Fishing relief faces veto

April 9, 2007

By James Monteleone

Triplicate Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON – For many salmon fishermen, the Iraq Accountability Act isn't about the war at all.

Rather, it's about the $60.4 million in federal relief that would go to fisheries hurt by last year's curtailed season, a result of the devastated populations of Klamath River salmon runs.

The controversial bill, setting deadlines for troops to be brought home and also providing domestic funding such as the fishery relief, will be finalized by House and Senate negotiators when Congress returns from recess later this month. Once agreement is reached, the bill would be sent to the president, who has promised a veto.

"In this area, there was no season at all," said Crescent City salmon fisherman Rick Shepherd. "You had to go clear down below San Francisco or above Newport ( Ore. ), because that 700 miles of coast was completely shut off."

Some local fishermen were willing to travel as far as Alaska to find salmon, paying above $3 per gallon to get there. Others, like Shepherd, weren't hurt as badly because they focused more time on crab season and other less profitable fish which were still available.

"We've had people who have been hurting badly," said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Institute for Fisheries Resources, based in San Francisco . "Some have lost their business altogether."

While this year's season, opening April 10, is expected to be better, Grader said, many fishermen are in too deep "in the red" to get by on one good season alone.

Money for fishermen found its way onto the Iraq emergency spending bill, only after 13 Congressmen, led by local Democratic Reps. Mike Thompson ( Calif. ) and Peter DeFazio ( Ore. ) wrote letter to House and Senate leaders requesting salmon fishermen "get these necessary disaster funds appropriated as quickly as possible through a Continuing Resolution, or any other legislative vehicle."

A House of Representatives source said if the current appropriations bill gets vetoed, legislators don't yet know how to move the fishery relief payments forward.

The line item for salmon fisheries in the spending bill requires $60.4 million be allocated to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for distribution as needed. The total was determined by assessments taken by California and Oregon State Chambers of Commerce.

If the bill were to become law, NOAA likely would send the funds to the largely government-funded Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission so the money could quickly be dispersed to the boats and businesses that needed the help most, Grader said.

Pacific States Fisheries Executive Director Randy Fisher couldn't confirm his organization would oversee the funds, but said he has been speaking with NOAA officials regarding the issue.

"We can distribute the money a lot faster than going through NOAA grants," he said. "We wouldn't decide how the money gets spent; we would be the people that hand out the money."

Of the money available, $16 million would go directly to the affected boats in both California and Oregon ; $35.7 million would go to California-based American Indian Tribes and businesses directly associated with both commercial and recreational salmon fishing. The state of Oregon would receive $8.7 million for its fisheries.

"They're far more effective at (distributing money) than the federal agency that largely got us in this trouble in the first place," Grader said of the Pacific States Fisheries. Grader said NOAA has overlooked its own scientists' opinions on how the Klamath River 's water should be managed since 2002.

How exactly the money would be handed out boat-to-boat can only be considered after the bill is signed into law, said Brian Brown, deputy director of management and budget for NOAA Fisheries.

The Iraq bill may not have been the best place to put the fishermen's relief, given Bush's opposition to the troop pullout deadlines, and the other domestic "pork" projects tucked into the legislation, Shepherd said.

"There's too much other stuff involved with it – it turned out to be a can of worms," the fisherman said. "It's probably going to be very difficult to get any of that relief."

Reach Jim Monteleone, a WesCom News Service writer, at triplicate@medillnewsdc.com.

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