Salmon cool

By Phil Hayworth

Pioneer Press

Fort Jones , CA

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

page E6, column 3

pioneerp@sisqtel.net

It's official. Salmon are now on the "cool" list.  Last weekend, a coalition of west coast commercial, recreational and tribal fishermen partnered with environmental organizations, chefs and celebrities to host a two-day event celebrating wild salmon in Jack London Square in Oakland .

Called SalmonAid, and modeled loosely after Farm Aid, the event happened May 31 and June 1. Last year, organizers said they had hoped to woo music legends Willie Nelson and Neil Young to the party, but the stony songsters declined. Instead, Les Claypool, The Zydeco Flames, Stacy Kray and Captain Mike and The Sea Kings showed up. Who the heck are they, you may ask? They're entertainers likely unknown outside the Bay Area, but they all joined hands and sang cumbaya with Bay Area hippies, 60's radicals and a few yuppies.

The outdoor event was originally designed to offer the public a chance to buy salmon directly from commercial salmon fishermen, who were to dock their boats in the Oakland estuary at Jack London Square . Chances are good, however, that there wasn't much salmon on hand. After all, the fishery from California to Oregon was recently shut down for the season. Perhaps that shut down actually helped raise awareness of the plight of the salmon? Only time will tell.

"I've fished California for salmon for the last 40 years," said salmon troller Chuck Wise of Bodega. "The money we make fishing salmon has powered our little town of Bodega for as long as I've lived here. We want to make sure we'll still be able to deliver a high-quality food for people for years to come and Salmon Aid will help get the word out about who we are, what we do and why salmon is so central to so much of the West Coast."

Currently, about 1,500 commercial salmon fishermen fish ocean waters for Salmon off Washington , Oregon and California . But event organizers argue that those salmon populations are under heavy pressure, primarily due to man-made destruction of freshwater rivers and streams needed by salmon to reproduce.

Festival organizers cite the Klamath River fish kill in September 2002, which allegedly occurred after federal officials diverted water flows in the Klamath River to upstream farms, as one reason behind the festival.

The Klamath historically is the third largest salmon-producing river on the west coast after the Columbia/Snake and the Sacramento . Organizers say that less reported were losses of juvenile salmon in the Klamath River during subsequent years, caused by the Klamath Dams. Those dams, Iron Gate and Copco I and II, are up for federal renewal. Some state and federal agencies, including many Native American tribes along the Oregon and California border, argue that they should be removed to help restore the Klamath's salmon runs. 

Sacramento River salmon have recently been beset with their own problems stemming from water withdrawals from the San Francisco Bay delta in recent years. In the Columbia River and its main tributary, the Snake River , SalmonAid organizers say salmon populations are falling due to federal mismanagement of a few "outdated" hydropower dams.

For more information, go to www.salmonaid.org.

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