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Dan Bacher's spin on the Salmon outlook meeting

State Will Host Public Meeting on Salmon in Santa Rosa 

by Dan Bacher, editor of the Fish Sniffer
February 24, 2009 -- The California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) is hosting the annual meeting on California salmon populations and the "outlook" for 2009 ocean and river fisheries on March 3rd from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Sonoma County Water Agency building located at 404 Aviation Boulevard in Santa Rosa. Expect to see a lot of angry people, outraged about the gross mismanagement of salmon fisheries by the state and federal governments, at this meeting! 

The outlook for 2009 ocean and Central Valley river salmon fisheries is very dismal, due to the collapse of the Central Valley fall run Chinook salmon population. The federal Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) closed all ocean Chinook salmon fisheries in 2008 south of Cape Falcon, Oregon, causing economic devastation to coastal communities in California and Oregon dependent upon healthy salmon fisheries. 

Recreational and commercial fishermen can expect salmon fishing to be banned again this year in ocean waters off California and Oregon and in Central Valley rivers, with the exception of a two month season for late fall Chinook salmon on the Sacramento River from Red Bluff to Knights Landing. 

State and federal scientists last week released a report stating that only 66,264 natural and hatchery adult fall Chinooks returned to the Sacramento River basin in 2008, the lowest spawning escapement on record, according to the PFMC. 

This alarming number is in stark contrast to just six years before in the fall of 2002 when 768,388 salmon returned to the river and its tributaries to spawn. It is also more 13,676 less than the previous low return of 79,940 fish in 1992. The Sacramento River fall Chinook run is the driver of West Coast salmon fisheries. 

Preliminary data also indicates that approximately only 31,000 adult fall Chinook returned to spawn in Klamath-Trinity River System natural areas during 2008, well below the 2008 management objective of 40,700 required by the PFMC, according to the DFG. 

"The meeting will provide the latest information on the status of California salmon populations and the outlook for ocean and river Chinook fisheries in the coming season," said Joe Duran, DFG Associate Marine Biologist. "During the afternoon session, the public can provide input to a California salmon management panel, which is comprised of individuals that will be directly involved in the upcoming Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) meetings in March and April." 

"The panel includes members of the PFMC Council, Salmon Technical Team and Salmon Advisory Subgroup," added Duran. "Salmon fishing seasons are developed through a collaborative regulatory process involving DFG, the PFMC, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the U. S. Department of Commerce. The input will help California representatives negotiate a broad range of season alternatives at the PFMC meeting during the second week of March in Seattle." 

The 2009 ocean salmon season regulatory process includes public and scientific meetings starting in February and ending in April. The PFMC Salmon Technical Team met last week in Portland to draft the “Preseason Report I-Stock Abundance Analysis for 2009 Ocean Salmon Fisheries” and to consider any other estimation or methodology issues pertinent to the 2009 ocean salmon fisheries. Stock assessments and ocean salmon seasons are critical to maintaining and meeting conservation goals, according to Duran. 

Last year the state and federal fishery agency representatives, under political pressure by the Schwarzenegger and Bush administration officials, claimed that "ocean conditions" were the "likely culprit" of the unprecedented collapse of Central Valley fall Chinook salmon. However, a broad coalition of recreational and commercial fishermen, Indian Tribes, environmentalists and independent scientists countered that the collapse was spurred by record increases in water exports out of the California Delta and declining water quality. 

More recently, the draft of a rewritten biological opinion by the National Marine Fisheries Service agreed with fish advocates that increased Delta exports and the operation of the state and federal water projects do indeed jeopardize the continued existence of Central Valley salmon, green sturgeon and the southern population of killer whales. Blaming "ocean conditions" for the decline of salmon was a cynical, carefully calculated strategy to shift blame from the role of the state and federal water projects in causing the decline to "Mother Nature." 

Meanwhile, an unholy alliance of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senator Dianne Feinstein and the Nature Conservancy are pushing for a peripheral canal and more dams that would create the infrastructure to export even more water out of the California Delta, the largest and most significant estuary on the West Coast of the Americas. This insane scheme, if it is allowed to proceeded, would be the final nail in the coffin of Central Valley salmon, delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other fish populations. 

The PFMC will conduct public hearings to receive comments on three proposed ocean salmon fishery management options scheduled to be adopted March 7-13 in Seattle. A PFMC public hearing will be held March 31 at 7 p.m. in Eureka at the Red Lion Hotel. The PFMC and FGC will adopt final 2009 ocean salmon regulations in April. For further information about the 2009 PFMC salmon management process, work sessions or hearings, please contact Mr. Chuck Tracy at (503) 820-2280 ext. 415, or toll free 1-866-806-7204. 

The 2009 Salmon Information Meeting marks the beginning of a two-month long management process used to establish salmon seasons. A list of additional meetings for the season-setting process will be available at the meeting or can be found on DFGs Web site at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/oceansalmon.asp.