In an unprecedented move that has outraged anglers, the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC), under direction from the Bush administration, voted late on Friday, March 10 to delay the opening of recreational salmon season from Point Arena to Point Sur set for April 1.

Fortunately, the DFG in a press release dated March 15 said that state waters, within 3 miles from shore, from Point Arena to Point will remain open until further notice. The state regulatory process requires that any closure of state waters must go through the California Fish and Game Commission and Office of Administrative law before it can be enforced.  

A turgid letter from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), delivered to the Council late on Friday afternoon, told the Council “NOAA Fisheries currently expects that it will be necessary to close those fisheries by inseason action to comply with the FMP (Fishery Management Plan).”  

NMFS has directed the Council to model season options based on impacting no more 100 Klamath fish throughout the entire recreational fishery, according to Roger Thomas, a California member of the Pacific Fishery Management Council.  

The looming fishing closures are a direct result of the administration’s “Subsidized Water for Corporate Farmers” program that has devastated the Klamath fishery. This change in water policy, instituted in 2002 by Interior Secretary Gale Norton, resulted in the fish kills of 2002, where over 250,000 juvenile salmon and 68,000 adult fish died. Since 2002, disease spurred by low water conditions has ravaged the down migrating juvenile chinook and coho salmon, killing thousands of fish in 2003 and 2004.

The Council developed three basic options for the recreational season to be voted on during the council’s meeting at the Doubletree Inn in Sacramento on April 7.

 
• the same season as 2005 except for the closure of the fishery from Point Arena to Point Sur in April.
• a 50 percent reduction of last year’s season.
• no recreational fishing from Cape Falcon to Point Sur.  

The main problem is that the pre-season forecast for Klamath River natural fall spawning escapement is only 29,200 fish, well below the federal government’s “escapement floor” of 35,000 Klamath fall chinooks, even if all ocean recreational and commercial fishing and the Klamath River tribal and recreational fishery is closed for the remainder of 2006.  

An emergency rule would have to be approved to allow any ocean salmon fishing, recreational or commercial, since this would be the third year in a row that the escapement floor of 35,000 Klamath River fall chinooks set by the council isn’t met. If that happens, it triggers a rebuilding plan and a review of the salmon fishery management plan (FMP).  

Another factor impacting the season is the listing of California coastal chinook salmon under the Endangered Species Act. The agency requires that the age 4 harvest rate for Klamath fall chinooks not exceed 16 percent, The agency claims the harvest rates were actually 23 percent in 2003 and 51 percent in 2004 - and exceeded 16 percent “by a substantial amount” in 2005.  

NOAA Fisheries made it very clear that the third option – no fishing - was the preferable one. NOAA Fisheries and the Secretary of Commerce have the final word in ruling whether or not commercial or recreational seasons will be allowed, since the PFMC is only an advisory body.  

Robert Lohn, Northwest Regional Administrator, and Rodney R. McInnis, Southwest Regional Administrator of NOAA, stated the following: “Based on what is currently known, and given the clear provisions of the FMP, NOAA Fisheries concludes that it will be difficult to justify approval of an emergency rule to allow additional fishing in 2006.”  

Commercial and recreational angling representatives blasted the federal government’s sudden “concern” for the Klamath River stocks when the reason for the salmon decline has little to do with fishing and everything to do with low, warm flows and disease caused by federal government water policies on the Klamath River.  

“The problem is not overfishing,” emphasized Thomas, “but the die off of salmon caused by high water temperatures and low flows 4 years ago, along with the diseases that has spread among juvenile fish in the river every since the fish kill. Fishermen are now paying the price for the water problems on the Klamath.”  

Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, quipped, “Closing salmon fishing to put fish back into the Klamath River without fixing the river’s water problems is like throwing virgins into a volcano. Neither action will save us.”  

Anglers were particularly upset that NMFS throughout the week withheld the letter detailing its guidance on setting harvest goals, leaving the Salmon Advisory Sub panel to guess how to craft a meaningful season for 2006, according to Jim Martin, West Coast Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance.  

The RFA contacted top officials at NOAA Fisheries in Washington, D.C. by phone to try and “shake the letter loose.” Martin told the NOAA administrator: "It's like sitting here with a hacksaw wondering how far up your arm you have to cut." The letter was finally delivered to the council on the last day of the weeklong session, when council members were about to discuss a range of options.  

"We all know that this is not an overfishing problem, it's a water-politics problem," Martin told the council, "but we are here to address the severe restrictions on salmon fishing.”  

The RFA is supporting an emergency rule to allow limited fishing opportunities while avoiding the Klamath salmon along their migration routes along the coast and up the river.  

Bob Franko, founder of the Coastside Fishing Club, urged anglers to attend the PFMC meeting at the Doubletree Inn in Sacramento on April 3-7. Coastside will be organizing buses to the meeting in Sacramento and to a rally at Farallon Boats in West Sacramento on Tuesday, April 4.  

Franko also urged anglers to send letters to President George W. Bush, Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Senator Barbara Boxer, their Member of Congress, their state senator and their assemblyperson.  

“We must now all rise up in one unified voice to be heard all the way to Washington DC,” said Franko. “If we don’t turn this thing around, we will become an endangered species. The effort will shift to rockfish and the end result could be a total collapse of our fishery. We are urging all anglers to fax, email and phone all of these people as often as you can. Let them know you fish, spend lots of money fishing, and that they urge the Secretary of Commerce to provide us with our full salmon season.”  

For more information, contact www.coastsidefishingclub.com  

It is important to review the federal government’s attack on salmon fishermen in its historical context. This same "government" that wants to outlaw salmon fishing on the ocean engineered the Klamath River fish kills of 2002 by ordering the diversion of water to subsidized agribusiness at the expense of salmon populations, commercial fishermen, recreational anglers and the Klamath Basin Indian Tribes.  

Because of projected record low returns of fall chinook salmon this year to the Klamath, salmon fishermen won't be able to fish for the abundant Sacramento River chinooks, since both species mix on the ocean.  

Bob Strickland, president of United Anglers of California, emphasized that commercial and recreational salmon fishing closures will be devastating to a lot of people and businesses, including the businesses that depend on recreational salmon seasons, such as charter boats, motels, stores and restaurants in northern and central California communities. “Now the party and private boats only have 6 months to fish, since rockfish season doesn’t open until July 1,” he noted.  

My theory is that the Bush administration is trying to destroy the recreational and commercial salmon fishing industry in order to pave the way for massive exports of water on the California Delta, now imperiled by a food chain crash, and to increase wasteful water diversions to unsustainable farmers in the Klamath Basin and elsewhere. By kicking recreational and commercial anglers off the ocean, Bush and his corporate backers will eliminate the strongest proponents of salmon restoration.  

Zeke Grader had a similar theory. “The administration saw that this was the time to get rid of the salmon fishery,’’ said Grader. “The Colombia River, Sacramento and Klamath River fisheries are costing them lots of money for mitigation and are holding up their sacred pet development projects. Meanwhile, the administration is busy pushing offshore aquaculture development, rather than sustainable commercial salmon fishing. They are pulling out all of their stops to eliminate both the commercial and recreational salmon fisheries.”  

The Bush administration has effectively declared war on recreational anglers, tribal fishermen and commercial fishermen. Anglers should also attend the PFMC meeting at the Doubletree Inn in Sacramento on April 3 through 7 to stop the elimination of recreational and commercial salmon fishing in California ocean waters.  

For more information about the upcoming PFMC meetings, go to www.pcouncil.org or call (503) 820-2280.

More Editorials By Dan Bacher