Counterspin:  Salmon problems will hit home - I guarantee

By Phil Hayworth

Pioneer Press

Page E32, Column 1
Fort Jones , CA
530-468-5355
pioneerp@sisqtel.net

Every time you break up, you've probably had a friend sit down and say: "Hey, there are plenty of fish in the sea."

Well, that friend would be wrong, if you believe what you've been reading lately about the salmon. Only about 190,000 salmon are expected to return to the Klamath River this year, according to the Pacific Marine Fisheries Council. Another 157,000 are expected to return this year to the Bay Area and the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and their tributaries.

That's down from 546,000 on the Klamath last year and 500,000 in the Bay Area last year.

Those numbers have everyone spooked, and now - perhaps even as soon as this week - the council is expected to announce that they'll shut down the entire salmon fishing season along the west coast from the Bay Area to the Columbia River on the Oregon/Washington border. Harry Morse, Public Information Officer with the California Department of Fish and Game, said that he expects that fishery to be closed not just this year, but next year, too. In the meantime, various sport, recreation and commercial fishery groups are expected to ask the federal government for emergency funds to help them and various Indian tribes weather the drought. That'll surely help, in the short run. In the long run, those same groups are working to fix the problem - and their main fix? Get rid of the dams, shut off the pumps more frequently in the San Joaquin and severely limit catches.

Morse went on to explain that, generally, in order to keep the fishery healthy, about 1.5 million fish are needed to return to the fishery that stretches from the Bay Area to the Columbia . In the old days, he said 3 million generally returned. The blame, he said, can be placed directly on the various dams throughout the two states and - specifically - water taken by farmers and ranchers in Oregon and California . But what he failed to say was that the vast majority of the water taken in California goes to Southern California . Much of that goes to large agri-business in the San Joaquin Valley . Far less of that water is diverted to farms and ranches here in Siskiyou and Klamath counties. Southern California is relentless in its demand for water. Their irrigation districts have most of the political power in the state, and what they say generally goes in politics. It's that demand that must be curbed in order to save both the salmon and America 's food supply in the San Joaquin .

Morse would be right to say that the dams are preventing salmon from spawning upstream. There are some 28 million hatchery fish released each year in California , but - especially in the Bay Area - few make it to the sea and even fewer return because the water quality there is so poor. Also, he said, smolt and fry are released too close to the ocean, preventing the fish from maturing naturally and making them easy prey for other fish, such as Stripers.

The situation speaks directly to the settlement talks surrounding the Klamath River and the four hydro-electric dams along the upper Klamath River . Those talks, while secretive and flawed, are a start, in my opinion, to remedying the situation for the long term. Already, Warren Buffett - the billionaire and top shareholder in the PacfiCorps dams - is said to be giving way and it's expected that a deal will soon be reached that will lead to those dams coming out. In the meantime, the 25 or so entities involved in the settlement talks have agreed that more water would be stored on the Upper Klamath to help regulate flow in dry years, so that salmon have a better chance of survival in the Klamath. It doesn't matter, really, how far salmon have traditionally swum up the Klamath - that is, how far past they dams they've spawned in the past. What matters is that we in the Basin take control of our destiny before the feds do. My fear is that the Klamath Basin water issue will be too closely linked to the Bay Area and Delta water issue. They are not the same. It's incumbent on our leaders to let the feds know that they are different, though related, issues. If a unified effort - and massive public relations campaign - isn't mounted soon, the Basin could be in for a mighty water shut off - again - and a devastating economic blow.

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