West Coast Anglers and Fishermen Urge Congress to Protect and Restore Wild Salmon and Steelhead  

    New Federal Plan for Columbia-Snake River Basin Fails to Deliver Needed Improvements

    SAN FRANCISCO , Oct. 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Commercial and

recreational fishing groups from across the West Coast today joined

conservation and river groups in urging Congress to protect and restore the

resource upon which their industries depend - Pacific Northwest wild salmon

and steelhead.

    Their comments came in response to the release of a new draft

Biological Opinion from NOAA Fisheries that salmon advocates say fails to

do enough to boost imperiled salmon runs in the seven-state Columbia-Snake

River basin. It is the result of an earlier court-ordered rewrite of the

2004 federal salmon plan that was ruled illegal under the Endangered

Species Act by federal court Judge James Redden, a ruling that was soundly

upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

    "The administration's plan not only deliberately ignores science, it

ignores economics and the tens of thousands of people from the Pacific

Salmon states who rely on these fish for their livelihoods. We need

abundant, harvestable populations of salmon for long-term economic

stability across the coast. This administration continues to ignore, if not

completely abandon, that goal," said Zeke Grader, executive director

Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. "This will be

devastating to commercial fishermen from California to Alaska . It is based

neither on sound science nor sound economics and Congress must step in to

ensure a future for our industry and our families."

    "This plan is a platinum-plated roadmap to extinction, and for the

sportfishing community, that means more job losses and economic hardship,"

said Liz Hamilton, executive director of the Northwest Sportsfishing

Industry Association. "Sport fishing supports tens of thousands of jobs

throughout the West, yet this administration continues to treat fish and

wildlife as an afterthought behind energy, development and other special

interests, violating both the spirit and intent of the Endangered Species

Act and the Northwest Power Act. We, and the courts, have called on the

administration to follow the law and follow the science to protect our jobs

and the rural and coastal communities that depend on them. We now turn to

Congress to do the same."

    While the new plan, which would guide salmon recovery efforts in the

Columbia and Snake River basin for the next decade, includes provisions for

habitat restoration, hatchery production, and predator control, it doesn't

include any significant changes to the region's hydroelectric dams, in

particular four dams on the Lower Snake River that scientists say do the

most harm to the basin's endangered salmon.

    "Science continues to tell us that upstream habitats and population

genetics are suitable for survival of Snake River stocks. What we don't

have is reasonable passage through the hydrosystem," said Dr. Jack

Williams, Senior Scientist for Trout Unlimited. "Time is slipping away for

these upriver stocks and unfortunately this new plan falls far short of

providing the needed help."

    The new plan also fails to recommend any increases in the amount of

water spilled over the dams to improve critical downstream migration,

despite well-documented success of such court-ordered improvements last

year.

    Following a public comment period, a final version of the plan is

expected in early 2008.