Rivers of a Lost Coast

• Posted on 06/10 at 08:30 AM

13 million salmon into San Francisco Bay

Last week the Department of Fish and Game finished up its last of several trips from Red Bluff to San Pablo Bay. For the second year in a row, the CDFG has been transporting 6-inch salmon smolt from their Central Valley hatcheries to San Pablo Bay via aerated water trucks. The salmon trucking program is based on the belief that transportation directly from the hatchery into San Pablo Bay, as opposed to in-river releases, leads to more than double the amount of smolt that successfully reach the ocean. (No apparent regard is given to the smolt’s ability to survive in the ocean once they arrive).

During the research for Rivers of a Lost Coast we were enthralled with Jim Lichatowich’s Salmon without Rivers, a comprehensive guide to the history of Pacific Salmon management. Lichatowich derived his title for the book from a statement made by the Washington Department of Fisheries in the 1960s. “New advanced management techniques would soon result in salmon without a river.”

Sacramento salmon smolt are born in hatchery tanks, raised in concrete holding pens and trucked downriver to San Pablo Bay. The new management techniques have finally arrived. But we have only a shadow of the salmon in our Central Valley in comparison to the 1960s. How can that be?

LA TIMES

Posted by Justin on 06/10 at 08:30 AM in (1) Comments • Permalink

• Posted on 06/09 at 07:29 AM

Rivers of a Lost Coast DVD to come with 25 page insert booklet

Skinny Fist Productions is proud to announce the Rivers of a Lost Coast DVD which will be available later this Fall, will include a 25 page insert booklet full of new material. The booklet will include writings from Russell Chatham on Bill Schaadt, Jack Berryman on early west coast fly fishing culture as well as tributes to Ted Lindner and Nelson Rossig. The booklet will also include a host of photos and goodies not used in the film.

Also available later this Fall will be the Rivers of a Lost Coast soundtrack CD. Palmer Taylor’s stirring symphony orchestrations, will be a great rhythmic ride-along for any of your fishing trips.

Below is an excerpt on the Eel River taken from the booklet:

So here we stand: The Eel River
So here we stand, 125 years after commercial fishermen in a single season netted over 1 million fish (not pounds, but fish), from the lower Eel River. 100 years after John Benn, William Carson and other Eel River pioneers first began casting flies to the sea-going trout they were calling Steelhead. Ninety years after San Francisco anglers spent two days traveling through the damp and dangerous redwood forests for a chance to hook a tackle-busting Eel River King. Eighty years since the Eel was noted in national sporting magazines as one of the finest angling streams in the country. Seventy-Five years since the Eel captured 1st through 5th place in the annual Field and Stream Big Fish Contest, earning the title “River of Giants.” Seventy years since Sam Wells and Jim Pray’s fly shops were graced by steelhead-seeking ex-presidents and congressman. Sixty-Five years since returning WWII servicemen rushed to the river to experience one of the greatest seasons the Eel would ever produce. Sixty years since the Fernbridge and Fulmor holes turned black with massive schools of fish. Less than Fifty-Five years since Bill Schaadt flipped his car on an Eel River gravel bar in his mad pursuit to get down to the swarms of crashing steelhead. And only fifty years since Nelson Rossig hooked three King Salmon on each of five consecutive mornings, all within the short hour he fished before work.

So here we stand, at the dawn of a new century, where now all species of salmon, steelhead and cutthroat trout of the Eel River are either listed as Threatened or Endangered. Where the salmon and steelhead returns are so dismal, no angler is allowed to keep even a single fish. Where, when the river’s flows are low enough, the Eel is closed to all fishing, including catch-and-release.

We stand now, looking back at a century of ruthless logging. We stand looking at two impassible dams that carry Eel River water to Sonoma County. We stand watching invasive pike minnow attack juvenile salmon and steelhead. We stand looking back at the irresponsible introduction of genetically inferior strains of salmon and steelhead. We stand now looking at a river that has become a collection of stagnant frog pools surrounded by sterile fields of silt-covered boulders.

We stand now looking back at how man’s greed and ignorance destroyed one of the greatest steelhead and salmon rivers on the planet.

And yet now we also stand with a greater understanding of the damage we’ve done. We stand armed with better restoration tools and science than ever before. We stand now knowing continued road building and increased rural and municipal water demands will pose the greatest threat to the future of the Eel River. We stand knowing that moving water from one watershed to another has devastating consequences. We stand knowing there is no replacement for the processes of Mother Nature. We stand now with hundreds of organizations working to protect and restore California’s Creeks and Rivers. Yet ultimately we stand now knowing that we will lose 65% of California’s native salmon, steelhead and trout in the next century if we do not change our current practices.

Posted by Justin on 06/09 at 07:29 AM in Film News • (119) Comments • Permalink

• Posted on 06/08 at 08:44 AM

The Timeline.

By now, most of you have heard of the monumental biological opinion announced last Thursday by the National Marine Fisheries Services. Sacramento Bee reporter Matt Weiser stated, “The new rules mark the largest single rulemaking action ever in the United States to restore fish access above habitat-blocking dams, according to the environmental group American Rivers. The goal is to protect Central Valley steelhead, winter- and spring-run salmon, and green sturgeon, all protected by the Endangered Species Act.”

The ruling, which officially is just called a biological opinion, requires the rivers above several major California reservoirs be restored and made accessible to salmon and steelhead trout. Expenses of the several billion dollar project will most likely come from increased water costs for both municipal and agricultural users.

Weisser continued “The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will be required to restore fish populations above Nimbus and Folsom dams on the American River, Shasta Dam on the Sacramento River, and New Melones Dam on the Stanislaus River.”

The preliminary planning for the monumental and massive project begins with large-scale testing, followed by inter-agency recommendations on the best possible solutions by 2016. The recommendations are scheduled to be carried out by 2020.

Posted by Justin on 06/08 at 08:44 AM in Conservation • (1) Comments • Permalink

• Posted on 06/04 at 02:01 PM

Feds to release plan to protect chinook salmon

Thursday, Jun. 04, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO—Federal fisheries regulators are planning to release a court-ordered plan to protect chinook salmon in the Central Valley.

The plan to be unveiled Thursday could end up further limiting the amount of water pumped to farmers and Southern California residents. Commercial fishing for the struggling species has been canceled off the California coast for two seasons.

The agency had to redo its management plan for the fish because U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger in Fresno threw out its previous plan last year. He found that allowing the Delta water pumps to continue operating as they have would threaten the species.

Fishing industry representatives argue the Sacramento River salmon need adequate river flows and relatively uninterrupted transit through the Delta. 

Posted by Justin on 06/04 at 02:01 PM in Conservation • (1) Comments • Permalink