Representatives want action in response to forecast of problematic salmon season

By NATHAN RUSHTON, The Eureka Reporter

March 7, 2008

With record low numbers of salmon predicted to return to the state’s interior rivers this year, Congressional representatives are calling on the federal government early to help with speedy disaster relief for the 2008 salmon season.

The Central Valley ’s salmon are considered the driver of the Pacific Coast ’s commercial fisheries and represent the bulk of the fish targeted by fishermen.

Preliminary reports from the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which sets the commercial and sport season quotas for the West Coast, is predicting only 90,000 juvenile Chinook salmon will return to the Sacramento — the lowest level since 1990 and the second lowest of all time.

U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, along with Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer are calling on the Bush administration to take steps to allow Congress the authorization to distribute disaster funds commercial fishermen and related businesses.

If the season is as bad as predicted, Thompson pledged to introduce legislation for relief funds.

But federal laws prohibit Congress from appropriating disaster funds until the U.S. Secretary of Commerce declares the season a commercial fishery failure, as was done in 2006 in response to the season that saw a nearly 90 percent closure.

In a letter to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, the bipartisan group of 46 senators and representatives from California , Oregon and Washington said Gutierrez should declare the season a federal fisheries failure so Congress can immediately get aid to affected communities.

They also called on him to work closely with West Coast states to assess the financial impacts of a limited salmon season.

“We’ve already seen the devastating economic effects a closed season can have on salmon fishers and related businesses, particularly in Northern California ,” Thompson said in a statement released Friday. “Another closed season would be an even bigger blow to the North Coast .”

Klamath River-based fisheries suffered devastating financial losses estimated to be as much as $80 million in 2006 when the salmon season collapsed.

In response, Thompson introduced legislation in 2007 to provide Pacific Coast salmon fishermen, tribes and related businesses with $60.4 million in federal relief, which was signed into law by President Bush last spring.

The California Salmon Council, the state agency coordinating the relief efforts, began dispersing the $33 million in federal disaster relief assistance for those affected in salmon industry in November.

David Goldenberg, CSC’s chief executive officer, said via phone Friday that the program has been successful in obtaining relief directly to the fishermen and fish processors adversely affected by the closures.
He said $27 million has already or is anticipated to be been delivered soon.

Trawlers and fishermen, whom Goldenberg said were the easiest to contact because of the license records available to the state, were the first to receive relief and the deadline for that group of affected industry is closed.

Applications for aid are still open until the end of the month for in-river fishery businesses, including fishing guides and other small businesses, which Goldenberg said the agency had a more difficult time identifying exactly who they were and how they were affected.

Goldenberg said the $6 million remainder is being earmarked for disaster assistance research for the Klamath River .

The CSC is assisting Feinstein and Thompson in their efforts to secure funding.

“We don’t like to see the closures,” Goldenberg said, “but if there are, then we hope there is a declaration and the funding for the 2008 would be distributed quickly.”

Zeke Grader, the executive director for the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Association, said the association began looking at relief efforts right away with the 2008 salmon season apparently a foregone conclusion.

“The numbers are really bleak and we can’t avoid that,” Grader said.

Grader said his group is working with Thompson and state agencies in looking at obtaining relief and identifying and possibly opening or expanding other fisheries to help fishermen, including rockfish.

Compared to previous years when ocean conditions were favorable and food was abundant for salmon, Grader said the small numbers of fish leaving the rivers that made it to the ocean have been doing “fantastic.”
With the latest numbers, Grader said people are trying to figure out what the problem is.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists announced this week that they believe the low numbers of salmon returning is due, in part, to a lack of food related to low nutrients that were affected by currents and weather.

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Source:  http://eurekareporter.com/article/080307-political-representatives-want-action