Posted by Dave Hurley
on 1/2/2009, 7:33 pm
76.20.97.22
More 2009 Salmon Season Bad News
Most of the fall run salmon return data is now available and the news is not
good. It appears there can be no salmon fishing season in 2009. In 2007,
90,000 fall run fish returned to the Central Valley system to spawn.
The fishing season was closed because a minimum of 121,000 returns are needed
for the species to survive long term. In 2008, the returns are estimated to
be only 60,000 fish, a 23% drop from 2007 and the 2008 fishing season was
completely closed.
The disaster deepens. Stakeholder groups are asking for another year of
trucking hatchery fish around the delta to avoid the low water and delta problems.
DFG, NMFS, and The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will truck again in 2009
but the levels are yet to be established.
Other Salmon Bad News
The Mokelumne salmon hatchery is in deep trouble for 2009. In September and
October when the peak of the fall run salmon were trying to reach the hatchery,
flows in the Mokelumne River were cut to 20 cfs by a combination of water
diversions taken by East Bay Mud the Woodbridge Irrigation District. The result
was that less than 250 adult salmon reached the hatchery.
This is the second largest hatchery in the state and normally produces 6
million smolts. It also supplies the Tyee club and other key pen projects with
smolts. Now it only has 270,000 eggs which will only produce about 154,000
smolts. In 2007, 2.5 million eggs were moved from Nimbus hatchery to Mokelumne.
We are disappointed no eggs were moved this year. This is another terrible
example of how water policies and mismanagement are destroying California's
salmon fisheries.
High Powered Panel to Discuss the Salmon and Steelhead Crisis at the
Sacramento International Sportsmen's Show
A panel of fishing, biological, and environmental experts will discuss the
uncertain outlook for salmon and steelhead in California at the Sacramento ISE
Sportsmen's show at Cal Expo on January 17th. The future of these fishstands
at a crossroad. Will the runs be recovered or will the current government
policies assure their extinction? The panel will discuss these issues and reveal
the steps that must be taken if extinction is to be avoided.
The panel includes Dr. Joshua Israel of the UC Davis Salmon and Steelhead
Research team discussing the mounting evidence on potential extinctions.
Assemblyman Jared Huffman will provide comments from the legislature. Other
speakers include Barry Nelson from NRDC, Zeke Grader from the PCFFA, Michael Jackson,
the attorney who just filed a Public Trust suit against three agencies for
CSPA, and Dick Pool, Administrator for Water4Fish.org. The event at 1:00 PM
promises to be exciting and very
revealing. Water4Fish will have a booth #3572 at the same show. Stop in and
get the latest info. If you can help in the booth, we still need volunteers.
For more info on the show, log onto:
http://www.sportsexpos.com/promo.cfm?LNK=587
Cal Trout Releases Study on Potential Extinctions of Salmon, Trout and
Steelhead
In November, Cal Trout released its two year study on the future of salmon
trout and steelhead in California. The report was shocking. It indicated that
unless water and habitat conditions are changed in the rivers, streams and
estuaries, two thirds of the current 31 separate species of these fish are headed
for extinction. The research was performed by Dr. Peter Moyle and Dr. Joshua
Israel of UC Davis and their highly regarded "State of the Salmon Team". The
report titled "SOS: California's Native Fish Crisis" can be seen in its
entirety at CalTrout.org. Congratulations and thanks to Cal Trout for bringing
this critical subject to public attention.
Stakeholders Meet with The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
On November 24th a group of coalition stakeholders met with the State leaders
of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Sacramento. The purpose of the
meeting was to review the concerns of fishermen and discuss the role of the
Service in recovering the salmon runs. Stakeholders were represented by commercial
trollers, conservation groups, environmental groups, charter operators,
guides, equipment manufacturers and retailers. The meeting started with reports by
the Service on fall run salmon returns to the upper Sacramento River and to
Coleman hatchery.
As of November 16th 14,514 salmon had entered Battle Creek. This compares to
21,000 during the same period last year. The Service believes the total fall
run count for 2008 will approximate 60,000 salmon.
This is down substantially from the 90,000 returns in 2007 in spite of the
fact that the 2008 salmon fishing season was completely closed. As recently as
2002, 780,000 salmon returned to the Central Valley.
On the good news side, Coleman hatchery reached its egg goal for production
of 12 million fall run smolts. These smolts will be released in April and May
of 2009. Jack counts are a good indicator of future run sizes.
Unfortunately, only 460 jacks reached Coleman in 2008. There were 450 last year but
historically there were thousands returning.
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