Bay City News Service
Bay Area Congress members rallied with commercial salmon fishermen at Pier 47 in San Francisco this morning in support of legislation that would provide $81 million in federal disaster relief to communities affected by the abbreviated ocean and in-river salmon fishing season.
Reps. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, and George Miller, D-Martinez, support the legislation to be introduced Tuesday, a spokesman for Thompson's office said.
The bill also would direct the Department of Commerce to complete a Klamath salmon recovery plan within six months of the bill's passage and to require the department to report annually to Congress on the progress of the recovery plan.
Bay Area representatives claim the Bush administration's water diversions on the Klamath River in 2002 caused the death of 80,000 salmon the following fall. The diversions and a parasitic infection of spring juvenile salmon illustrate poor federal management of the river and led to low salmon returns estimated for this year, the lawmakers claim.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council recommended last month to drastically reduce the salmon season along 700 miles of California and Oregon coastline. Federal regulators are to decide that issue by next week. Lawmakers said the curtailed season will have a $100 million impact on commercial and recreation facilities.
The commercial session in Bodega Bay would begin July 26 and off Fort Bragg on Sept. 1. The season normally begins in May.
``Without the emergency disaster assistance provided in this legislation, the near closures this year will force many fishermen to tie their boats up and never fish again,'' Woolsey said in a prepared statement.
Thompson said the Bush administration isn't offering any assistance to the affected communities and doesn't have a plan to restore the salmon.
He said the bill provides measures to revive the Klamath salmon ``and hold this administration accountable to ensure they cannot manipulate the river for political gain ever again.''
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco is co-sponsoring the bill with Thompson.
Miller said the bill would help the recreational and commercial fishing industry, tribes and communities along the entire West Coast.