Sacramento River salmon won”t dodge fishers entirely this year, after a ruling last Friday that allows limited river fishing on California”s most important salmon river.
Ocean fishers got some good news too, with the word that disaster funding has moved closer to approval by Congress.
The Sacramento River will be open for limited freshwater salmon fishing in November and December, after a California Fish and Game Commission vote.
The commission voted earlier to ban all ocean fishing for salmon this year because of a very low return of Sacramento River system fish. Sierra runoff from Mount Shasta to Quincy ends up in the Sacramento River system, which produces most of the state”s migratory salmon.
King salmon fishing is open as usual on other river systems, such as the Klamath/Trinity.
Hundreds of thousands of fall chinook salmon return annually to the Sacramento River every year to spawn. This year, scientists estimate that fewer than 60,000 adult chinook will make it back to the Sacramento River, stunning biologists and creating a fiscal disaster for a state whose economy was already declining.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez has declared the ending of salmon seasons in the three Pacific states a federal fisheries disaster, which authorizes Congress to provide aid to affected communities. Congressman Mike Thompson announced on Tuesday that $170 million has been included in the Farm Bill to aid families and businesses in California, Oregon and Washington affected by the biggest and most devastating Pacific salmon season closure in American history.
“This funding is desperately needed by the communities and families who rely on salmon fishing, many of whom face losing their businesses and homes due to two years of no fishing,” said Thompson in a press release.
Thompson and other members of the California, Oregon and Washington delegations asked Speaker Nancy Pelosi to help find disaster aid so communities could get help as quickly as possible, the release stated.
Communities on the Pacific Coast that would receive aid from the Farm Bill are still recovering from the 2006 salmon season closure, which was due to historically low salmon stocks in the Klamath River Basin. In 2007, Thompson helped secure $60.4 million in aid for California and Oregon fishers and related businesses affected by that closure.
“However, this year”s closure will have a much larger economic impact because the Sacramento River salmon are considered the driver of Pacific Coast salmon stocks,” Thompson said. “In addition, for the first time, the recreational salmon fishing season will be closed.
“Providing disaster relief is not something we can do each year,” Thompson said in the press release.
“And the people who rely on fishing for their livelihoods don”t want us to. We need to make a commitment to restoring our salmon habitats, especially in the Klamath River Basin. A problem of this magnitude needs a long-term solution.”
Last Friday”s Fish and Game Commission ruling also allows catch and release of salmon on the entire river system, although the practice is being discouraged, according to a Department of Fish and Game press release.
The DFG will enforce a zero-bag limit on salmon in the American River, Auburn Ravine Creek, Bear River, Coon Creek, Dry Creek, Feather River, Merced River, Mokelumne River, Napa River, San Joaquin River, Stanislaus River, Tuolumne River and Yuba River. A one per day limit will be in place on the Sacramento River from Red Bluff Diversion Dam to Knights Landing, according to officials. That”s most of the massive river below Lake Shasta and includes several prime fishing spots for shore anglers and boats. The upper reaches of the river don”t offer salmon fishing even in good years. The season will be shortened down to Nov. 1 to Dec. 31 on that stretch of the Sacramento.
Although not as drastic as the cuts to ocean fishing, it”s still the most limited salmon fishing ever in the Central Valley. DFG regulates fishing in the state”s rivers and up to three miles offshore.
On April 10, the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which regulates fishing from three to 200 miles offshore along the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington, canceled the six-month season for West Coast commercial and sport salmon fishermen.
The causes of the biological/economic disaster are being investigated by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Scientists blame a too warm ocean in 2005-2006, combined with severe abuse of the state”s rivers.
Thompson says water plans put in place by the Bush Administration have contributed to the precipitous decline in West Coast salmon populations.
“We also need to pay attention to the political forces that helped create this disaster,” said Thompson. “Because of the Bush Administration”s poor water policies that were found to be in violation of the law, every major salmon river in the continental U.S. is now being run by the courts. As a result, the agencies responsible for restoring these rivers aren”t giving Congress the information we need to make them healthy again,” Thompson said in the press release.
The House and Senate are expected to pass this final version of the Farm Bill later this week, the press release said. A report on National Public Radio said President Bush has threatened to veto the Farm Bill, although members of his own cabinet helped craft it.
