Rivers of a Lost Coast

• Posted on 03/11 at 08:23 AM

Time to step up

A panel of legal and fishery experts blasted the state’s inadequate, under-funded and poorly managed salmon practices at a special hearing yesterday. Identifying a host of serious blunders including, lack of monitoring of fish returns, lack of monitoring riparian and groundwater withdrawals, lack of monitoring land-use changes, and a severe inability to enforce existing laws, the panel told legislators the problem is not new and that their blind eye has only worsened the problem.

The panel, which included several UC Davis fishery experts, told legislators the state’s environmental laws are both robust and legally adequate, but what remains inadequate is the level of state funding and resources allocation to enforce the existing laws. The panel noted California had the lowest warden enforcement to citizen ratio in the entire country.

The panel also noted Oregon, Washington and Idaho all closely monitor their salmon in order to make informed and wise management policy decisions, and yet California, with possibly the greatest salmon problem has no comprehensive data gathering structure in place.

The legislators were routinely reminded of Prof. Moyle’s recent study stating 65% of California’s native salmon, steelhead and trout populations will be permanently lost if current practices do not change.

You can read more in a Sacramento Bee article by Matt Weiser California must step up to save salmon

Posted by Justin on 03/11 at 08:23 AM in Conservation • (4) Comments • Permalink

• 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 02/27 at 09:08 AM

Is the Chief bigger than the Department?

On Wednesday, State senators postponed confirmation of Schwarzenegger’s appointed candidate David Koch for Department of Fish and Game Chief. Although few senators had anything negative to say about Koch, the panel expressed larger concerns about the department as a whole.

Koch steps into the Fish and Game spotlight amid great turmoil in the department and throughout the state.

Matt Weiss of the Sacramento Bee noted, “Several witnesses complained the department has failed to fulfill its law-enforcement responsibilities, whether by not hiring enough game wardens or by not asserting its permit authority over matters such as timber harvesting and stream alterations.

“Of particular concern to some was the department’s recent refusal to halt recreational suction-dredge mining, which the department’s own scientists assert damages fish habitat. Another raised by several witnesses is inadequate protection of endangered salmon populations.

“Few speakers blamed Koch for these problems. But they said the department has been starved of the money and authority it needs to carry out its responsibilities.

“It’s tragic our state professes to be a leader in the ‘green’ movement, but will not hire or maintain enough staffing to protect our natural resources,” said Jerry Karnow, a game warden and legislative liaison to the California Fish and Game Wardens Association. “At this time, the wardens association will not offer an endorsement of any director appointed by this governor.”

“Karnow noted the department employs only about 220 field-level game wardens to police wildlife crimes statewide. And last week, more than 90 of them got layoff notices as part of the administration’s effort to balance the state budget.

“Whether those layoffs go forward remains unclear.

“You may have a good man in a bad department,” said Zeke Grader, executive director of Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations.

Sacramento Bee article

Posted by Justin on 02/27 at 09:08 AM in Conservation • (6) Comments • Permalink