Wow

[gutbomb]

All salmon fishing banned on West Coast
Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, May 2, 2008


Salmon fishing was banned along the West Coast for the first time in 160 years Thursday, a decision that is expected to have a devastating economic impact on fishermen, dozens of businesses, tourism and boating.

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez immediately declared a commercial fishery disaster, opening the door for Congress to appropriate money for anyone who will be economically harmed.

The closure of commercial and recreational fishing for chinook salmon in the ocean off California and most of Oregon was announced by the National Marine Fishery Service.

It followed the recommendation last month of the Pacific Fishery Management Council after the catastrophic disappearance of California's fabled fall run of the pink fish popularly known as king salmon.

It is the first total closure since commercial fishing started in the Bay Area in 1848.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency last month and sent a letter to President Bush asking for his help in obtaining federal disaster assistance. Schwarzenegger plans to appropriate about $5.3 million for coastal salmon and steelhead fishery restoration projects.

The disaster declaration allows state officials to work with Congress on obtaining appropriations for businesses and fishermen and women, some of whom will lose as much as 80 percent of their annual income.

Although salmon spawning has been in decline all up and down the coast, the biggest problem is in the Sacramento River and its tributaries. So few salmon returned last fall that the fishery council was required under its management plan to halt fishing throughout the salmon habitat, which is all along the California and Oregon coasts.

The commercial salmon season off California and Oregon typically runs from May 1 to Oct. 31. The recreational season was to have begun April 5.

E-mail Peter Fimrite at pfimrite@sfchronicle.com

[Gnu Bee Flyer]

I hope that doesn't have to be expanded to include the BC coast. I wonder how the columbia river runs are affected. Arnie only wants 5 million, for a distaster this big I think they should pull out all the stops and spend at least 10 times as much say 50 million to start.

Must be not enough voters are affected by this major disaster.

[Panman]

Gnu Bee: http://www.dfw.state.or.us/news/2008/april/042508.asp

[flybinder]

As is SO TYPICAL, here, on our Pacific coasts............ the politicians are suddenly jumping and up and shouting "OKAY, GUYS!!! ALL the horses, have run out of the barn now, so let's close the barn doors!"
"5.3 Million", won't BEGIN to cover, what losses are in the immediate future.

[Ed Woodsworth]

Wow is right!

[DruLeeParsec]

I work just a couple of miles from the American river in the Sacramento Valley and I live 50 miles up the hill towards Lake Tahoe. The salmon runs this past year were almost non-existent.

One theory was that Lake Folsum was so low that it caused the water they let out of Nimbus dam to be a lot warmer than it usually is. That temperature difference kept the salmon form coming up the river as far as they normally would.

However, I heard an interview on the local public radio station with a manager from the Nimbus Fish Hatchery. He said that they did catch enough salmon to get the proper amount of eggs for the hatchery. He said that the hatchery count won't be low next year even with low spawning levels this year.

However, guides that were catching 20 or 30 salmon per boat two years ago were catching 1 or 2 salmon per boat this year. Some weren't catching any at all.