Fishy Business:
Salmon Closure Calls for Careful Analysis
Closing California and Oregon salmon season causing economic catastrophe
By James A. Swan, Ph.D.On April 10, the Pacific Fishery Management Council adopted the most restrictive restrictions on salmon fishing in history off the coasts of California and Oregon: a ban on fishing for king salmon in U.S. waters extending from 3 to 200 miles off the coasts of California and most of Oregon. Then on April 18, the California Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously to prohibit commercial and recreational salmon fishing in state ocean waters, which extend from the shoreline to 3 miles off the coast.
Coho (or "silvers") harvesting is already banned in California; in Oregon, there will only be a limited 9,000 harvest of hatchery coho allowed this year.
All this will have to be approved by the National Marine Fisheries on May 1, but no one thinks they will disagree.
What caused this radical decision?
Over 800,000 Chinook were caught per year from 2000 – 2005 during the May 1 – Oct. 31 annual season for California and Oregon. Frankly the fishing for king salmon off the California coast has been better than in Alaska for years. The California kings run smaller than the humongous kings of the Kenai River, but for years there have been more fish in California/Oregon coastal waters, largely due to the huge Sacramento River spawning run.
But that's all changed now.
Once upon a time, the run of Chinook salmon up California's Sacramento River was the largest in the entire U.S., including Alaska. The run is/was so large that it affects salmon catch from San Francisco north into Oregon.
The minimum conservation goal for the fall Sacramento Chinook run is to have 120,000 to 150,000 adult spawners return to the river, ensuring a healthy new crop to keep the fishery going. As recently as 2002, 775,000 adult spawners were counted coming up the Sac.
Last year, there were so few kings heading upstream to spawn last fall (54,000) — the second-lowest number recorded on the Sacramento in the last 35 years — that biologists ran up the red flag.
From 1979 to 2004, the economic value of the commercial and sport fishery for California and Southern Oregon was estimated at $103 million a year. Closure will mean loss of that revenue — and a lot more.
California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has declared a state of emergency — projecting the salmon closure will likely cost the state upwards of $255 million and 2,263 jobs this year.
The state Department of Finance plans to reimburse $2.7 million in permits for the 2008 season and make grants available for workers losing jobs due to the closures. Schwarzenegger also signed a measure allocating $5.3 million for coastal salmon and steelhead restoration projects. They hope these measures will draw another $20 million in federal matching funds.
If you want to see some sad folks, talk with commercial fishermen and the charter boat captains from Monterey north to the Columbia River targeting salmon all summer long. All are hoping crabs, sand dabs, albacore, squid and halibut populations are good this year — otherwise commercial and sport boats are pretty much grounded, as rockfish already have hefty restrictions.
Explanations for the sudden salmon decline are hotly debated: Changing ocean currents associated with La Niña — colder water temperatures — and diminish nutrient-rich upwellings are one factor. No food means no fish.
Global warming is another cause some say, but even if the carbon emission build-up thesis is correct, things are not going to change so drastically in a year. Two years ago, the salmon run was just fine in the Sacramento.
Increased diversions of freshwater from the vast Delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers are definitely a critical inland factor.
The Delta is a huge fertile nursery for the juvenile smolts. Due to the diversions, several species of Delta fish, like smelt, are in short supply, due to water chemistry changes as freshwater is sent into the Central Valley for irrigation instead of downstream as nature meant.
In San Francisco Bay, they have finally changed the way juvenile hatchery salmon are released. Until this year, the young salmonoids were dumped from tanker trucks into shallows, which attracted swarms of predatory birds and schools of striped bass, engaging in a feeding frenzy decimating the young salmon. In recent weeks the DFG dumped this year's smolts into nets that could be towed out to deeper water and dispersed gradually.
There is another factor, at play, though. California has the worst per capita ratio of game wardens in North America — one warden for every 192,000 people.
Imagine what a town of 192,000 would be like with one cop! Have you watched "Deadwood"?
There are only 192 fish and game wardens in the field for the entire Golden State, and Governor Schwarznegger's Budget-Balancing Reductions Proposal calls for cutting $2.6 million from DFG's Law Enforcement Budget, translating to a loss of 38 more warden positions: 154 game wardens to cover a state with 37-plus million people?
The warden shortage translates into horrific problems with snagging. Last fall, within 10 miles of Sacramento, one California game warden made 130 arrests for salmon poaching in a period of three months. When fellow Wardens joined him, it resulted in more than 400 salmon poaching arrests.
Still, thousands of poachers escape. Many of those fish snagged were spawners.
According to the California Fish and Game Wardens Association, currently no game wardens live on the water from the mouth of the Klamath River nearly 200 miles north to Yreka — including its tributaries — as they have in the past. Poachers routinely snag and ravage salmon and sturgeon, with little fear of being arrested.
On the north coast in Eureka, the long-range, 65-foot patrol vessel Albacore has no permanent crew, so it spends its time moored at the dock in Humboldt Bay. The 63-footer, equipped with a Zodiac that can be launched at sea for boardings, has not been away from the dock for four and a half months.
The Albacore provides vital enforcement of commercial and sportfishing laws up to 200 miles at sea, as well as search-and-rescue and homeland security service. Without the Albacore on patrol, criminals routinely violate fishery regulations and deplete critical salmon and offshore stocks.
In San Francisco Bay, the Albacore's sister ship, the 58-foot patrol vessel Marlin (out of Berkeley), has sat idle for the past five months, as no funding existed to replace its engines, leaving the Bay Area and parts of the ocean in the mid-state region without patrol, except for the U.S. Coast Guard.
Even with the current shortage of salmon in the river and Delta, nearly every night, even now, game wardens are making arrests for the massive illegal take of baby salmon migrating back out to sea. Such salmon fingerlings are used as illegal bait for catching sturgeon, which are illegally caught and stripped of their roe for black-market caviar sales by organized crime.
In the seafood section at the local Whole Foods, previously frozen Chinook salmon is going for $22.95 a pound. In Seattle's Pike Place Market, "fresh wild Alaskan king salmon" filets are going for $29.99 a pound and up.
And you think gasoline prices are bad!
James Swan — who has appeared in more than a dozen feature films, including "Murder in the First" and "Star Trek: First Contact," as well as the television series "Nash Bridges," "Midnight Caller" and "Modern Marvels" — is the author of the book "In Defense of Hunting." Click to purchase a copy. To learn more about Swan, visit his Web site.
