from Dan Bacher, California's veteran fighter for fish!

Senate Committee Approves Three Bills to Restore and Protect Imperiled Salmon

by Dan Bacher, editor of the Fish Sniffer

April 30, 2009 -- Three bills by Senator Patricia Wiggins (D – Santa Rosa) to restore and protect California’s imperiled salmon populations, including legislation imposing a moratorium on suction dredge mining, have cleared a key Senate Committee. 
 
The Senate Committee on Natural Resources & Water voted to approve the measures on April 28, sending all three to the Senate Appropriations Committee for further consideration, according to a news release from Wiggin's office. 
 
These bills were approved as commercial salmon fishing in ocean waters off northern California and Oregon is closed for the second year in a row, due to the collapse of Sacramento River fall run chinook salmon. Recreational ocean salmon fishing is closed also with the exception of a 10 day season in late August and early September from the California-Oregon border to Horse Mountain. Salmon fishing is banned in all Central Valley rivers, including the Feather, American and Yuba rivers, with the exception of a season on the Sacramento River from Red Bluff to Knights Landing from November 16 through December 31. 
 
Senate Bill 670, which the committee approved on a bi-partisan vote of 8-3, prohibits the use of suction dredge mining equipment in rivers and streams that provide critical habitat to spawning salmon until the state Department of Fish and Game (DFG) completes its court-ordered overhaul of regulations governing the controversial recreational activity. 
 
"Suction dredge mining, a recreational mining activity that disturbs streambeds, is heavily regulated in other states including Oregon," according to Wiggins. "However, California suffers from surprisingly slack regulations." 
 
“The salmon numbers are so low that the National Marine Fisheries Service has placed a ban on all salmon fishing along the coast of California and Oregon," said Wiggins in presenting SB 670. "This ban affects the livelihoods of thousands of commercial fishermen, fish processors, and charter boat operators. Yet while fishermen are being told to stop fishing, suction dredge mining is allowed to continue. SB 670 is about equity. We simply cannot ask an entire fishing industry to stop their work while a small group of hobbyists are allowed to continue.” 
 
The bill will next go to Senate Appropriations for consideration and approval before going before the full Senate. The bill includes an urgency clause, requiring 2/3 vote to pass in each house, which would result in the law going into effect immediately upon signing by the Governor. 
 
Elizabeth "Izzy" Martin, CEO of The Sierra Fund, testified at the request of Senator Wiggins on the importance of the bill. "In light of the state’s budget crisis, we are concerned that funding for the review and rule-making will be slowed down, and the review could take years," Martin stated. "We are also concerned that the well-documented impacts of suction dredging on water quality and endangered species will continue while this environmental review is underway, despite evidence of the harm of suction dredging." 
 
Suction dredging disturbs fish habitat, putting endangered species such as Coho salmon and green sturgeon at risk. In addition, repeated government studies have shown that suction dredge activities disturb and mobilize the mercury left behind from gold mine operations, according to Martin. 
 
"The rules that govern this practice are woefully outdated," noted Martin. California Department of Fish and Game was ordered by the California courts to undergo a CEQA review and rule change as a result of a lawsuit filed in 2005. The courts ordered DFG to complete the review and make appropriate rule changes by July 2008, but DFG has not met this deadline. 
 
A broad coalition of Indian Tribes, fishing groups and environmental organizations, including the Karuk Tribe, Tsi-Akim Maidu Tribe, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA) and California Trout, is supporting the legislation. 
 
Senate Bill 539, which the committee approved 7-4, directs the state Ocean Protection Council (OPC) to give the Legislature a report that ranks the solutions to reversing the alarming decline of salmon and steelhead populations and lists the costs to implement those actions. The OPC is the state arm that coordinates state agencies’ efforts to protect and conserve coastal and oceanic ecosystems. 
 
In her testimony before the committee, Wiggins said that the OPC’s mission “is to ensure California maintains healthy, resilient, and productive ocean and coastal ecosystems for the benefit of current and future generations. SB 539 enlists the OPC in restoration efforts by authorizing it to engage in the full range of activities needed to bring back salmon and steelhead.” 
 
Senate Bill 778, which the committee approved on a bi-partisan vote of 9-1, requires the state DFG to provide a thorough accounting of funds generated from commercial salmon fishing permits, known as “salmon stamps.” The self-taxation funds paid by fishermen are required to be spent on fisheries and habitat restoration. There is growing concern in the fishing industry that the money is not getting to top priority projects. SB 778 would incorporate measures, based on an audit, to strengthen the program and, with agreement from fishermen, will increase the price of the “stamp” in order to ramp up protection efforts during the ongoing salmon crisis. 
 
In her testimony, Wiggins said SB 778 “continues the tradition of commercial fishermen dedicating a portion of their permit fees to help restore the salmon fisheries that sustain their industry. The dedicated portion of the fee is managed by the DFG for salmon regeneration. Because of the salmon crisis, fishermen are volunteering to raise the cost of salmon permit to $350. The bill also seeks to require the DFG to provide a better accounting for the expenditures of this fund. This will ensure that the funding goes directly to priority projects, in a timely manner.” 
 
“It’s imperative that the Legislature, along with the responsible state agencies, do all that we can to protect these invaluable fish populations," said Wiggins, who chairs the Joint Legislative Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture. "Salmon are not just trophy and sport fish. They form the backbone of California ecosystems, tribal cultures, local economies, a commercial fishing industry and a once-plentiful, wonderful food. We must work together to give these magnificent fish a chance to recover.” 
 
Wiggins represents California’s large 2nd Senate District, which encompasses portions or all of Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Solano and Sonoma Counties. 
 
These bills passed through the Committee as a coalition of California Indian Tribes, commercial fishermen, recreational anglers and conservationists is fighting to restore Central Valley salmon salmon populations that have been decimated by a combination of increased water exports out of the California Delta, declining water quality, haphazard management of Central Valley Project and State Water Project reservoirs and poor ocean conditions. However, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, rather than taking aggressive measures to restore salmon, is instead promoting a peripheral canal and more dams that would only exacerbate the collapse of Central Valley salmon, delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, green sturgeon and other species. 
 
Meanwhile, a delegation of Klamath River Tribes, fishermen, and conservationists is now arriving in Omaha, Nebraska for the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting to call on Warren Buffett, the world's richest man, to "close the dam removal deal." For more information, contact Craig Tucker, Klamath Coordinator, Karuk Tribe, 916-207-8294, http://www.Karuk.us. 
 
Today the U.S. Commerce Department also released $53.1 million in unspent disaster relief from last year to Oregon and California fishing businesses devastated by the salmon closures. In a letter to the Governors of California and Oregon, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke declared the latest fishery disaster. A total of $46.4 million will go to California and $6.7 million to Oregon.