CSPA Advisory - 3.14.08

PFMC Reacts to Salmon Collapse with Emergency Closure

The federal Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) has invoked an emergency closure of the sport and commercial salmon season previously planned last year that traditionally opens in April. Ocean waters off California and Oregon have been closed to protect fall-run chinook salmon runs that originate in the Central Valley tributaries to the Bay-Delta estuary.

This closure was issued following the review of potential salmon fishing seasons during the PFMC’s meeting in Sacramento last week. It doesn’t auger well for the fishing seasons that are traditionally put into place by the PFMC process now underway.

Closure of the entire ocean 2008 season appears certain with the possible exception on waters in the Klamath Management Zone due to estimates that placed the 2007 returning fall-run salmon at 88,000 down from 800,000 adults that returned in 2002. This poor return failed to meet the escapement goal (or the minimum number of adult spawning fish necessary to sustain the fishery) set by the PFMC.

Based on the latest modeling, only 59,000 salmon are expected to return to Central Valley rivers if no fishing is allowed. This would be less than half of the spawning escapement floor of 122,000 to 180,000 fish set for decades by the PFMC.

“Considering the record low numbers of Central Valley stocks we are expecting to see this year, we decided it would be wise to prevent any impacts upon Sacramento salmon that would take place in the early season,” said Eric Chavez, with the National Marine Fisheries Service. “This way the fish would be preserved for any potential fishing opportunity later in the season.”

While we hold out some hope for an in-river fishery this summer and fall, given the low abundance projections by fishery managers, things look grim for most of salmon anglers of the Golden State. According to Peter Dygert, fisheries biologist for the National Marine Fisheries,

 “Our forecast indicates that we won’t meet the escapement floor even with all fishing for Sacramento River salmon stocks closed. If any fishing is allowed, the federal government would have to grant an emergency rule.”

Fishing and Environmental Groups Propose Salmon Solutions

Below you will find two items: (1) a press release regarding the March 14th Press Conference held by fishery and environmental groups in Sacramento last Friday focused on the unparalleled decline of our Central Valley fall-run Chinook salmon and the grim ramifications that are taking place due to the poor salmon abundance in the ocean expected to return to the Central Valley rivers this fall. And, (2) an article from the U.S. News and World Report of March 19th.

News Release: For Immediate Release March 13, 2008

Contacts

David Nesmith (510) 893-1330, cell (510) 693-4979

Dick Pool (925) 825-8560

Telepress Call In Number: 877-551-8082

Fishing, Tribal and Environmental Groups Propose Solutions to the Salmon Crisis

A panel of representatives from fishing, tribal and environmental groups will hold a news conference at 10 a.m. in Sacramento on Friday, March 14, to discuss proposed solutions to the current crisis in California Delta fisheries and the unprecedented collapse of the Central Valley chinook salmon runs.

The event will take place during the Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) meeting at the Del Paso Room in the Double Tree Hotel, 2001 Point West Way, in Sacramento, (916) 929-8855. A telepress news conference will held simultaneously; the reporter call in number is 877-551-8082.

The group is proposing immediate, practical and necessary measures that will begin to rebuild the stocks of salmon. They believe these solutions could help prevent future fishery disasters for California.

State and federal fishery managers have already closed early commercial and recreational salmon seasons that begin May 1. The PFMC is expected to craft three options for salmon season, including a proposal for a complete closure of salmon fishing south of Cape Falcon, Oregon, on Friday.

Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA), Caleen Sisk-Franco, spiritual leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, and Dick Pool, owner of Pro-Troll Fishing Products, will speak at the event.

"We're facing a total salmon closure for first time since commercial salmon fishing began on the San Francisco Bay and Delta in 1848," said Zeke Grader, Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. "There are many factors that went into our salmon decline, but none as significant as the loss of freshwater flows to the Delta and San Francisco Bay which are essential for maintaining the biological function of this estuary and sustaining native salmon and other fish populations."

"Our task now will be keeping our commercial and recreational salmon fishermen and business solvent while we focus on fixing the Bay and Delta, restoring flows and with them the fish," continued Grader.

"The regulators here - the Pacific Fishery Management Council - are not to blame for this fiasco, they were simply the messengers," stated Grader. "The fault rather lies with the failure to regulate the diverters and protect the flows needed to maintain the greatest estuary on the west coast of North and South America and the great salmon runs that inhabited and migrated through it."

Dick Pool, president of Pro-Troll Fishing Products and a three-term Director of the American Sportfishing Association, pointed out the economic devastation caused by the salmon collapse and urged the federal and state governments to take both immediate and long term actions to restore the once robust Sacramento River fall chinok salmon run.

“The sportfishing industry is reeling from the unparallel destruction of one of the premiere fisheries in the country,” said Pool. “In a few short years the Central Valley Chinook salmon fishery has gone from a projected 1.6 million catchable salmon in the ocean to a 2008 catch allocation under 35,000. The cause has nothing to do with fishing. Water policies dictated by Corporate Agriculture interests supported by the state and federal water agencies have destroyed the migration and spawning habitat needed by these fish.”

The economic contribution of sportfishing to California is very large, since there are 2.4 million sport fishermen in the state, according to Pool. The activity generates $2.4 billion in retail sales with an economic impact of $4.9 billion. It also generates $1.3 billion in wages and salaries and supports 43,000 jobs in the state.

All of these are threatened if the fishery declines are not reversed. Tackle retailers are already dropping like flies, guides and charter operators have no business and hundreds of small fishing communities are seeing big declines at restaurants, lodges and marine services. Boat sales are dropping precipitously. Fishermen are mad as hell.

“I urge every fisherman and those who care about natural resources, to log onto Water4Fish.org and join the grassroots political effort to demand a turn around,” said Pool. “Our leaders have let us down terribly and we have every right to demand changes. The campaign recently passed 50,000 participants, but we need thousands more before we can get the changes we need.”

Gary Reedy, representing the South Yuba River Citizens League, said while some fishery managers have only pointed to poor ocean conditions as responsible for the dramatic decline in 2007, “we know that many factors above sea-level have been negatively affecting salmon populations and some of these have not yet improved. Now is the time to aggressively protect and restore salmon and their habitat.”

“In the Yuba watershed we can increase both the number and the fitness of juvenile salmon that migrate to the Feather and Sacramento River. Providing access to habitats blocked by dams, enhancing river flows through hydroproject relicensing, and restoration of floodplains and riparian habitat will make a substantial difference in restoring our salmon runs, he stated.

David Nesmith, Environmental Water Caucus facilitator, will be the moderator for the news conference.

"Fish need water,” Nesmith said. “We must leave more clean, cool water in the Delta and our rivers so salmon can live."

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U.S. News and World Report on February 19th

In California, the Mystery of the Missing Fish

Salmon stocks plummet, leaving an industry in crisis and a rash of unanswered questions

By Justin Ewers Posted February 14, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO  – Anglers off the California coast began noticing it a few winters ago. The number of chinook salmon, a hardy breed that supports much of the fishing economy from here to Oregon, was mysteriously declining. After a decade of steady catches, fishing boats found themselves with empty hooks. "Everybody was just scratching their heads going, 'What happened to the fish?' " says Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations.

Now, what was bad has gotten worse. Last month, the Pacific Fishery Management Council announced that the fall salmon run in the Sacramento River, where most of the chinook off California go to spawn, had experienced an "unprecedented collapse." Only about 90,000 adult salmon were counted this fall; five years ago, almost 800,000 salmon returned to the river. Ominously, the number of immature males that are used to predict the rate of return next year also plummeted, from 40,000 in a typical year to 2,000.

The fishing industry is bracing for more hard times. "The Sacramento River fish are our bread and butter," says Dave Bitts, a fisherman in Eureka, Calif. Agency officials will meet in March to assess options for the fishing season, which begins in May. Strict regulations on the salmon catch are likely. Says Bitts: "That will have the effect of closing the fishery in California completely."

Hostile habitat. Which leaves fishermen and scientists asking: Where did all the fish go? Experts cite two likely causes: several years of abnormal ocean conditions, some of which may be related to global warming, and an increase in water pumped from the salmon's habitat to Southern California. In a remarkable journey, Sacramento salmon swim to the ocean through a delta filled with predators, dams, and pumping stations and then, after several years, return to the river to spawn. Both environments are becoming increasingly hostile. In the past five years, the amount of water pumped from the Sacramento Delta has increased by 20 percent. It's no coincidence that salmon numbers have fallen in the same period, says Tina Swanson, senior scientist at the Bay Institute, an environmental group. "There is clearly something really, really wrong with the watershed."

Salmon's salvation has been the open ocean, where they feast on crustaceans and smaller fish. But the ocean hasn't been welcoming lately, either, and marine life – including birds has suffered up and down the Pacific coast. "Ocean conditions have been really squirrelly," says Bruce MacFarlane, a fishery biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A seasonal upwelling, which brings cold, nutrient - rich water and food from the bottom of the ocean to the surface, has become less predictable. Water temperatures have climbed. And in some areas, the current has shifted from the north where it brings food from Canada and Alaska to the south.

Scientists aren't sure what's causing the changes, but some of them, they say, may be due to global warming. Indeed, many wonder if the salmon collapse could be a preview of a warmer and hardertoforecast future. "The climate is changing, and the past isn't going to be a great guide," says Nate Mantua, a research professor at the University of Washington's school for aquatic and fishery science. "You can't be sure what will happen next."

What to do? "The ocean's going to do what the ocean's going to do," says William Sydeman, a marine ecologist at the Farallon Institute for Advanced Ecosystem Research. And while reforming water policy might be an obvious starting point, there are daunting obstacles. One reason for increased water exports, after all, was to meet growing demand. In the short term, "the only knob we have to turn," says Swanson, "is cutting back and saying you can't fish." And hoping the fish will show up again next year.

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