Rivers of a Lost Coast

• Posted on 03/04 at 09:08 AM

The meeting

As expected, the meeting of state fish and game biologists and officials in Santa Rosa yesterday, concluded our state’s salmon fisheries are in devastating peril. For the second time in 16 years, the fall run Chinook failed to meet the Fishery Management low-end goal of a 122,000 salmon.

Despite continued increase in hatchery releases the state’s salmon numbers have been in an alarming decline since 2005. Although it is has not been officially announced, it is difficult to see how fisheries managers could allow a salmon season in 2009.

Reliable Peter Fimrite noted in his SF Chronicle feature today , there are no reliable studies showing how many of the surviving fish in the ocean and rivers are from hatcheries. But a study last year of fish caught by sport fishermen found that 71 percent of them were raised in hatcheries. Regardless of the influence of hatcheries, very few chinook of any kind are surviving.

State and federal scientists believe that warmer ocean conditions have reduced the food supply for the fish. Record exports of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta coincided with major declines in chinook, a factor that environmentalists and fishing representatives believe is the major culprit.

Peter Fimrite SF Chronicle

Posted by Justin on 03/04 at 09:08 AM in Conservation • (1) Comments • Permalink

• Posted on 03/03 at 08:41 AM

Krill ban

In a rather obvious line of reasoning, the environmental group Oceana’s new report, “Hungry Oceans: What happens when the prey is gone” points to dwindling prey fish such as krill, herring, pollock, mackerel as a reason for the collapse of larger species such as Seabirds, Tuna and Salmon.

Margot Stiles, lead author and Oceana marine biologist said Monday, the loss of food at the bottom of the ocean food chain harms a range of species, resulting in malnutrition, death of offspring or disruption in migration and breeding patterns.

“These fish may be small. They’re not glamorous. But they do all of the work in the ocean,” Stiles said. “They’re the foundation of the food web. Without them, we would lose the things we really care about - the seabirds, whales, tuna and salmon.”

The San Francisco Chronicle article on the report noted, Oceana and another group, Ocean Conservancy, are asking for catch limits that would protect existing fisheries. They also want prohibitions on starting new fisheries of prey species.

A ban on krill fishing adopted three years ago by the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which regulates federal waters off California, Oregon and Washington, has been held up by the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Scientific and environmental groups are asking officials in the Obama administration to approve the West Coast ban on krill fishing and to extend catch limits to other prey species.

You can learn more about the study’s concerns of over fishing, fish farming and warming ocean temperatures in Jane Kay’s SF Chronicle piece

SF Chronicle Oceana report

Posted by Justin on 03/03 at 08:41 AM in Conservation • (1) Comments • Permalink

• Posted on 03/02 at 07:56 AM

A reel with the stamp of Sam Wells

A few months ago Doug Stephens of Toronto, Ontario emailed us inquiring about the early California fly fisherman Sam Wells, who , as you will note in our pioneers and legends section, during the early 20th century operated a fly shop in Eureka, CA. Doug had recently come across an old fly reel engraved with a Sam Wells insignia and wanted to learn more about the pioneering steelheader. He went on to do some of his own research on Wells and relayed what he found out back to us.

Sam Wells was born in Boston and moved west as a young man. Earning the title of the Western States Fly Casting Champion, Wells was a traveling sporting goods salesman in San Francisco before moving to Eureka in the 1920s. Shortly after arriving on the North Coast he opened a shop and helped bring English and Irish fly equipment, patterns and techniques to the Eel and other local rivers. He was a nationally known sportsman whose customers included presidents, state and local politicians and celebrity fishermen like Zane Grey.

As the still living Nelson Rossig remembers, Sam Wells was a phenomenal angler and gentleman. Doug Stephens noted, Sam Wells starred in an early film about eel river fishing.

In 1930, he was elected State Fish and Game Commissioner, due in large part to his work and reputation as a conservationist.

After he and his daughter narrowly escaped a car accident that took his wife, Wells returned to his life as a fly shop owner in the late 30’s. He remarried and outlived his much younger second wife who was lost to a heart-attack. Wells died at the age of 81 in the back room of his fly shop. By that time he had seen the friendly arrival of Jim Pray and Lloyd silvius, two fellow Eel River fly tiers and shop owners who helped carry on the tradition, John Benn and Sam Wells started.

Sam Wells Photo

Posted by Justin on 03/02 at 07:56 AM in Ramblings • (4) Comments • Permalink