A day after scientists and leaders of commercial fishing groups, Tribes and recreational angling organizations and scientists testified at a Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture Salmon Hearing at the State Capitol in Sacramento, California Governor Jerry Brown and Oregon Governor Kate Brown sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross requesting declaration of a catastrophic regional fishery disaster and commercial fishery failure for salmon in their states.
The May 24th declaration begins the process for requesting federal aid to assist commercial salmon trollers and salmon-dependent businesses that continue to suffer from collapsing salmon populations, spurred by a combination of poor ocean conditions, water diversions and questionable state and federal water management during the historic drought
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) reported, “Last month, the Pacific Fishery Management Council’s projections for salmon in these states were dire. In the 2017 season, many miles of coastline will be closed to commercial salmon fishing and allowable catch will be greatly reduced, compounding the already significantly lower economic returns seen in 2016.”
Commercial fishermen praised the request by the two governors.
“Commercial salmon fishermen in California and Oregon applaud this critical step in the federal fishery disaster relief process," said Noah Oppenheim, Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA). “Salmon season restrictions and closures have been simply devastating to hard working fishing families coast-wide.”
“Boats have been scrapped, livelihoods have been ruined, and one of the oldest ways of life on the West Coast teeters on the brink. Now is the time for the Federal government and Congress to step up and do their part to assist working fishing families by providing federal fisheries disaster assistance,” stated Oppenheim.
John McManus, Executive Director of the Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA), noted that that there is some salmon fishing available this year, mostly from southern Mendocino County to southern San Mateo County. He said this is thanks to the extra trucking of Sacramento River hatchery fall Chinook salmon that GGSA pressured the state and federal governors to do in 2014 and 2015 during the drought.
“Without that, we'd all be off the water now,” he stated. “But there's no doubt our overall salmon stocks are badly hurt and some of this could have been avoided but for bad decisions against salmon fishermen made by water managers at the height of the drought.”
McManus warned, “This type of catastrophic regional fishery disaster and commercial fishery failure will happen again unless we decide we're going to allot a little more water to salmon, salmon fishing families and coastal communities when drought strikes.”
The commercial non-tribal salmon fishery in the Klamath Management Zone (KMZ), a 200 mile stretch of coast from Humbug Mountain in Oregon to Horse Mountain in California, is completely closed this year, since the lowest return of Klamath River fall-run Chinook salmon on record is forecasted this season.
There will be a limited commercial fishery — up to 3,000 fish, with a limit of 60 fish per week per boa t — in the Fort Bragg area in September. The area surrounding San Francisco will open for a limited time in August, September, and parts of October.
The commercial salmon fishery has been open in May and will be open in June only in areas south of Pigeon Point. Fishing has been poor for commercial fishermen to date.
State Senator MIke McGuire, who convened the salmon hearing, and Assemblymember Jim Wood had called on Governor Brown to request a federal fishery disaster, resulting in the letter send to the Trump administration by the California and Oregon governors.
“The 2017 salmon season is anticipated to be one of the worst on record including predictions of the lowest return of Klamath River salmon in history,” said McGuire. “This collapse has had disastrous impacts on our fisheries, our commercial and recreational fishing industries and on tribes, whose commercial fisheries will be closed and subsistence and ceremonial fishing severely curtailed.”
The Klamath River and Trinity River will be closed to recreational fishing for fall Chinook salmon, including catch and release, although both rivers will remain open for steelhead fishing.
The Yurok Tribe’s commercial fishery will be closed and subsistence and ceremonial fishing by the Yurok, Hoopa Valley and Karuk Tribe will be reduced dramatically. This will result in less than a fish per every 10 Yurok Tribal members, potentially triggering a health crisis, according to McGuire.
“How will the salmon closure and restrictions impact us as a Tribe?” said Thomas O’Rourke, Chairman of the Yurok Tribe. “One word — devastating. It will be devastating spiritually, economically, culturally and socially.”
“There will be just 650 fish this year available for Yurok Tribe members,” he said. “All tribal and community businesses depend on tourism. A very big part of this tourism is based on the fishery. When people can’t fish for salmon, they don't come to the Klamath.”
“What do young people do (when they’re idle)?” O’Rourke noted. “They get in trouble. There will be social aspects of this fishery closure across the board that many people don’t understand.”
As fishermen and Tribal members suffer from the impacts of decades of poor water management by the state and federal governments, Governor Jerry Brown continues to forge ahead with his legacy project, the Delta Tunnels/California Water Fix fiasco. This project will not only hasten the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River Chinook salmon, Delta and longfin smelt and green sturgeon, but it further harm the already imperiled salmon and steelhead populations on the Trinity and Klamath rivers.
For more information about declared West Coast disasters, please see The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration list here:www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/management/disaster/determinations/wcro.html
READ FULL REQUEST LETTER
Oregon Governor Kate Brown’s news release