Collection by Dan Keppen, Family Farm Alliance Executive Director 3/23/06

Pacific Fishery Management Council
7700 NE Ambassador Place
Suite 200
Portland, OR 97220-1384

Subject: Closure of Sport and Commercial Salmon Fishing

By Joel Gallob Of the News-Times

Newport News-Times: Recreational salmon season gets nod, commercial still in doubt

http://www.newportnewstimes.com/articles/2006/03/15/news/news03.txt

This year's returning Klamath Chinook represent the members of the 2002 year out-migrating fish that escaped predators and fishermen, reached maturity after four years in the ocean, and will soon be coming back to the river to spawn. In 2002, pressed by Klamath farmers, the White House and Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Interior Secretary Gale Norton authorized diversion of Klamath River water to Klamath Basin farmers. 2002 was a drought year and that diversion, most of the region's fishery scientists say, led to the extraordinary fish die-off that year. Now, four years later, it has led to a prediction of insufficient returning spawners.

"The failure to follow scientific advice and the fish kills of 2002 is now being put onto the backs of family fishermen by taking away their livelihood," said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen.

However, while the 2002 decision helped create this year's problem, the damage to the Klamath salmon began well before 2002, with dams, diversions and irrigation use all impacting the Klamath fish, giving that river uniquely low numbers among major West Coast rivers.

Redding Record Searchlight:  "Chinook run spawns ban talk"   Feb 28, 2006  (Glen Spain quoted).

San Francisco Chronicle:  "Imagine a Year Without Local Salmon"  March 3, 2006 (Glen Spain and NRDC’s Barry Nelson quoted)

LA Times:  "Salmon Fishing Ban Considered"   March 4, 2006 (Zeke Grader quoted)

Scripps Howard News Service:  "Fishing ban could keep California king salmon off the hook"  March 6, 2006 (Glen Spain and Barry Nelson quoted).

Daily Astorian Editorial:  "Klamath provides example for Snake"  March 7, 2006 ("regional director" of PCFFA quoted).

Christian Science Monitor:  "Lean times for salmon fishermen"  March 9, 2006 (Article has several references to low river flows, irrigation runoff as reasons for declining salmon populations)

Times-Standard:  "Poor prognosis for salmon season"  March 10, 2006 (Article references fish die-off and focus on low, hot, poor quality water).

San Mateo, CA:  "Salmon season might be awfully short"  March 12, 2006 (points to poor habitat and water conditions in the river as reasons for Klamath decline).

Oroville Mercury Register:  "Salmon drought"  March 12, 2006. Steve Pedery of ONRC is quoted as saying "the folks that manage the river have made it into this mess. The article states that the river is running low, warm and full of pollution from agricultural runoff, which contributed to the 2002 fish die-off.  

Redding Record-Searchlight, CA: "Chinook run spawns ban talk"  March 1, 2006

AP:  "Chinook season may shut down"  March 1, 2006

Eugene Register-Guard, OR:  "Glum forecast for summer chinook"  March 1, 2006

Lincoln City News Guard - Lincoln City, OR:  "A one-two punch"  March 1, 2006

Forbes:   "Officials Mull Opening of Salmon Fisheries"  March 7, 2006

Newport News-Times:  "Oregon troll fishermen oppose 'zero option'" March 8, 2006

Oregonian:  "Feds call for halt this season of salmon fisheries off coast"  March 8, 2006

Columbia Basin Bulletin:  "Salmon Fishing Faces Closure Off Oregon, California Coasts"  March 10, 2006

Coos Bay World:  "Running low on options"  March 11, 2006

San Francisco Chronicle:  "Salmon season start in limbo"  March 12, 2006

Newport News-Times:  "2006 Salmon season may be in jeopardy", Feb 24, 2006.

The Union of Grass Valley, CA:  "Salmon season hangs in balance", Feb 26, 2006. According to this article, this year is the return from the fall 2002 spawn. Recent events are symptomatic of water quality and quantity issues in the Klamath River drainage.

Katu 2 - Portland:  "Salmon Ban Could Beach Oregon Fishing Boats", Feb 27, 2006. Fishing industry officials say mistakes made in the conflict over Klamath Basin water levels and tribal allocations have led to the problem.

Curry Coastal Pilot - Brookings, OR: "Trouble For Summer Salmon?", March 1, 2006. Coastal fishermen maintain that Klamath Project diversions kill salmon by raising the temperature of the water and contributing to the severity of a parasite infestation. Upriver irrigators, for their part, see efforts to increase the flow of the river as an attack on farming.

Ft. Bragg Advocate: "Big economic impacts feared from ocean salmon season closure", March 2, 2006. Dan Bacher' blames the crisis on the Bush Administration. "Karl Rove pressured Gale Norton (Interior Secretary) to divert the Klamath water to agribusiness at the expense of fish, tribes, recreational anglers and commercial fishermen to curry favor with local farmers so an Oregon Republican Senator would be reelected. Now recreational anglers, the Klamath Basin Tribes, commercial fishermen and the entire economy of Northern California will suffer because of the greed of a few," Bacher reported.

Willits News - Willits, CA:  "Klamath fish die off continues to affect lives", March 3, 2006. In 2002 the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation reduced the flow in the Klamath River, to help farmers secure enough water for their crops. As a result, disease spread quickly and at least 133,000 fish (95 percent salmon) died and literally wiped out a large portion of the Chinook run that year.

Santa Cruz Sentinel:  "The Big Fish Story: Will salmon fishing be banned?", March 3, 2006. "Some blame potato farmers for taking too much water upstream in Oregon…..There are those who say too much water is diverted from the river in the fall, which kills the salmon because there's not enough oxygen in the water."

Oregonian:  "Outlook worsens for ocean salmon season", March 11, 2006. Between irrigation, dams and habitat destruction, the river has become one plagued by fish diseases and chronically low salmon runs. U.S. Reps. David Wu and Peter DeFazio, both Oregon Democrats, said the decline of Klamath salmon is the result of failed federal water policies in the Klamath Basin, and the government must look at all the factors that contribute instead of fishing alone. Under a halt to fishing, "coastal communities in Oregon and California would be made to suffer for this administration's failure to address the real causes of salmon decline," they wrote to the council.

San Mateo, CA:  "Salmon ban crushing blow to fishing industry", March 12, 2006. The Klamath salmon die-off occurred when the water was diverted for agriculture, leaving the salmon stranded in shallow, cloudy, warm water filled with parasites. A coastal fishermen is quoted as saying the fish were killed by man-made conditions. "Rice farmers get subsidies for not farming their fields, but there's no subsidy for our local fishermen. "