[env-trinity] Commission approves fishing closure on Sacramento River section

[Dan Bacher]

http://www.fishsniffer.com/blogs/details/commission-approves-fishing-closure-on-
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/18/1378544/-Commission-approves-fishing-closure-on-Sacramento-River-section

Winter Chinook photo courtesy of CDFW.




Commission approves fishing closure on Sacramento River section

by Dan Bacher

The California Fish and Game Commission on April 17 unanimously  
approved a controversial emergency regulation by the California  
Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) to close 5.5 miles of spawning  
habitat in the Sacramento River above the city of Redding to protect  
winter-run Chinook salmon from around April 27 to July 31.

The Commission also approved "enhanced protective measures" included  
in the ocean sport and commercial fisheries regulations for the 2015  
season that were adopted by the federal Pacific Fishery Management  
Council (PFMC) last week.

“We are taking proactive measures on two fronts to protect these  
endangered fish both in the ocean and on their natal spawning  
habitat,” said CDFW Chief of Fisheries Stafford Lehr. “The fishing  
communities have stepped forward to support these measures and work  
towards long-term sustainability of the resource. None of us wanted to  
be in this situation, but heading into a fourth year of extreme  
drought calls for extreme measures.”

Lehr pointed out that 95 percent of winter run Chinook eggs and  
juvenile fish perished last year, due to high water temperatures on  
the Sacramento River.

The Department estimates that 3,015 winter Chinook have returned to  
the Sacramento this year. To help keep the population of winter run  
Chinook surviving during the drought, Lehr said the Department and  
federal government are tripling the population of winter Chinook  
smolts that they will release into the river from the Livingston Stone  
conservation hatchery to 660,000 fish this season.

"We're trying to develop an 'ark' for the salmon," by holding wild  
adults, spawning them and raising the young fish, he explained.

The emergency regulation closes all fishing on the 5.5 mile stretch of  
the Sacramento River from the Highway 44 Bridge where it crosses the  
Sacramento River upstream to Keswick Dam, according to Harry Morse of  
the CDFW. The area is currently closed to salmon fishing but was open  
to catch and release trout fishing.

DFW officials claimed the closure "will protect critical spawning  
habitat and eliminate any incidental stress or hooking mortality of  
winter-run salmon by anglers."

Charles Bucaria of the Northern California Council of Fly Fishers said  
he supported the closure in light of the precarious situation the  
winter Chinook are in. "There are no alternatives - the closure needs  
to take place," he stated.

Other anglers told the Commission that they opposed the closure  
because it unfairly targets anglers, even though they rarely hook  
winter Chinook when targeting trout while fly fishing on the river.

Many anglers have pointed out that massive winter Chinook  
mortalitytook place in 2013 and 2014, due to the virtual emptying of  
Shasta and other northern California reservoirs to ship water to  
corporate agribusiness interests, Southern California water agencies  
and oil companies during a record drought.

Mike Quinn of Angler West Radio told the Commissioners, "What you are  
proposing today will no effect on the salmon in the Sacramento River.  
It's a matter of not having enough salmon carcasses in the river to  
provide food for the winter Chinook fry."

The Commission also adopted ocean sport fishing regulations that will  
mirror federal regulations approved earlier this week. CDFW, in  
consultation with representatives of California’s sport and commercial  
salmon fishing industries, recommended additional "strategic  
protective measures" for winter-run Chinook salmon to the Pacific  
Fishery Management Council (PFMC).

The PFMC recommended federal regulations that provide for sport and  
commercial seasons off California designed to target more abundant  
stocks, including Sacramento River fall-run Chinook salmon, while  
minimizing contact with winter-run Chinook.

Recreational fisheries in California and southern Oregon are primarily  
focused on Chinook salmon and run from May 1 through September 7 in  
the Brookings/ Eureka/Crescent City area, according to the PFMC.

Fisheries further south all opened on April 4 and will continue  
through November 8 in the Fort Bragg area, through October 31 in the  
San Francisco area, through September 7 from Pigeon Point to Point  
Sur, and through July 19 south of Point Sur.

“The CDFW proposal to reduce the allowable ocean harvest rate on  
winter-run salmon and change the timing and location of ocean  
fisheries south of San Francisco was accepted by the PFMC after in- 
depth analysis, review and discussion,” said Marci Yaremko, CDFW’s  
representative to the PFMC. “The Commission concurred with these  
recommendations, realizing their conservation benefit to all winter- 
run.”

Yaremko said it is "highly unusual" for a state to propose even  
stricter guidelines on a listed species than required by the federal  
Endangered Species Act. However, CDFW scientists believe the  
additional protection provided in the emergency river closure and  
additional ocean fishing restrictions will help a significant segment  
of the winter-run population to avoid losses.

“Given the gravity of the current situation, the Commission recognizes  
the need for highly protective measures,” said Commission President  
Jack Baylis. “It is imperative that our fisheries are given the best  
protections.”

Recreational anglers "went the extra mile" to ensure that more adult  
fish are returned to the river this year, and put forth restrictions  
beyond what even the CDFW expected, according to the Coastside Fishing  
Club.

"Throughout this process we have been concerned about the impacts of  
the drought, and in particular the effects the drought is having on  
our salmon stocks," said Dan Wolford, President of the Coastside  
Fishing Club. "With the loss of the 2014 winter-run brood year it was  
apparent that we had to take extraordinary measures to help recover  
these fish.”

"But curtailing fishing opportunities this year to provide for the  
return of more adult spawners, will be a meaningless gesture unless  
the federal and state water managers take immediate and dramatic  
action to provide suitable spawning habitat when they return, and to  
enable the resulting brood year to successfully out-migrate to the  
ocean. We want our actions to be noted and acted on," Wolford  
emphasized.

Fishermen, Tribal leaders and environmentalists note that the drought  
itself is not the reason for the collapse of winter Chinook salmon,  
the near extinction of Delta smelt and the collapse of American River  
steelhead, as agency officials often claim. They point to poor  
management of our reservoirs and rivers by the Bureau of Reclamation  
and the California Department of Water Resources during a record  
drought as the culprit behind record low populations of fish species  
that once numbered in the millions.

The Delta smelt, an indicator species that demonstrates the health of  
the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, reached a new record low  
population level in 2014, according to the CDFW's fall midwater trawl  
survey released in January. Department staff found a total of only  
eight smelt at a total of 100 sites sampled each month from September  
through December. (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/01/09/18766643.php 
)

The surveys were initiated in 1967, the same year the State Water  
Project began exporting water from the Delta. The surveys show that  
population indices of Delta smelt, striped bass, longfin smelt,  
threadfin shad, American shad and Sacramento splittail have declined  
97.80%, 99.70%, 99.98%, 97.80%, 91.90%, and 98.50%, respectively,  
between 1967 and 2014, according to Bill Jennings, Executive Director  
of the California Sportfishing Protection Allliance.

The Delta smelt surveys continue to yield dismal results in 2015. The  
CDFW has found only 21 fish in January, 72 in February, 6 in March and  
only one - yes, one - lonely Delta smelt in April.

Anglers point out that imposing more restrictions on angling and  
conducting captive breeding programs of winter run Chinook salmon and  
Delta smelt don't address the real reasons for the declines of  
endangered fish species - massive water exports out of the Delta, poor  
management of upstream reservoirs and increases in pollutants in  
Central Valley rivers over the past two decades.

Meanwhile, Governor Jerry Brown continues to fast track his plan to  
build the twin tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.  
On April 13, the Center for Biological Diversity and Restore the Delta  
(RTD) responded to the governor’s abandonment of the pretense of  
“conservation” and “restoration” and move to permit a “tunnels only”  
Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP). (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/04/15/18771135.php 
)

The construction of the tunnels would hasten the extinction of winter  
Chinook, Central Valley steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt, green  
sturgeon and other species, as well as imperil the salmon and  
steelhead populations on the Trinity and Klamath rivers. 
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