon Fishing Closure on California and
Oregon Coast

 

by Dan Bacher

State and federal government fishery managers this morning chose to
close commercial and recreational salmon fishing seasons that were
already open or scheduled to open before May 1. The decision was made to
protect Central Valley chinook salmon stocks that have declined to
record low levels. While the National Marine Fisheries Service, a
federal fisheries agency, claims that "ocean conditions" are the "likely
culprit" for the collapse, commercial and recreational fishing groups,
Indian Tribes and environmental groups are pointing to record water
exports out of the California Delta, pollution, habitat destruction and
other factors as driving the collapse.

 

Photo: Central Valley chinook salmon migrating upstream. Photo courtesy
of the California Department of Water Resources.




 

fish.jpg

 

State and Feds Impose Emergency Salmon Fishing Closure on California and
Oregon Coast

 

By Dan Bacher

 

State and federal fishery managers meeting in Sacramento this morning
imposed an emergency closure on seven salmon fishing zones in California
and Oregon to protect Sacramento River chinook salmon, now in a state of
unprecedented collapse.

 

This closure would apply to zones that were open or scheduled to open
before May 1. The emergency closure was issued as the state and federal
governments were reviewing options for salmon fishing seasons after May
1 during the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) meeting in
Sacramento this week. For the first time in history, salmon season may
be closed in ocean waters south of Cape Falcon, Oregon in 2008, with the
exception of an area around the mouth of the Klamath River (Klamath
Management Zone).

 

Considering the record low numbers of Central Valley stocks we are
expecting to see this year, we decided it would be wise to prevent any
impacts upon Sacramento salmon that would take place in the early
season, said Eric Chavez, natural resources management specialist for
the National Marine Fisheries Service. This way the fish would be
preserved for any potential fishing opportunity later in the season.

 

The National Marine Fisheries Service will have to grant an emergency
rule to allow any salmon fishing in ocean waters in California and
Southern Oregon this year. Based on the latest statistical modeling,
only 59,100 salmon are expected to return to Central Valley rivers even
if no fishing is allowed. A spawning escapement floor of 122,000 to
180,000 fish has been set for decades and this would be way below it.

 

In 2007, a total of only 87,966 natural and hatchery fall chinook adults
were estimated to have returned to the Sacramento River for spawning.
This was the second lowest escapement estimate on record and was 33
percent of the preseason expectation of 265,500 fish.

 

Our forecast indicates that we wont meet the escapement floor even with
all fishing for Sacramento River salmon stocks closed, said Peter
Dygert, fisheries biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service.
If any fishing is allowed, the federal government would have to grant an
emergency rule.

 

"We're in uncharted waters," Craig Stone of the Emeryville Sportfishing
Center told me at the meeting yesterday afternoon. "We have never been
in a situation where the Sacramento River chinook salmon stocks are in
collapse. Who would ever imagine that a run that was over 800,000 fish
in 2002 would collapse to almost nothing this year."

 

Four recreational fishing zones and three commercial fishing zones were
slated for the emergency closure. The only area open to fishing now, the
section from Horse Mountain to Point Arena including the Fort Bragg and
Shelter Cove areas, would close effective April 1. However, virtually no
salmon have been caught in this area to date.

 

The other three recreational fishing areas whose opening will be delayed
are from Cape Falcon to Humbug Mountain, Oregon, scheduled to open on
March 15; Point Arena to Pigeon Point, CA. (San Francisco) scheduled to
open April 7; and Pigeon Point to the U.S.-Mexico Border (Monterey
South), scheduled to open on April 7.

 

In more bad news, the PFMC got their first look at the impacts of the
season options that were developed by the Council's advisory teams. The
results were not encouraging - even with all fisheries closed (both
commercial and recreational) throughout the state, the projected returns
to the Sacramento River achieve only half of the minimum conservation
objective, said Dan Wolford, PFMC member and Coastside Fishing Club
science director.

 

The other two options essentially achieve seasons that represent 2/3 of
the 2007 season and 1/3 of the 2007 season, he said. They, of course,
drive the projected returns even further below the conservation
objective.

 

The closures will have a huge impact upon the California economy,
considering that recreational angling is worth $4 billion per year in
California, according to the American Sportfishing Association. Salmon
fishing is traditionally a very popular activity for recreational
anglers along the California and Oregon coast.

 

The closures will also result in a sharp increase in the price of wild
king salmon and cause economic devastation to the commercial fishing
industry, an industry already hit hard in recent years by Bush
administration fishing closures.

 

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) continues to pinpoint
unusual environmental conditions in the Pacific as the likely culprit
behind the salmon collapse, while fishing and environmental groups say
other factors, including massive increases in water exports out of the
California Delta, water diversions and the destruction of habitat,
should be addressed.

 

The salmon collapse is a combination of a number of things all going
wrong at once, said Roger Thomas, president of the Golden Gate
Fishermans Association (GGFA) and former PFMC member. The problems
resulting from water exports on the Delta, the lack of net pens to
acclimate hatchery salmon when released into San Pablo Bay for two
years, and adverse ocean conditions are fell into place at the same
time. All of us need to work together to bring back the salmon to our
rivers and the ocean.

 

Fishing and environmental groups contend that the massive increases of
federal and state water exports in recent years play a huge role in the
collapse of the Central Valley fall chinook run. The salmon that would
have run up the Sacramento River as adults in 2008 and 2007 migrated as
juveniles through the California Delta at the same time that record
water exports to subsidized agribusiness and southern California were
taking place. The fish may have starved from lack of forage as they
migrated through the Delta or were killed in the massive state and
federal pumping facilities.

 

At the same time, four species of pelagic (open water) Delta fish delta
smelt, longfin shad, juvenile striped bass and threadfin shad - have
declined to record low levels. Water exports have been pinpointed by
federal and state fishery scientists as the number one cause of the
Pelagic Organism Decline (POD), followed by invasive species and toxics.

 

To date, the federal and state governments have failed to explore the
relationship between increases in export pumping and the salmon
collapse. They have also refused to consider the impact of increased
water exports and the decline of the Bay-Delta Estuary food chain upon
ocean forage and water conditions. In addition, they have not considered
the impact of unregulated agricultural waste discharges into the Delta
and ocean ecosystems upon Central Valley salmon.

 

While the PFMC meets on Friday, March 14, a panel of fishing, tribal and
environmental groups will hold a news conference at 10 a.m. to discuss
proposed solutions to the current crisis in California Delta fisheries
and the unprecedented collapse of the Central Valley chinook salmon
runs. The event will take place at the Del Paso Room in the Double Tree
Hotel, 2001 Point West Way, in Sacramento, (916) 929-8855.

 

The group is proposing immediate, practical and necessary measures that
will begin to rebuild the stocks of salmon. They believe these solutions
could help prevent future fishery disasters for California.

 

Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing
Protection Alliance, Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific
Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA), Caleen
Sisk-Franco, spiritual leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, and Dick
Pool, owner of Pro-Troll Fishing Products, will speak at the event.

 

David Nesmith, Environmental Water Caucus facilitator, will be the
moderator. "Fish need water, Nesmith said. We must leave more clean,
cool water in the Delta and our rivers so salmon can live."

 

For more information, call David Nesmith (510) 893-1330 or cell (510)
693-4979 or Dick Pool (925) 825-8560.

 

These are the draft recreational draft ocean salmon fishing options for
California waters proposed yesterday, according to Jim Martin, West
Coast Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance. April will be
closed for the entire state. The PFMC will propose three options on
Friday and will finalize the seasons and/or closures in mid-April.

 

Option 1

KMZ (Klamath Management Zone): May 24-September 1

Ft. Bragg: Feb 16-March 31, May 1-Sept 7

SF: May 1- Sept 21

Monterey & South: May 1- Aug 2

 

Option 2: KMZ: May 24- May 31 (all days) + June 4-Sept 1 (Wednesdays
thru Sundays)

Ft. Bragg: Feb 16-March 31, May 17- July 12

SF: May 24-26; May 29 - August 24 (Thursdays thru Sundays)

Monterey & South: May 1- June 8

 

Option 3:

No directed fishery for ocean salmon

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