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A WEEKLY QUOTA OF FISHERY SHORTS CAUGHT AND
LANDED BY THE INSTITUTE FOR FISHERIES RESOURCES
AND THE PACIFIC COAST FEDERATION OF FISHERMEN'S
ASSOCIATIONS
VOL 1, NO. 17 28 April
2000
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COMMERCIAL SALMON SEASON OPENS MAY DAY: The ocean
commercial salmon season begins on 1 May along the Pacific Coast with
openers off Oregon from Cape Falcon to the California border, and from
Point San Pedro (just south of San Francisco) to the Mexican Border for
chinook salmon. The fishery primarily targets on fall-run Sacramento king
(chinook) salmon, one of the most abundant runs south of Alaska with
predictions of good abundance this year due to favorable habitat
conditions two and three years ago (high rainfall) when the fish were in
the streams and good oceanic conditions (cold water, abundant forage)
currently. The demand for the wild troll-caught kings has also increased as
a result of favorable taste tests (Sublegals, 14 January 2000) and these
salmon being rated by groups such as the Monterey Aquarium as "Best
Choice" for consumers concerned with sustainable fisheries (Sublegals, 3
March 2000) (visit the Aquarium's website at:
http://www.mbayaq.org/efc/efc_oc/seafood_chart.html ). For more details
on the 2000 ocean salmon season for the Pacific Coast, visit the Pacific
Fishery Management Council's website at: http://www.pcouncil.org.
US EPA BACKS SNAKE DAM REMOVAL: The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on 27 April informed the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers that the Corps' Draft EIS on alternatives for the
four lower Snake River dams was seriously deficient by failing to
adequately address water quality issues. Ironically, this comes only
twenty-four hours after the National Marine Fisheries Service announced
that it wants to delay a decision on these dams for yet another 5-10 years
(see below). The EPA concluded that the four Lower Snake dams are a
primary cause of water quality violations that degrade the health of the
watershed, killing and injuring threatened and endangered salmon. The
EPA letter puts that agency on record with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service in stating that Snake River dam removal is the best option for
salmon recovery. The agency also strongly disagreed with the
temperature data used by the Corps, accusing it essentially of cooking the
books by "selective use of data and selective use of modeling results."
On 24 March a federal judge ruled that the Corps' operation of the four
Lower Snake River dams must comply with Clean Water Act standards.
The original lawsuit was brought by a number of organizations, including
the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA) and the
Institute for Fisheries Resources (IFR), and later joined by the Nez Perce
Tribe and supported with an amicus brief from the State of Oregon. (See
Sublegals, 31 March 2000) Both maximum temperature standards and
dissolved nitrogen standards are routinely exceeded in normal dam
operations, and high levels of both can be fatal to salmon, particularly
outmigrating juveniles.
Without dam removal, cleaning up the water pollution caused by these
dams will cost taxpayers and ratepayers an estimated $460-900 million
(comparable to the costs of breaching the dams) and will likely still
require up to 1 million additional acre-feet of water to come from Idaho to
bolster flows. There are also serious questions as to whether even this
amount of money is enough to solve the water quality problems caused by
these four dams. The Administration will release a draft Biological
Opinion (BiOp) on the Columbia and Snake Rivers this May and a Final
BiOp in July. The Administration has promised that the BiOp will
comply with all federal laws and treaties, including the Clean Water Act.
EPA's comments essentially state that the best and most cost effective
option available for complying with water quality standards, as well as
for salmon recovery, is to decommission and bypass the four lower Snake
River dams. For a copy of the EPA letter and attached documents, they
will be posted within the next few days on the "Whats New" section
of the EPA Region 10 website at: http://www.epa.gov/region10/ or you
can reach the US EPA Region 10 Publications Department at
(800)424-4372.
SPINELESS IN SEATTLE? In yet another policy retreat, the
Northwest Regional office of the National Marine Fisheries Service
(NMFS) provided an advance look at its "salmon recovery plan" for the
Columbia River due out in May -- wait another 5 to 10 years before
deciding anything. NMFS proposes what it calls an "on ramp strategy"
keeping the four lower Snake River dams, but if certain recovery
benchmarks or performance standards are not met within that time period
then the decommissioning of these dams "would go back on the table."
However, best estimates are that at the current rate of decline total salmon
extinction will occur throughout the Snake River by as soon as 2017, and
the longer basic decisions are delayed the more expensive solutions will
be. Even if a Snake River dam decommissioning decision were made in
2010, it would still take several more years to get Congressional approval,
funding and work completed. "Not to decide now basically means
extinction," noted PCFFA's Northwest Director Glen Spain. "Salmon
would simply do far better without the four Snake River dams than
navigating a gauntlet of additional turbines, four more concrete walls and
four hot water reservoirs full of predators. Those four dams do not make
sense, but charting salmon extinctions for the next 10 years instead of
doing what clearly needs to be done makes even less."
NMFS is planning to release both a draft Biological Opinion and an
amended "All-H" paper in May setting forth the various dam and non-dam
options. All the dam retention options on the table, however, would
require major cutbacks in the remaining in-river or ocean fisheries or both
as well as major impacts in other industries and in Idaho farming. For
more information see: http://www.seattlep-i.com/local/dams271.shtml.
For the recent report showing extinction deadlines of 2017, see Status and
Expected Time to Extinction for SnakeRiver Spring and Summer Chinook
Stocks (July 1999) at: http://www.tu.org/library/conservation.html.
CALIFORNIA FISH & GAME COMMISSION TAKES UP SPOT
PRAWN AND NEARSHORE FISHING REGULATIONS: At its 3-4
May meeting at Bass Lake, the California Fish & Game Commission will
hold a joint meeting with the California Board of Forestry on Wednesday,
the 3rd, to discuss timber harvest regulations for the protection of coho
salmon. At its meeting the following day, the Commission will take up
regulations for an observer program for the spot prawn fishery and trap
restrictions for the nearshore (livefish) fishery. For more information,
visit the Commission's website at: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/fg_comm/.
SALMON RECOVERY FORUMS: Two forums on salmon recovery
are planned along the Pacific Coast, one for early summer in northern
California and a second for late summer in Seattle. On 10 June the
"Working Toward Watershed Sustainability Forum" will be held in
conjunction with the Mendocino Coast Watershed Festival in Mendocino,
California. For more information, contact Ky Carnell at:
Watershedfest at yahoo.com. Late in the summer, the Seattle Aquarium
and the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission are hosting the 2000
Salmon Homecoming Forum "Salmon Recovery Comes Full Cycle" on 6
September along the Seattle waterfront. For more information, call: (206)
275-4791.
PACIFIC GROUNDFISH STOCK ASSESSMENT MEETING: The
Pacific Fishery Management Council's Groundfish Stock Assessment
Review (STAR) Panel will hold a work session 15-19 May at the Hatfield
Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon. Fishing on groundfish stocks
along the Pacific coast were severely curtailed for the 2000 season and the
fishery has been declared a disaster by the Secretary of Commerce. For
those interested the Pacific Council has announced the availability of its
draft stock assessments, most of which will be available in May. The
Final STAR Panel reports will be available after 31 January and the Final
SAFE (Stock Assessment & Fishery Evaluation) document will be
available on or after 23 October. For more information on the meeting or
the stock assessment documents, call the Pacific Council at (503)
326-6352 or visit its website at: http://ww.pcouncil.org.
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE TAKES UP GENETICALLY
MODIFIED FISH AND FOOD: This past week the California Legislature
took up measures aimed at genetically modified or transgenic fish and
foods. On Tuesday, 25 April, the Senate Natural Resources & Wildlife
Committee passed SCR 71 by Senator Tom Hayden requiring a report by
the state's Department of Fish & Game on the potential impact of GMO
(Genetically Modified Organism) salmon that may get into the state's
rivers and streams on native salmon populations. On Wednesday, 26
April, the Senate Agriculture & Water Committee put over another
measure by Hayden, SB 1513, to require the labeling of genetically
modified or transgenic foods. The bill was strongly opposed by large food
processors, the California Restaurant Association and the California
Farm Bureau Federation which all argued that consumers did not need to
know what was in their food and labeling "would cause public confusion."
The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA)
supported both measures. For more information, contact Senator
Hayden's office at: (916) 445-3553.
REPORT FINDS US FISH HARVESTING INDUSTRY IN DEEP
FINANCIAL TROUBLE: A report released on 25 April, "U.S. Fish
Harvesters Up On Financial Rocks," by Donald Sutherland, finds that the
American fish harvesting industry is going broke due to overfishing, loss
of fish habitat, over capitalization, and government mismanagement. This
conclusion, according to the report, is agreed upon by both conservation
and commercial fishing organizations. To review the report go to:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/apr2000/2000L-04-25-01.html.
HUMAN BORDERS CREATE INEQUITIES FOR FISHERIES AND
WILDLIFE: A 21 April report of the Friends of Clayquot Sound reports
that, in what was apparently a legal act, the "Creative Salmon" fish farm
on British Columbia's Indian Bay recently "took credit" for killing "at
least 14" Steller's sea lions. Meanwhile, a recent ruling by a U.S. judge
places strict limits on pollock fisheries in U.S. waters on the Bering Sea to
protect the endangered sea lions. Canada is only now considering its own
Endangered Species Act, and has no legal obligation to protect
transboundary species listed under the US law.
CONFERENCE ON OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF
DEVELOPMENT TO BE HELD IN NEW ORLEANS: The conference
will bring together wide ranging research topics on fisheries biology and
ecology of the Gulf of Mexico with the intent of examining the
relationship between fisheries and the oil and gas industry in the Gulf and
world-wide. The conference will be held 24-26 October in New Orleans.
For more information on the conference visit:
http://www.beak.com/info/features/features.htm.
WATER QUALITY CONTROL PLAN FOR THE GARCIA RIVER
DOESN'T INCLUDE TMDL REGULATIONS, YET: There will be a
public hearing on 25 May, held by the California Regional Water
Resources Control Board in Santa Rosa. This meeting will be to discuss
the water quality control plan for the Garcia River basin. The TMDL plan
for sediment was adopted in 1997/98 by the Regional Water Quality
Control Board, but was never incorporated into the State Water Resources
Control Board's plan. For more information on the meeting call (707)
576-2220.
SAN FRANCISCO HERRING FISHERY COMES UP SHORT FOR
1999-2000 SEASON: The California herring roe fishery, centered
primarily in San Francisco Bay, came up well under its quotas this past
season as the fish arrived later and in less abundance than initially
predicted. The San Francisco Bay fishery, the largest south of British
Columbia (and the nation's only urban commercial fishery) had a gillnet
quota of 5440 tons, but only 3356 tons were landed for an average roe
count of 14.2%. As an indication of how late the fish were coming into
the Bay, which may have been either due to the La Nina ocean conditions
or the late rainfall, the December fishery only landed 198 tons of its 1694
ton quota. The January gillnet platoons did slightly better with catches of
1399 tons (from a 1870 ton quota) for even and 1738 tons (from a 1858
ton quota) for the odd group. For more information on the past herring
season and proposals for regulatory changes and quotas for the 2000-2001
season, contact Eric Larson with the California Department of Fish
& Game at: (650) 688-6340.
GOT NEWS?: Submit news items to Molly Thomas, editor at:
ifrfish at aol.com or call the IFR office with the news and a source at
either: (415) 561-FISH (Southwest Office) or (541) 689-2000 (Northwest
Office).
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