When the Fish Are Gone Will California Build a Peripheral Canal?

By Dan Bacher

John Beuttler, conservation director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, in this article emphasizes the catastrophic nature of the sudden and unprecedented crash of Central Valley fall run chinook salmon to the California environment and economy. The federal and state governments must be forced to provide immediate, emergency relief to all businesses impacted by the looming salmon closures and restrictions.

It is my belief that this salmon collapse, along with the crash of delta smelt, longfin smelt, juvenile striped bass, and threadfin shad, has been engineered by the Bush and Schwazenegger administrations to destroy what is left of the commercial and recreational sport fishing industry. By removing the commercial and recreational anglers from the water, the Bush and Schwarzenegger administrations will effectively remove the strongest opponents of environmentally destructive water policies.

With the opposition to their water policies removed or seriously weakened, subsidized agribusiness and greedy developers will see their ultimate dream fulfilled: the construction of the peripheral canal, the building of more dams and the destruction of the Bay-Delta Estuary as an ecosystem. The Delta then will be maintained by the state and federal governments as just a water supply for the corporate water barons and southern California, with no pesky delta smelt, chinook salmon, striped bass or fishermen in their way.

"Should fisheries need to be shut down to protect the survival of the fall run, it will bring to a close an area when anadromous species such as salmon, steelhead, striped bass and sturgeon were the premier Northern California fisheries. The economic repercussions on the recreational and commercial fishing industries will be devastating to those who activities provide the goods and services that assist the angling publics ability to undertake their right to fish," said Beuttler in his advisory.

Like myself, Beuttler points to massive increases in exports from the Delta as the major cause for the sudden crash of Sacramento River salmon populations. "Cutting to the chase, Im betting on the fall run salmon being victims of impacts associated with the ever increasing export of water that deprives the Bay-Delta ecosystem of roughly half of the fresh water that used to flow through the system naturally," said Beuttler.

The case of the huge steelhead run on the Trinity River this year, following a good fall chinook salmon run, dispenses with "ocean conditions" or anything other than water exports as the key factor behind the sudden crash of Central Valley salmon.