California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) wardens cited a Southern California man early Sunday morning, January 15, for allegedly poaching dozens of lobsters inside a so-called "Marine Protected Area" (MPA) created under the privately-funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative.
The citation took place less than one day after an article written by AP reporter Jason Dearen appeared in the Silicon Valley Mercury News describing the challenge that California's fish and game wardens face in enforcing the "marine protected areas" (http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_19743552). California's 1,100-mile coastline has more than 124 "marine protected areas" covering about 848 square miles of state waters, or about 16 percent of the coast, while the DFG has fewer wardens per capita than any other state or Canadian province.
"Wardens observed Marbel A. Para, 30, of Romoland (Riverside County) and a companion SCUBA diving in the Laguna Beach State Marine Reserve after midnight on Jan. 15," according to a DFG news release. "This location, which is in the Heisler Park area off the coast of Laguna Beach, has historically been closed to lobster fishing for years (even prior to the establishment of the MPA)."
"After the divers left the water and returned to their vehicle, the wardens made contact with them and discovered 47 California spiny lobsters in their possession. In addition to illegally taking the lobsters from an MPA, the divers were well over the legal possession limit of seven lobsters per diver, and all but five of the lobsters were undersize. Para claimed that all the lobsters were his, and his companion was not cited," the release stated.
This is the first major violation that DFG wardens have cited in any of the controversial "marine protected areas" since they went into effect in Southern California on Jan. 1, 2012. "The MPAs were created through the Marine Life Protection Act in order to simplify and strengthen existing marine reserves and fishing regulations to allow recovery of fish populations that have been in severe decline," the release claimed.
"The vast majority of our fishing and diving constituents are responsible and law-abiding," said DFG Assistant Chief Paul Hamdorff. "It is always our goal to catch those who choose to intentionally abuse the resources of this state for their own benefit."
Wardens cited Para for several poaching violations including unlawful take and illegal possession of lobster, and possession of overlimits and undersized animals. A report will be filed with the Orange County District Attorney and Para may face additional charges related to this case.
"All the lobsters were confiscated, photographed as evidence and then safely returned to the ocean," the DFG concluded.
What the DFG release left out
Unfortunately, the DFG release fails to mention five key points about the so-called "marine protected areas" that went into effect in Southern California waters on January 1. Without including these facts, the DFG leadership is creating a false view of the closed zones imposed by the MLPA Initiative.
First, representatives of the California Fish and Game Wardens Association have opposed the creation of any new "marine protected areas" until funding is provided to enforce the existing ones. Because of the difficulty posed to an understaffed, underfunded department in enforcing these "MPAs," the wardens often refer to the MPAs as "Marine Poaching Areas."
"It is impossible for the warden force to effectively enforce existing regulations, much less new regulations that the Fish and Game Commission approves over our objections," said Jerry Karnow, Legislative Liason for the California Fish and Game Wardens Association, in a superb opinion piece in the Sacramento Bee on January 31, 2010. "Many of the regulations approved by the commission will not protect the natural resources of California. They will serve only one purpose; they will stretch the warden force ever thinner, which will eventually result in another warden's on-duty injury or death." (http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/story/2500939.html)
Second, the South Coast "marine reserves" were created by the MLPA "Blue Ribbon Task Force" chaired by Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association. Reheis-Boyd is a big oil industry lobbyist with an egregious conflict of interest in the designation of MPAs, considering that she has repeatedly called for new oil drilling off the California coast. Reheis-Boyd is also a big supporter of Canadian tar sands drilling and the gutting of environmental laws.
Third, the MLPA process was overseen not only by an oil industry lobbyist, but by a marina developer, coastal real estate executive and other corporate operatives and political hacks with numerous conflicts of interest.
Fourth, in a parody of true marine protection, these fake "marine protected areas" fail to protect the ocean from oil spills and drilling, pollution, military testing, corporate aquaculture, wind and wave energy projects and all human impacts on the ocean other than fishing and gathering. What type of marine "protection" is that?
Fifth, the MLPA Initiative that created the MPAs is privately funded by the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, setting a bad precedent for the privatization of conservation and the public trust in California.
Also, while the DFG rightfully apprehended the alleged lobster poacher on Sunday morning, the same Department did absolutely nothing to stop the biggest fish kill ever in the Delta in 2011 by the biggest poachers in California history, the California Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Agency staff "salvaged" over 11 million fish, including 9 million Sacramento splittail, in the Delta pumping facilities. Scientists point out that the actual numbers of fish lost in the pumps are 5 to 10 times the salvage numbers. These "death pumps" killed more fish than all of the poachers in the state combined.
The annual export total, including water diverted by the Contra Costa Canal and North Bay Aqueduct, was 6,633,000 acre-feet in 2011 - 163,000 acre-feet more than the previous record of 6,470,000 acre-feet set in 2005, according to DWR data. The annual export total, excluding water diverted by the Contra Costa Canal and North Bay Aqueduct, was 6,520,000 acre-feet in 2011 - 217,000 acre-feet more than the previous record of 6,303,000 acre-feet set in 2005.
And while the DFG is willing to make a high profile bust to garner publicity, the DFG leadership is not willing to challenge the Obama and Brown administration campaign to build a peripheral canal to export more water to corporate agribusiness and southern California. This canal would result in the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other imperiled species.
Congressman Jerry McNerney (CA-11) said he "appreciates" the state and federal government announcement Tuesday to release Delta science studies, but emphasized that it is only "a very small step forward."
The U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the California Natural Resources Agency and the California Department of Water Resources announced that "key" documents regarding the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) Memorandum of Agreement will be made public via the internet to all parties at the same time.
Delta residents, fishermen, environmentalists, Indian Tribes, family farmers and environmental justice advocates have blasted the BDCP for being a plan to build a peripheral canal or tunnel, designed to export more water to corporate agribusiness and southern California, under the guise of a "Habitat Conservation Plan."
"Having access to documents does not guarantee that the concerns of the Delta communities will be considered, and I am resolved to fight against any plan that includes a peripheral canal," said McNerney.
"The entire process has been conducted in secrecy and without the Delta region represented," he stated. "We need a more steadfast guarantee that our input will be included in the Bay Delta Plan. Any other outcome could cost the Delta communities millions of dollars and countless jobs."
"I continue to stand with the farmers, families and businesses that depend on a healthy Delta for their livelihoods and way of life. A healthy Delta is vital to the health and well-being of our region. Much more must be done to level the playing field and ensure that the needs of the Delta communities are respected," he concluded.
In a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on October 24, McNerney and U.S. Reps. George Miller (CA-7), Mike Thompson (CA-1), Doris Matsui (CA-5) ) and John Garamendi (CA-10) asked that the agreement between the Department and water agencies be rescinded. They also said the process must be opened up to include key stakeholders left out of the discussions, including Bay Area, Delta and coastal communities, farmers, businesses, and fishermen. (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/10/24/18694808.php)
Eleven Members of Congress also slammed the BDCP MOA in a letter to the US Bureau of Reclamation on November 16 (http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2011/11/17/salmon-advocates-praise-members-of-congress-for-delta-water-stand.) The Representatives included George Miller, Jackie Speier, Barbara Lee, Pete Stark, Lynne Woolsey, Pete Stark, Kurt Schrader, Earl Blumenauer, Sam Farr, Michael Thompson and Anna Eshoo.
"In short, we believe that the MOA must withdrawn, and the state and federal agencies must dramatically recalibrate the BDCP process," the Representatives wrote.
Delta advocates believe the peripheral canal, if built, would lead to the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and other imperiled fish species.
The Brown and Obama administrations authorized the export of a record 6.5 million acre-feet of water from the Delta in water year 2011. The previous record, set during the Schwarzenegger and Bush administrations, was 6.3 million acre-feet in 2005.
The record exports have resulted in unprecedented numbers of fish killed at the state and federal pumps. The state and federal governments have to date "salvaged" over 11 million fish, including 8 million Sacramento splitttail, but scientific studies reveal that actual loss in the pumping facilities is actually 5 to 10 times the amount of fish "salvaged." (http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2011/09/09/over-11-million-fish-salvaged-in-delta-death-pumps-since-january-1).
Contact: Victor Gonella, Golden Gate Salmon Association, 707-217-6666
Zeke Grader, GGSA, PCFFA, 415-561-5080, ex 224
Salmon Advocates Praise Members of Congress for Delta Water Stand
Salmon fishery and salmon jobs depend on balanced approach
San Francisco -- Salmon advocates expressed their thanks today to 11 Members of Congress from throughout California and Oregon for their call for a fair planning process for California's delta water supplies. Without a fair process, California's salmon runs will likely decline with a great loss of jobs, a key food source, and a key part of California's natural heritage.
The members of Congress sent a letter to the US Department of the Interior condemning the Bay Delta Conservation Plan's (BDCP) recent Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between state and federal agencies and selected water export contractors who receive a portion of their water supply from the Bay-Delta. The Congressional members call for a rescinding of the MOA and development of a fair process that incorporates state and federal obligations to rebuild salmon runs.
The BDCP planning process seeks a 50 year federal permit to take or kill federally protected wildlife, including commercially valuable salmon, as part of operating a peripheral canal or tunnel. The MOA hands control over key parts of the planning process to water agencies in the San Joaquin Valley and other points south that have historically ignored the needs of salmon.
"Salmon advocates strongly support the work of these members of Congress on this issue," said Victor Gonella, president of the Golden Gate Salmon Association. " If the water users control the planning process, salmon have little chance of long term survival in California since they're unlikely to be spared the water they need to survive. If we lose salmon, we'll lose billions of dollars in associated economic activity and tens of thousands of jobs. "
"We believe water can be shared in such a way that we can have healthy, sustainable, abundant salmon runs and water to meet the needs of our farms and cities but it won't happen unless there's a level playing field that considers the value of the salmon fishery in California," said GGSA director Zeke Grader.
The Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA) is made up of fishermen and environmentalists working together on behalf of the Central Valley salmon to protect its habitat, aid in its revival and recovery, and provide for its long-term sustainability as a recreational, commercial and cultural resource. Our partners are elected officials, regulatory agencies, as well as legal, educational, and outreach organizations.
Golden Gate Salmon Association understands and respects the vital role that salmon plays in our environment and in our communities. Salmon recovery is our passion.
Under intense pressure from northern California anglers and Delta advocates, the California Fish and Game Commission decided on November 16 to postpone consideration of a controversial proposed striped bass regulation change proposal to their February 1-2, 2012 meeting in Sacramento.
Consideration of the proposed regulations - a proposal that many anglers say amounts to a striped bass "eradication plan" - was originally scheduled to take place at the Commission meeting in San Diego in December.
This decision came after Department of Fish and Game (DFG) Director Charlton H. Bonham requested the change in order to allow interested members of the public residing near the Delta the opportunity to voice their opinions to the Commission.
"After the DFG public meeting in the Delta last week, we learned there are many passionate anglers who would like the opportunity to share their views on the draft proposal," Bonham said. "I think it's important to hear these views. The discussion is welcome. Moving the public discussion to Sacramento from San Diego will allow these constituents to attend the meeting. It's the right thing to do."
Dick Pool, administrator of Water for Fish and Secretary Treasurer of the Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA), applauded Bonham's decision to postpone discussion of the striped bass proposal to the Commission meeting in February.
"Postponing the hearing is the only fair thing to do," said. "There are thousands of striped bass fishermen and others that are deeply concerned about this issue. They need to have a chance to have their voices heard."
More than 350 anglers and members of the public who showed up at a DFG "public workshop" in Rio Vista Tuesday, November 8 voiced unanimous opposition to the new regulations to dramatically increase size and bag limits for anadromous striped bass (http://www.fishsniffer.com/content/1500-public-voices-100-percent-opposition-striped-bass-reduction-plan.html).
Bob Boucke, owner of Johnson's Bait and Tackle in Yuba City, echoed the feelings of hundreds in the room when he urged the DFG, rather than trying to eradicate stripers, to instead focus on the real problem - curbing the massive Delta water exports that have spurred the collapse of Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and striped bass themselves.
"The stripers have been here 130 years and they have gotten along with the Delta smelt and the salmon all of that time until they started pumping all this water down there," said Boucke. "That's when the whole problem started. And yet Fish and Game doesn't want to do anything about the water problem, but they want to ruin our striper fishing. There is nothing wrong with the stripers the way they are."
The proposal is the result of a court settlement of a lawsuit between the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, an agribusiness "Astroturf" group representing San Joaquin Valley corporate growers, and the DFG. This group is housed in Stewart Resnick's headquarters for Paramount Farms in Kern County. Resnick, a politically connected Beverly Hills billionaire and the largest tree fruit grower in the world, has made tens of millions of dollars annually from buying and reselling water back to the state for a big profit and is a big advocate of state and federal plans to export more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Dleta.
We need a huge turnout of anglers at the meeting to stop the striped bass eradication plan from being approved by the Commission! The meeting is scheduled for February 1-2, 2012, Wednesday-Thursday, at the Resources Building Auditorium, 1416 Ninth Street, Sacramento, CA. The agenda is not available yet; for more information, go to: http://www.fgc.ca.gov/meetings...
Please also write a letter to the Commission opposing the proposal. You can copy and paste a sample letter from: http://water4fish.org/write-le... and mail it to: Jim Kellogg, President, California Fish and Game Commission, P.O. Box 944209, Sacramento, CA 94244-2980. Submit comments on the proposal via email to: fgc [at] fgc.ca.gov.
The http://www.water4fish.org website will soon feature an easy to use on-line letter writing campaign to oppose the striper proposal soon. I will send out an action alert when the on-line campaign is ready to go.
I also strongly encourage you to watch this video by Cal Kellogg, Fish Sniffer Magazine Editor, covering the DFG workshop in Rio Vista: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... . Please join two organizations, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (http://www.calsport.org) and California Striped Bass Asssociation (http://www.striper-csba.com), listed at the end.
The striped bass proposal has been developed at a time when the state and federal governments are fast-tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build the peripheral canal. Delta residents, fishermen, Indian Tribes, family farmers, business owners, conservationists and environmental justice advocates are opposing the peripheral canal's construction because it would lead to the extinction of Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations.
DFG Striped Bass Proposal
The basic proposed changes to the striper regulations are as follows:
Raising the daily bag limit for striped bass from two to six fish.
Raising the possession limit for striped bass from two to 12 fish.
Lowering the minimum size for striped bass from 18 to 12 inches.
Establishing a "hot spot" for striped bass fishing at Clifton Court Forebay and specified adjacent waterways at which the daily bag limit will be 20 fish, the possession limit will be 40 fish and there will be no size limit. Anglers fishing at the hot spot would be required to fill out a report card and deposit it in an iron ranger or similar receptacle.
Changes to the sport fishing regulations for the Carmel, Pajaro and Salinas Rivers to allow harvest of striped bass when the fishery would otherwise be closed.
DFG is also recommending an adaptive management plan that will help assess how the new regulations influence the fishery.
The Commissioners will decide whether to pursue the proposed regulations at their February meeting in Sacramento. If they choose to pursue the proposal it begins a process that includes at least three public hearings and the completion of an environmental document. A final decision is not expected until later in 2012.
Congress should continue ban on "catch shares" programs
by Dan Bacher
As the Occupy movement spreads throughout the nation and world, sustainable fishing communities, consumer groups and grassroots environmentalists have mobilized to stop the 1 percent from stealing ocean public trust resources from the 99 percent.
This week the U.S. Congress is expected to vote on a critical bill that would continue a recently instituted ban on a wasteful government program that gives large corporations control of the nation's fishery resources, in effect privatizing the ocean's public trust resources.
The Obama regime is promoting a "catch shares" program for fisheries that, like the Wall Street bailouts, will concentrate money and natural resources in fewer hands. Corporate environmental NGOs promoting the catch shares fiasco are heavily funded by the Walton Family Foundation (WalMart) and other foundations that represent the 1 percent (http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/08/19/wal-marting-the-oceans).
The ban has broad bi-partisan support. On November 3, nineteen Members of Congress from seven Eastern Seaboard states signed a letter urging Congress to not fund the Obama administration's catch shares program.
Drafted by Representative Walter Jones of North Carolina to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the House Appopriations Committee and the Commerce subcommittee, the letter asks that "language be included in the final FY 2012 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) appropriations bill to restrict the use of funds for development or approval of new 'catch share' programs for any fishery under the jurisdiction of the New England, Mid Atlantic or South Atlantic Fishery Management Councils." (http://www.savingseafood.org/washington/19-members-of-congress-ask-appropriations-and-authorizing-committees-not-to-fund-new-catch-share-pro-3.html)
"The last thing the American government should be doing in these economic times is spending millions of taxpayer dollars to expand programs that will put even more Americans out of work," the letter stated. "But that's exactly what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is attempting to do by requesting $54 million in its FY 12 Budget to accelerate implementation of new fisheries catch share programs across the U.S."
Food & Water Watch, a national consumer advocacy organization, is one of the organizations leading the charge to ban catch shares. "In recent years the government has been ramping up spending of taxpayer dollars on catch share programs," according to Zach Corrigan, Fish Program Director of Food & Water Watch. "These programs divide up our nation's fishery resources for exclusive use by the biggest and fastest fishing operations and then allow corporations and banks to buy and sell these 'shares' for profit."
"Catch shares turn the opportunity to go fishing into a commodity, requiring commercial fishermen to buy shares before being able to go fishing. As has happened with family farms on land, the added costs push smaller-scale fishermen out of business and consolidate the industry, paving the way for industrial fishing methods that can destroy sensitive ocean habitats," Corrigan noted.
Make your voice heard now!
Last year, Congress passed a one-year measure to stop new catch share programs on the east coast and in the Gulf of Mexico, but industry proponents are attempting to end this ban this week, noted Corrigan.
"Congress needs to hear that you oppose making small-scale fishermen a relic of the past and increasing our reliance on corporate-controlled food production. Can you ask your member of Congress to keep this ban on "catch share" programs?" urged Corrigan.
If you don't want what's happened to our housing, banking, health care and other industries to happen to our ocean, send a letter today!
On a similar note, the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance (http://namanet.org) is circulating a graphic entitled, "Occupy the Ocean?" warning of the increasing consolidation of fisheries in the hands of a few.
"In 2010, 20% of vessels accounted for about 80% of the gross nominal revenues from groundfish sales in New England," the alliance states. "Diversity matters when it comes to who catches our fish, grows our food, banks our cars or keeps us healthy."
Privatization of the public trust and conservation is bad for fish, communities
The increasing corporate control of public resources that has occurred wherever "catch shares" have been introduced has devastated fish populations and fishing communities.
"The current focus of U.S. policy for managing our fisheries, called catch shares, is destroying the way of life of our nation's fishermen and coastal communities," according to a groundbreaking Food & Water Watch event released in August. (http://documents.foodandwaterwatch.org/Fish-Inc.pdf). "This time-honored trade is being replaced by a privatized system that often leaves the future of our nation's fish, one of our most precious natural resources, in the hands of a small number of larger operations, whose primary goal is often immediate profit rather than sustainable use and long-term conservation."
In California, the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, a private corporation, has funded the controversial Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative. The MLPA Initiative, overseen by oil industry, real estate, marina development and other corporate interests, creates so-called "marine protected areas" that fail to protect the ocean from oil drilling and spills, pollution, military testing, corporate aquaculture, wind and wave energy projects and all other human impacts other than fishing and gathering.
Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), was chair of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force that oversaw the development of these questionable "marine protected areas" on the Southern California coast. She also served on the panels for the North Central and North Coast. Reheis-Boyd has lobbied for new oil rigs off the California coast and tar sands drilling in Canada - and is no friend of the environment.
Yet MLPA advocates refused to question or oppose the appointment by Schwarzenegger of a big oil lobbyist - and falsely claimed that the rigged process was "open, transparent and inclusive," while it was anything but. For more information, go to: http://redgreenandblue.org/201...
Occupy movement message spreads to the California Delta
Meanwhile, the same Obama administration that is promoting the catch shares program and the same Brown administration that has continued Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's MLPA Initiative are fast-tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan to build the peripheral canal to export more water from the California Delta to corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California water agencies. Delta residents, family farmers, Indian Tribes, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, conservationists and environmental justice advocates are opposing the enormously expensive government boondoggle because it would likely lead to the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta and longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail and green sturgeon populations.
In a public meeting held by the Department of Fish and Game on November 8 regarding the Department's striped bass eradication proposal, Dawn Gulick, owner of Eddo's Harbor, echoed the theme of the Occupy Wall Street protests taking place throughout the country. Gulick said the water contractors, including Stewart Resnick, the politically connected Beverly Hills billionaire who has made tens of millions of dollars annually from buying and reselling water back to the state for a big profit, are waging "class war" against the people of the Delta.
"This is a class war and they're winning," she stated, followed by a person next to her shouting, "Occupy the Delta!" Others joined in shouting, "Occupy the Delta."
"It's our Delta. Big Money has big influence over our government and it's time to take our government back!" she continued as people in the crowd applauded.
After reading my article on the meeting, an editor of the San Francisco Chronicle decided to interview Gulick (http://blog.sfgate.com/opinionshop/2011/11/11/occupys-message-heard-in-the-delta) regarding the water contractors' war on the Delta.
"It's the 1 percent coming after our water, our fish and our farms," Gullick told the Chronicle. The real elephant in the room is pumping, not bass predation, she said. "The pelagic organisms decline the more water they pump from the delta."
Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe and one of the most outspoken opponents of the peripheral canal and state and federal plans to export even more water out of the Delta, urged support for the Occupy movement as the police were raiding the Occupy Oakland encampment Monday.
"All California people need to keep up with what is happening to the 99%! That is US, we are the 99%!" she emphasized.
Her Tribe is pushing for an innovative plan to restore native winter run chinook salmon to the McCloud River above Lake Shasta with eggs provided by the Maori and New Zealand governments. Although extinct in their native habitat on the McCloud, the salmon are now thriving in the Rakaira and other rivers in New Zealand.
I believe it is time to "occupy the oceans," "occupy the Delta," and stand up for local communities and our oceans against the privatization of conservation and public trust resources. The 99 percent must rise up against the 1 percent that only care about their profits as they greenwash their privatization plans.
The California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) on Friday, November 4 released a draft of proposed recreational fishing regulation changes for striped bass, a species that is avidly pursued by anglers on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay.
The proposal would raise the daily bag limit for striped bass from two to six fish; raise the possession limit from two to 12 fish; and lower the minimum size from 18 to 12 inches. The proposal is strongly opposed by the California Striped Bass Association (CSBA), California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) and other fishing groups, who accuse the DFG of caving in to the wishes of water contractors who want to export more water from the Delta by building a peripheral canal.
The liberalized regulations were spurred by a settlement between the DFG, NOAA Fisheries and the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, an agribusiness astroturf organization that sued the DFG for managing striped bass through fishing regulations in a thinly-veiled attempt to divert attention from the export pumps that have devastated fisheries. The Coalition claims that the striped bass, an East Coast fish introduced to the Sacramento over 120 years ago, should not be protected because the fish supposedly prey on protected chinook salmon and Delta smelt.
Since winter run and spring chinook salmon and Delta smelt were listed under the state and federal Endangered Species Acts, the federal government, with little or no scientific evidence, has claimed that striped bass "predation" is a factor in the decline of salmon and smelt. To address widely-contested "concerns" about striped bass "predation" on winter-run Chinook salmon by NOAA Fisheries, the DFG temporarily stopped stocking striped bass in 1990.
The DFG worked until 1999 to receive federal permits from the USFWS and NOAA Fisheries to begin stocking striped bass again and in 2000 suspended all stocking to address concerns about several listed fish species in the Central Valley.The DFG and NOAA also suspended a wildly successful pen rearing program, conducted by the Fisheries Foundation of California, that raised striped bass salvaged in the Delta pumps until they were large enough to fend off predators.
Anglers believe that the program helped raise the number of striped bass up to an estimated 1.5 million fish over 18 inches in 2000, still a far cry from the millions of stripers that thrived in the Bay Delta Estuary in the mid-1960s. The current population estimate is around 600,000 fish over 18 inches.
DFG says striper impact on salmon, smelt 'could be substantial'
"Controversy over striped bass management peaked in 2008 when the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta sued DFG under the federal Endangered Species Act, seeking to require the department to apply for federal permits to enforce one of the fishing regulations that limits sport harvest of striped bass," explained Marty Gingras, DFG Region 3 fishery biologist. "Both as part of a settlement agreement and as a result of continuing work by USFWS, NOAA Fisheries and DFG to recover the listed species, DFG and the federal agencies developed the proposal to modify striped bass fishing regulations in an effort to reduce striped bass predation on the listed species."
Gingras claimed, "Striped bass are known and/or expected to prey on listed Chinook salmon, coho salmon, steelhead, delta smelt, longfin smelt and tidewater goby. While the extent of striped bass predation on listed species cannot be precisely determined, the best available science indicates that the impact could be substantial."
"Although the amount of impact attributable to striped bass predation is not certain, DFG strongly suspects that the impact can be reduced by the proposed regulations," added Gingras. "With the proposed changes, striped bass would likely become somewhat less abundant and the average size of striped bass would decline, but fishing effort and fishing success would likely increase for a period of at least several years."
Prominent scientists contest DFG claims of striper impacts
However, numerous prominent scientists and representatives of fishing groups counter that massive water exports to corporate agribusiness and southern California and declining water quality and habitat destruction, not striped bass, are the primary cause of the decline in Central Valley salmon and Delta smelt. They argue that striped bass, salmon and Delta smelt populations all thrived together until the massive state and federal pumping facilities went into operation.
According to David J. Ostrach Ph.D., formerly with the Pathology, Conservation and Population Biology Laboratory at U.C. Davis, "Striped bass, Chinook salmon & Steelhead populations co-existed and thrived in this Estuary/ecosystem for over a hundred years together. It was not until multiple stressors beginning with water project operations in the 1970s followed by contaminants, introduced invasive clams and zooplankton, poor river flows and extensive habitat deterioration that all of the species concurrently began and continue to decline." (http://calsport.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Ostrach-Striped-Bass-testimony-on-AB1253.pdf)
He noted, "Striped bass and salmon populations on the East Coast of the US have co-existed and thrived for thousands of years. So to conclude that striped bass in this ecosystem are causing the decline of salmon and other species has no credible scientific basis and in my opinion is absurd."
Fishery scientist Dr. Tina Swanson, when serving as executive director of the Bay Institute, described the striped bass as "like a naturalized citizen" in the estuary that has become a part of the ecosystem during her testimony at a State Water Resources Control Board meeting in 2010.
In fact, Dr. Peter B. Moyle and William A. Bennett, Center for Watershed Sciences, point out that decreasing the population of striped bass could possibly have a negative impact upon salmon and smelt by changing "basic ecosystem processes."
"Reducing the striped bass population may or may not have a desirable effect," according to Moyle and Bennett (http://calsport.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Moyle-and-Bennett-to-CFGC-20100826.pdf). "In our opinion, it is most likely to have a negative effect. While the ultimate cause of death of most fish may be predation, the contribution of striped bass to fish declines is not certain. By messing with a dominant predator(if indeed it is), the agencies are inadvertently playing roulette with basic ecosystem processes that can change in unexpected ways in response to reducing striped bass numbers."
Fish groups accuse DFG of 'caving" to agribusiness
Representatives of fishing groups accuse the DFG of buckling to pressure by corporate agribusiness interests by agreeing to the settlement rather than continuing to fight the Coalition in court.
"CSPA, Northern California Council Federation of Fly Fishers (NCCFFF) and the California Striped Bass Association (CSBA), as well as Delta water agencies, intervened, at great expense, in the lawsuit in support of DFG," said Bill Jennings, executive director/chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. "CSPA was looking forward to trial because the evidence in the record did not support the conclusion that striped bass predation caused population level effects on salmon and smelt. Unfortunately, feeling the pressure of escalating legal costs, DFG caved and cut a deal. CSPA, NCCFFF, CSBA and the Delta agencies opposed and refused to sign the settlement agreement."
"It appears the Department of Fish & Game has caved into the lawsuit filed against striped bass by the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, which is based out of Kern County and consists of agricultural interests who want Delta water," said Roger Mammon of the California Striped Bass Association, West Delta Chapter, and a board member of Restore the Delta. "It is extremely important that everyone valuing the striped bass as a resource and the Delta as our home attend this meeting to let Fish and Game know that we are not happy with this regulation change proposal."
Cal Kellogg, Editor of the Fish Sniffer magazine, emphasized, "Any way you look at this, it is a poor, irresponsible decision by the DFG. If all stripers were gone tomorrow, we don't know if it would have a positive, negative or no effect on the estuary. Yet we do know that when our salmon runs were strong before the beginning of water exports, the striped bass population was also at its apex."
Jennings said everybody concerned about restoring Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations should strongly oppose the DFG proposal. "This proposal is based on bogus science and is a capitulation to those who are attempting to shift responsibility for the Delta collapse from the export pumps to the fish - and who are blaming the victims of water exports for the collapse," Jennings explained.
Jennings emphasized that if the Fish and Game Commission rejects the proposal, the Coalition for Sustainable Delta must drop its lawsuit with prejudice. "If the Commission passes the proposal, they face a lawsuit in state court," said Jennings.
Public workshop location moved to larger venue
To accommodate the large number of anglers expected, the scheduled public workshop at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 8 has been moved to a larger venue. The new location is the Rio Vista & Isleton Club, 295 South 7th Street, Rio Vista, 94571.
It is ironic that the same Obama and Brown administrations that have agreed to demonize striped bass as "predators" are fast-tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build a peripheral canal or tunnel, a project that will result in the extinction of Delta and longfin smelt, Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and other fish species. And the same state and federal governments that are pushing for the peripheral canal exported record levels of water from the California Delta this year, resulting in the "salvage" of over 11 million fish, including 9 million Sacramento splittail, in the Delta "death pumps."
DFG Striped Bass Proposal
The basic proposed changes are as follows:
Raising the daily bag limit for striped bass from two to six fish.
Raising the possession limit for striped bass from two to 12 fish.
Lowering the minimum size for striped bass from 18 to 12 inches.
Establishing a "hot spot" for striped bass fishing at Clifton Court Forebay and specified adjacent waterways at which the daily bag limit will be 20 fish, the possession limit will be 40 fish and there will be no size limit. Anglers fishing at the hot spot would be required to fill out a report card and deposit it in an iron ranger or similar receptacle.
Changes to the sport fishing regulations for the Carmel, Pajaro and Salinas Rivers to allow harvest of striped bass when the fishery would otherwise be closed.
DFG is also recommending an adaptive management plan that will help assess how the new regulations influence the fishery.
The proposal and management plan will be presented to the Fish and Game Commission for consideration at its December meeting.
Coalition for A Sustainable Delta background: This agribusiness "Astroturf" group is housed in Stewart Resnick's headquarters for Paramount Farms in Kern County. Stewart Resnick is the Beverly Hills billionaire who has made tens of millions of dollars annually from buying and reselling water back to the state for a tidy profit. Resnick, who supports the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, has also been a big political campaign contributor to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senator Diane Feinstein, Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Governor Jerry Brown. (http://yubanet.com/california/Big-Ag-s-Power-Couple-Banking-On-Brown-Feinstein.php)
The U.S. Supreme Court sided with environmental groups on October 31 by denying an agribusiness appeal of a decision by the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that federal protections for Delta smelt are constitutional.
Earthjustice attorney Trent Orr, who argued this case at the Ninth Circuit in defense of smelt protections, praised the Supreme Court action.
"After five lower courts found that it's in the national interest to preserve all of America's wildlife, including species that happen to exist only within the confines of a single state, the top court in the land agrees," said Orr. "The law clearly recognizes that all species are important to the web of life, may have benefits to society yet to be discovered, and are fundamental to the nation's commerce."
In March, the lower court ruled in a challenge to the listing of the delta smelt under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) brought by the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a property rights advocacy organization that represented three San Joaquin Valley growers in the litigation.
The group challenged the listing, claiming it violates the Commerce Clause of the Constitution that addresses interstate commerce. PLF's lawsuit claimed that "the federal government has no authority to issue regulations relating to the smelt, because the three-inch fish exists only in one state - California - and is not bought or sold in commerce."
However, the appeals court ruled in favor of the constitutionality of ESA intrastate species protection, citing previous cases that "demonstrated a connection between ESA protections and interstate commerce, including the value of biodiversity as an underpinning of our economic enterprises," according to Earthjustice.
Brandon M. Middleton, Staff Attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation, responded to the Supreme Court's denial of the review by saying he was "disappointed but determined."
"It is disappointing that the Supreme Court chose not to review the federal government's intrusive and destructive Delta smelt regulations," said Middleton. "But while we're disappointed, we're also determined."
"The legal fight against those regulations goes on, as PLF is active in other litigation over the federal biological opinions for the Delta smelt and other species. Those federal edicts were based on phony science, but their effect has been all too real: They've caused devastating water cutoffs that put businesses, farms, and communities on the endangered list," he claimed.
Fishing groups applauded the denial of the PLF's appeal. "We are pleased that the Supreme Court decided that the appeal by the Pacific Legal Foundation was clearly meritless litigation that would take up valuable court time," said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman's Associations and vice-president of the Golden Gate Salmon Association.
He emphasized, "The Delta smelt is not just is any two inch minnow - it's a key indicator species for the health of the most valuable estuary on the West Coast of the Americas."
The Delta smelt's decline in recent years occurs as part of the Pelagic Organism Decline (POD) of four fish species - Delta smelt, longfin smelt, threadfin shad and young striped bass. State and federal scientists have pinpointed three major factors in the decline - increases in water exports out of the California Delta, increases in toxics, and invasive species. More recently, ammonia discharges from sewage treatment plants have been cited by scientists as a factor in the POD.
The September fall midwater trawl survey by the Department of Fish and Game revealed the best numbers of Delta smelt since 2001, due to high flows through the Delta over the past year, but the fish's status is still well below historical levels. (http://aquafornia.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011SepFMWT_memo-2.pdf)
The Supreme Court's denial of the appeal takes place at a time when the state and federal governments are fast-tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build a peripheral canal or tunnel to export more water to corporate agribusiness and southern California. Delta advocates believe that the construction of the canal would result in the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta and longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, green sturgeon and other species.
Earthjustice, a national non-profit environmental law firm, joined the federal government in the United States District Court in Fresno to help defend the protections for the delta smelt. The district judge agreed that federal protection of the smelt was constitutional, and PLF appealed.
For the first time ever, scientists have uncovered the presence of infectious salmon anemia, a deadly virus that has devastated farmed fish in Chile, in wild salmon populations on the West Coast.
This news arrived at a time when the Obama administration is fast-tracking the approval of genetically engineered Atlantic salmon, promoting environmental destructive corporate aquaculture facilities and pushing the privatization of public trust resources through the controversial "catch shares" program.
Scientists from Simon Fraser University reported at a news conference in Vancouver on October 17 that the virus had been found in 2 of 48 juvenile fish collected as part of a study of sockeye salmon in Rivers Inlet, British Columbia.
"The highly contagious marine influenza virus, Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA,) has for the first time been officially reported after being found in the Pacific on B.C.'s central coast," according to a news release from the scientists. (http://www.sfu.ca/pamr/media-releases/2011/lethal-atlantic-virus-found-in-pacific-salmon.html)
"Now it threatens both wild salmon and herring," said biologist Alexandra Morton and Simon Fraser University professor Rick Routledge, whose laboratory led to the discovery of ISA in B.C. salmon smolts.
Morton is calling for removal of Atlantic salmon from B.C. salmon farms. "Loosing a virus as lethal and contagious as ISA into the North Pacific is a cataclysmic biological threat to life," said Morton. "The European strain of ISA virus can only have come from the Atlantic salmon farms. European strain ISA infected Chile via Atlantic salmon eggs in 2007."
Morton says ISA was first found in Norway in 1984. "Since then, there have been lethal outbreaks in every important salmon-farming region around the globe, with the exception - or so we thought - of B.C. Now we know for sure that it has hit B.C.
"The Cohen Inquiry revealed ISA symptoms have been reported in farm salmon in B.C. since 2006. The Fisheries Ministers have written me repeatedly that B.C. is safe from ISA. Clearly they are not in control of the situation," Morton stated.
"If there is any hope, we have to turn off the source: Atlantic salmon have to be immediately removed," she concluded.
Dr. Fred Kibenge of the ISA reference laboratory at the Atlantic Veterinary College in P.E.I. made the diagnosis and notified the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) of the positive results for the European strain of ISA virus, according to the release.
"ISA is a deadly exotic disease which could have devastating impacts on wild salmon and the many species that depend on them throughout much of British Columbia and beyond," said Routledge. "The combined impacts of this influenza-like virus and the recently identified parvovirus that can suppress the immune system could be particularly deadly."
The study results were released on the heels of a report by Food & Water Watch, a national consumer advocacy group, regarding the "troubling consequences" of factory fish farming. (http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/pressreleases/new-report-reveals-troubling-consequences-of-factory-farming-fish/)
Zach Corrigan, fish program director at Food & Water Watch, responded to the SFU report by noting that salmon farms present the "perfect conditions" for the spread of the deadly disease.
"While we cannot say for certain what caused this particular outbreak of infectious salmon anemia, salmon fish farms present the perfect conditions for it to spread like wild fire," said Corrigan. "The salmon industry in Chile, for instance, was devastated by the same virus due to the filthy conditions inherent in factory fish farms."
"Haven't we learned anything from factory farming on land? It's a bastion of disease. We should be pursuing closed-system, land-based fish farming methods instead of factory farming our oceans," he concluded.
Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemen Wintu Tribe, emphasized that state and federal scientists should listen to the Tribes when they make their fisheries management decisions to avoid disasters, such as infectious salmon anemia spreading to wild salmon, from occurring. The Winnemem Wintu are attempting to restore native winter run chinook salmon, via eggs of the original strain of the transplanted fish now thriving in New Zealand, to the McCloud River above Lake Shasta.
"Putting all the 'fish experts' heads together, they still don't have the historical memory of the tribes, who they refuse to listen to because they don't have the post hole digger (PhD) initials behind their surname," said Sisk-Franco. "Salmon hold the knowledge from the Creator directly; we should follow the salmon!"
The release of the report exposing the presence of infectious salmon anemia in wild fish on the West Coast couldn't come at a worse time. The Sacramento River fall chinook salmon run, the driver of West Coast salmon fisheries, is recovering from an unprecedented collapse in 2008 and 2009. Salmon advocates point to a combination of record water exports out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to agribusiness and southern California, declining water quality and poor ocean conditions as the key factors behind the collapse.
Meanwhile, the Obama and Brown administrations are fast-tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan to build a peripheral canal to divert more water to agribusiness and southern California water agencies. Delta residents, fishing groups, Indian Tribes, family farmers and conservation groups oppose the enormously expensive and environmentally destructive peripheral canal or tunnel because it would likely lead to the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail and other imperiled species.
The breakout of a deadly fish disease in wild salmon populations is the last thing at we need at a time when salmon populations throughout the West Coast are in crisis. I agree with Alexandra Morton's contention that Atlantic salmon, produced in environmentally destructive aquaculture facilities in British Columbia, need to be "immediately removed."
Contact:
Victor Gonella, Golden Gate Salmon Association, 707-762-2300
Dick Pool, Golden Gate Salmon Association, 925-963-6350
Zeke Grader, Golden Gate Salmon Association, 415-606-5140
GGSA Welcomes Early Indicators of Salmon Recovery
More Delta flows paying off, salmon-industry jobs revived
Petaluma, CA - The Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA) is welcoming strong early indicators that federal salmon rebuilding plans are starting to succeed.
This year has seen better salmon runs and the revival of thousands of jobs that depend on an abundant salmon fishery. Federal Delta protections are helping not only salmon, but also other fish dependent on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Salmon industry representatives stressed that salmon runs still have a long way to go before the industry can maintain the thousands of family-wage jobs, millions of pounds of seafood production, and world-class recreational opportunities it traditionally provided until a few years ago.
Thanks to rebounding fall chinook salmon numbers, this year has seen a modest salmon season in California, and a poor salmon season in Oregon. Fishing communities in both states are dependent on Central Valley salmon runs.
Fishing businesses and families have suffered through three previous years of devastating fishing closures due to a
salmon population crash driven largely by over diversion of Delta water to agribusiness in the San Joaquin Valley and other water users.
Positive signs this year include:
• Good salmon returns to the Mokelumne River. Chinook salmon counts on the Mokelumne River are way up, with some daily counts at or near all-time records. This is largely due to a ten-day closure of Delta diversion gates from October 4th to the 14th. When open, the gates have historically interfered with salmon migration.
• Salmon counts in the Feather River, the Sacramento River's largest tributary, have already surpassed last year.
• The state's Delta smelt fall trawl survey showed a welcome uptick in the highly endangered Delta smelt population, indicating that better water management may have slowed or halted the Delta-estuary ecosystem's rapid decline.
"In the middle of the economic recession facing the whole nation, we've got many of our salmon industry jobs back this year, and for that we're thankful this year," said Golden Gate Salmon Association President Victor Gonella.
The improvements seen this year are largely the result of several factors including key court rulings in 2008 and 2009 won by Earthjustice and Natural Resources Defense Council attorneys representing GGSA member group Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA), as well as other salmon advocates.
After driving the Delta and fish species to collapse by taking too much water, water managers were forced under court order to reduce their diversions. In 2009 and 2010, new and improved federal rules limiting diversions took the place of the court orders and will hopefully prevent the wholesale massacre of salmon and Delta fish that took place during the last decade. Water users in the San Joaquin Valley and elsewhere who covet the water needed by salmon to thrive have attacked these improved federal protections.
"These science-based, common-sense Delta protections are starting to work," said GGSA director and Pro Troll tackle owner Dick Pool. "It's absolutely vital that we keep these protections in place to allow the rebuilding of our salmon runs and the return of the tens of thousands of jobs our industry supports."
In the Mokelumne River, managers have counted more than 3,300 chinook at the Woodbridge Dam, up from 946 in 2010. The ten-day closing of the diversionary Cross Channel Gates is a main reason these salmon can successfully find their way home this year. The closure comes after three years of tireless lobbying by GGSA director Dick Pool.
Since counting began in the Feather River on September 1, salmon numbers already outpace the 45,000 counted for all of 2010. By comparison, in 2008 and 2009 the count came in at about 6,000 and 5,000 respectively.
Returning 2008 and 2009 year class fish faced hostile freshwater diversion rates in the Delta in 2006 and 2007 when
they tried to navigate to sea. Many died in the Delta as a result.
"These Delta protections are partly about the timing of pumping and partly about the volume of water going south," said GGSA director and PCFFA executive director Zeke Grader. "One critical issue for salmon fishermen is, if the pumps run too high during the outmigration of young salmon in the late winter and spring, the little fish just get hammered. At other times of the year when salmon are not present, pumping restrictions are not as critical for salmon survival."
Trucking of fish from Central Valley hatcheries to release sites safely west of the deadly influence of the Delta pumps also helped restore the salmon numbers seen this year.
Even with protections in place, millions of native fish have been killed in the deadly Delta pumps in 2011.
"Even with the current federal protections in place, attempts to seize Delta water by water users south of the Delta continue to threaten the salmon we need to make a living," said GGSA director and charter boat captain Roger Thomas. "We've only reduced, not eliminated, the damage caused by the Delta pumps. As long as the pumps interfere with the natural flows of the bay and Delta we'll need to continue physically transporting hatchery juvenile salmon in tanker trucks."
On his last day on the bench, retiring United States District Judge Oliver Wanger dismissed a lawsuit by San Joaquin Valley agribusiness interests that sought to shut down the West Coast's 2011 commercial salmon season for Sacramento River chinook salmon.
Wanger based his October 3 Judgment on a 60-page ruling filed September 30, 2011 that rejected all of the challenges of the San Joaquin River Group Authority (SJRGA) to the salmon season. The SJRGA includes nearly 30 irrigation districts and water agencies in the San Joaquin Valley, as well as the City and County of San Francisco.
The SJRGA argued that the National Marine Fisheries Service and its related agencies violated their duty to protect Sacramento River fall run chinook salmon populations by allowing a full commercial season.
However, Judge Wanger concluded that "this is a case where the agency (National Marine Fisheries Service) 'got it right' and followed the law" (Memorandum filed September 30, 2011 at page 59.)
The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA), a coalition of commercial fishing groups, successfully intervened to defend the National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS) 2011 salmon season management measures.
The is the first year since 2007 that the state and federal governments allowed normal commercial and recreational salmon fishing seasons on the California coast, due to an improvement in Central Valley salmon numbers. Federal fisheries managers opened the seasons based on their ocean abundance estimate of 730,000 fall run chinook salmon this year.
SJRGA had attacked the NMFS' 2011 salmon fishing season that allowed PCFFA members and others to engage in commercial and recreational salmon fishing on the grounds that maintaining a viable salmon fishing industry at the 2011 level of harvest might curtail the water diversions that SJRGA's members are making from the San Joaquin River and its tributaries, according to a news release from the PCFFA.
PCFFA joined NMFS in challenging SJRGA's standing to attack the fishing season. Judge Wanger agreed with the PCFFA that SJRGA's members had failed to show that they would be harmed by NMFS' salmon management measures, and therefore lacked standing to sue.
Judge Wanger also rejected all of SJRGA's substantive challenges to NMFS' 2011 salmon management measures, finding that they fully complied with the Magnuson-Stevens Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. Accordingly, Judge Wanger dismissed all of SJRGA's claims, and granted NMFS' and PCFFA's motions for summary judgment, according to the PCFFA.
PCFFA's Executive Director William F. "Zeke" Grader, Jr. praised Judge Wanger's ruling.
"This is a case where the judge 'got it right,'" stated Grader. "In rejecting each of SJRGA's challenges to the 2011 salmon fishing season, Judge Wanger recognized that SJRGA's interests in water diversion are not harmed by maintaining a robust salmon fishery that benefits both commercial and recreational fishermen and the salmon-consuming public.
"Protecting the habitat needs of salmon is not only good for California's environment, it is also good for its economy," pointed out Grader. "Now it will be the abundance of fish and how much science says is safe to harvest-not litigation brought by water diverters-that will determine whether fishing men and women work."
PCFFA's lawyer, Stephan Volker, likewise applauded Judge Wanger's ruling.
"Judge Wanger understood that maintaining a productive salmon fishery that employs hundreds of fishing men and women and feeds thousands of consumers poses no harm to California's agricultural and municipal water diverters," stated Volker. "His ruling makes clear that maintaining environmental health is good for California's economy."
The spokesman for the SJRGA had not responded to my request for a comment regarding the dismissal of the lawsuit at press time.
Salmon fishing was closed on the California and Southern Oregon coast in 2008 and 2009, due to the unprecedented collapse of the Sacramento River fall run chinook salmon population. State and federal officials blamed the collapse on poor ocean conditions, while independent biologists, fishermen, California Indian Tribes and environmentalists pointed to a combination of record water exports out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, declining water quality and poor ocean conditions as factors in the decline.
The judge's dismissal of the lawsuit took place as the Brown and Obama administrations are fast-tracking the construction of the peripheral canal to divert more Delta water to corporate agribusiness and southern California water agencies. A coalition of Delta residents, family farmers, fishermen, Indian Tribes, environmental justice communities and elected officials is opposing the canal's construction because it would likely result in the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, green sturgeon and other imperiled species.
The dismissal also took place several days after two disturbing records were set on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta as the water year ended.
First, a record 9 million Sacramento splittail were "salvaged" at the state and federal Delta pumps near Tracy in 2011. The previous record salvage number for the splittail, a native minnow found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River system, was 5.5 million in 2006 (http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2011/09/09/over-11-million-fish-salvaged-in-delta-death-pumps-since-january-1).
Second, the water projects pumped a record 6.5 million acre-feet of water from the Delta in 2011, according to government data compiled by Spreck Rosecrans at Environmental Defense. The previous record was 6.3 million acre-feet in 2005.
Founded in 1976, PCFFA is a coalition of fourteen fishermen's organizations from throughout California, Oregon and Washington, with a combined membership of more than 750 fishing men and women. Its members depend on a sustainable commercial salmon fishery to maintain their commercial salmon industry.
For more information, call tacts: Zeke Grader (415) 561-5080, Larry Collins (415) 885-1180 or Stephan Volker (510) 496-0600.
Join lovers of great music and the Mokelumne River at this special concert with bluegrass greats Laurie Lewis (fiddle, vocals) and Tom Rozum (mandolin, guitar, vocals). Don't miss it -- it'll be a fantastic time for a great cause!
Laurie and Tom are river-loving musicians from the East Bay. Their water purveyor, East Bay MUD, is still proposing to destroy miles of the Mokelumne River by expanding Pardee Reservoir.
Friday, October 28
7:30 pm
Mokelumne Hill Town Hall, Main St, Mokelumne Hill (map)
Tickets are $15 in advance for adults, $10 at the door for children under 12. ($20 at the door for adults.)
Order tickets online or call 209-296-5495.
Laurie and Tom have entertained audiences around the world together since 1986. Nominated for a Grammy in 1995 for their album "The Oak and the Laurel," the duo is widely regarded as among the leading lights of modern bluegrass. Laurie has twice been named "Female Vocalist of the Year" by the International Bluegrass Music Association.
Beer, wine and Save the Moke goods will be on sale at the event. Proceeds benefit the Foothill Conservancy's efforts to Save the Mokelumne River.
Read more about Laurie, Tom, the show and local dining and lodging options here.
Tell your friends and neighbors: Download posters to print and distribute and forward this message.
Don't miss this fun and entertaining evening in a truly charming and historic Mother Lode town -- just a stone's throw south of the Mokelumne River.
Help restore a high mountain meadow
Love the high country near Carson Pass? Volunteer to help us study a high mountain meadow in the Mokelumne River watershed. Our first field trip to the meadow is scheduled for Saturday, October 15. If you can make it, please contact Randy at 209-295-4900 or send him an e-mail. And if you have friends who might be interested, please let them know about this opportunity to help restore a dry meadow to lush, green bird and wildlife habitat.
EBMUD workshop held September 27
Last week, the East Bay Municipal Utility District held a workshop on the revision of the utility's 2040 water supply plan, which still includes plans to expand Pardee Reservoir with a new, higher dam and flood more of the Mokelumne River. While opponents showed up and spoke up for the river, no member of the public spoke out in support of the dam.
(September 30) The Bureau of Reclamation today issued a statement announcing that it will close the Delta Cross Channel Gates for a period of up to 10 days from Tuesday, October 4 through Friday, October 14, 2011.
"The closure is an experimental research action intended to support the fishery resources in the lower Mokelumne River for Central Valley fall-run Chinook salmon migrating upstream to spawn and to help to reduce fish straying into other river systems," according to Peter Lucero, spokesman for the Mid-Pacific Region of the Bureau in Sacramento.
Lucero said the Delta Cross Channel Gates (DCCG) is a controlled diversion channel on the Sacramento River about 30 miles south of Sacramento that diverts water from the river into a branch of the Mokelumne River. When the gates are open, fresh water is drawn from the Sacramento River into the interior of the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta through Snodgrass Slough and the Mokelumne River.
The decision by the Bureau to open the gates for 10 days is a big victory by The Golden Gate Salmon Association, Water for Fish and conservation groups working to restore Central Valley chinook salmon populations.
"During this closure, the salmon will be able to find their way to the main stem Mokelumne River," said Dick Pool, Secretary Treasurer of the Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA) and Administrator of Water for Fish. "The river and hatchery will almost assuredly reach capacity."
Pool said this closure will result in six million fall run salmon smolts being able to migrate from the hatchery to the ocean, as well as between 2,000 and 4,000 adult salmon spawning naturally in the river. For more information, go to: http://www.indybay.org/newsite...
Reclamation advised boaters to continue to check the status of the gates to avoid problems in moving through the DCCG.
Information on gate operations can be accessed on Reclamation's Central Valley Operations website at http://www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo/vun... or by calling 916-979-2194 or 916-979-2196. For additional information, please call the Public Affairs Office at 916-978-5100 (TYY 916-978-5608).
Record numbers of splittail 'salvaged' as Delta exports reach all-time record
Meanwhile, two records were set on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta today as the water year ended.
First, 9 million Sacramento splittail were "salvaged" at the state and federal Delta pumps near Tracy in 2011. The previous record salvage number for the splittail, a native minnow found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River system, was 5.5 million in 2006 (http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2011/09/09/over-11-million-fish-salvaged-in-delta-death-pumps-since-january-1).
Second, the water projects pumped a record 6.5 million acre-feet of water from the Delta in 2011, according to government data compiled by Spreck Rosecrans at Environmental Defense. The previous record was 6.3 million acre-feet in 2005.
"One of the reasons for the record-setting pumping is that much of the water this year went to refill the underground Kern Water Bank, largely controlled by billionaire farmer Stewart Resnick, and to the smaller Diamond Valley reservoir, which serves Southern California," according to Mike Taugher in the Silicon Valley Mercury News (http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_19014459). "Both reservoirs were drawn down during the three-year drought that lasted from 2007 through 2009."
The fish "salvaged" at the "death pumps" of the state and federal water projects also include hundreds of thousands of threadfin shad, striped bass, American shad, white catfish and other species. The salvage numbers reveal that 742,850 threadfin shad, 514,921 American shad, 496,601 striped bass and 100,373 white catfish were "salvaged" between January 1 and September 7 of this year.
Agency staff also salvaged protected Sacramento River spring run chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta smelt and green sturgeon, all listed under the state and federal Endangered Species Acts, in the pumping facilities. The salvage numbers list 35,560 Central Valley chinook salmon, 1,642 steelhead, 51 Delta smelt and 14 green sturgeon. In all, a total of over 11 milllion fish including 46 species were salvaged in the facilities since January 1.
While the salvage counts are certainly alarming, the overall loss of fish in and around the State Water Project and Central Valley Project facilities is believed to be much greater than the salvage counts. The actual loss could be 5 to 10 times the salvage numbers, according to "A Review of Delta Fish Population Losses from Pumping Operations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta," prepared by Larry Walker Associates in January 2010 for the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District (http://www.srcsd.com/pdf/dd/fishlosses.pdf).
The record splittail "salvage" and record Delta pumping occur at a time when the Brown and Obama administrations are fast-tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build a peripheral canal to export more water to San Joaquin Valley agribusiness and southern California. If built, the peripheral canal would result in the extinction of Central Valley salmon and steelhead, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail and other imperiled fish populations.
The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), Friends of the River, North Coast River Alliance, Save the American River Association and Winnemem Wintu Tribe have filed a lawsuit against Westlands Water District and its two water distribution districts over the renewal of six interim water service contracts.
The action, filed 25 August 2011, concerns six Central Valley Project (CVP) contracts providing up to over one million acre feet of water annually from the Delta. The groups and Tribe say water exports out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta are a principle reason for the decline of Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations.
Westlands, et al, claims the contracts are exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). A call to a spokesperson for Westlands regarding their rationale for claiming a CEQA exemption had not been returned at press time.
The coalition disagrees strongly with the CEQA exemption for the contracts. The lawsuit asks for: injunctive relief, restraining the defendant from carrying out the project; a writ of mandate, setting aside contract approval; and declaratory relief, declaring the contracts to be unlawful, according to Bill Jennings, Executive Director/Chairman of CSPA.
"The environmental devastation wrought on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta by Central Valley Project operations generally and Westlands' diversions specifically has become patent in recent years," the petition states. "The importation of over 1,000,000 acre feet of water from the Delta to Westlands has caused substantial harm to the Delta's imperiled fisheries. Boron, selenium and salt pollution in the Delta originates in part from return flow discharged by Westlands and surrounding water contractors."
Key fish species imperiled by Delta water exports and contaminated return flows include winter, spring and fall runs of Sacramento River chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta smelt, longfin smelt and threadfin shad, according to the petition.
"These Proposed Contracts, if implemented, would have adverse impacts on the Delta, including but not limited to degraded water quality; harmful impacts upon sensitive and/or endangered species; lost of fish and wildlife habitat; and impaired recreation," the document concludes.
The lawsuit takes place at a critical time for Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations. Over 11 million fish have been "salvaged" in the state and federal pumping facilities in the South Delta since January 1 as record amounts of water are exported to southern California and corporate agribusiness.
A horrific 8,985,009 Sacramento splittail, the largest number ever recorded, were salvaged by September 7, according to Department of Fish and Game data. The previous record salvage number for the splittail, a native minnow found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River system, was 5.5 million in 2006.
Agency staff also listed 35,560 chinook salmon, 1,642 steelhead, 51 Delta smelt and 14 green sturgeon as "salvaged" in the pumping facilities this year to date (http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2011/09/09/over-11-million-fish-salvaged-in-delta-death-pumps-since-january-1/).
Chinook salmon, a fish devastated in recent years by record water exports out of the estuary, are an integral part of the religion and culture of the Winnemem Wintu (McCloud River) Tribe and other Native American nations. The Tribe is now engaged in an ambitious program to return the original strain of winter run chinook salmon, now thriving in the Rakaira and other rivers in New Zealand, to the McCloud River above Lake Shasta.
"Salmon are the ultimate source of good health for California Indians that have been missing from our diets for generations now," said Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. "We need them back in our rivers and we need them back in our diets for balance to return to our world."
The lawsuit also proceeds at time when the Brown and Obama administrations are fast-tracking the construction of the peripheral canal through the Bay Conservation Plan (BDCP) to divert more Delta water to corporate agribusiness and southern California.
The law offices of Stephan C. Volker are representing CSPA and the Coalition in this matter. For more information, go to: http://www.calsport.org.
In one of the biggest fish kills in California history, the state and federal government agencies "salvaged" a total of 11,158,021 fish in the Delta water pumping facilities between January 1 and September 7, 2011.
The Central Valley Project and State Water Project pumps in the south end of the California Delta export water to corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and southern California water agencies.
A horrific 8,985,009 Sacramento splittail, the largest number ever recorded, were salvaged during this period, according to Department of Fish and Game data. The previous record salvage number for the splittail, a native minnow found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River system, was 5.5 million in 2006.
During the 8-day period from May 16 though May 23 when the splittail were entering the pumping facilities in the greatest numbers, a total of 4,400,073 splittail were documented.
The fish "salvaged" at the "death pumps" of the state and federal water projects also include hundreds of thousands of threadfin shad, striped bass, American shad, white catfish and other species. The salvage numbers reveal that 742,850 threadfin shad, 514,921 American shad, 496,601 striped bass and 100,373 white catfish were "salvaged" between January 1 and September 7 of this year.
Agency staff also salvaged protected Sacramento River spring run chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta smelt and green sturgeon, all listed under the state and federal Endangered Species Acts, in the pumping facilities. The salvage numbers list 35,560 chinook salmon, 1,642 steelhead, 51 Delta smelt and 14 green sturgeon.
The staff recorded a total of 46 species of fish salvaged in the facilities, including bigscale logperch (695), bluegill (92,615), lamprey (3,861), largemouth bass (59,041) and Sacramento sucker (27,358).
Though no comprehensive studies have been conducted on how many of the salvaged fish survive, fish advocates believe that the majority of many species perish during and after the salvage process.
Actual fish losses greatly exceed salvage numbers
While the salvage counts are certainly alarming, the overall loss of fish in and around the State Water Project and Central Valley Project facilities is believed to be much greater than the salvage counts. The actual loss could be 5 to 10 times the salvage numbers, according to "A Review of Delta Fish Population Losses from Pumping Operations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta," prepared by Larry Walker Associates in January 2010 for the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District (http://www.srcsd.com/pdf/dd/fishlosses.pdf).
"These salvage statistics greatly understate the total number of fish entrained, since they do not include the number of fish lost to predators or lost through the fish screens," the report stated. "In fact, recent estimates indicate that 5-10 times more fish are lost than are salvaged, largely due to the high predation losses in and around water project facilities."
Based on this data, the actual number of fish killed in the pumps to date this year could be anywhere from 55 to 110 million!
The Walker report also cites DFG and DWR studies as showing that 75% of fish entering Clifton Court Forebay are lost to predation in project facilities before they reach the salvage facilities. An additional 20-30% are lost at the salvage facility louvers.
Of the remaining fish actually salvaged, 1-12% are lost during handling and trucking operation and another 10-30% are lost to post-release predation because there are only 4 release sites, according to the report.
The numbers are far worse for Delta smelt, an endangered species that is considered an indicator of the health of the estuary, since 94-99% are lost to predation in project facilities and virtually no salvaged delta smelt survive trucking and handling.
Fishing Group, Winnemen Wintu Tribe outraged over Delta fish kill
Bill Jennings, executive director/Chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), is outraged by the massive carnage that
has occurred in the state and federal pumping facilities this year.
Reacting to the release of the latest salvage data, Jennings said, "I don't think any estuary can stand an assault on fish populations in the numbers that we're seeing. The project pumps are by far the largest predator in the entire estuary. The Department of Water Resources and the Bureau of Reclamation are the biggest poachers in California history!"
Caleen Sisk-Franco, the Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Tribe, who is working on an innovative plan to restore winter run chinook salmon to the McCloud River above Lake Shasta, is also appalled by the millions of fish killed to date.
"I am just wondering why it is okay to have the largest fish kill going on in the Delta and no one notices," said Sisk-Franco. "There are more endangered fish killed every day in the Delta pumps that are supposed to be protected. Try catching one of them to eat, and see how fast you get in trouble, but just let them swim into the Delta pumps and no one is trying to save them!"
Sisk-Franco asked, "How many dead fish is too many? Who will speak up for the fish? Everything is connected and soon we will understand what this fish kill means to the human beings."
Bush and Obama administrations oppose splittail protection
The Sacramento splittail, the imperiled native fish that have perished in the greatest numbers in the Delta "poaching" facilities this year, were formerly protected as a threatened species but illegally stripped of Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection in 2003 during the Julie McDonald "Splittailgate" Scandal. McDonald, a high-ranking Bush administration official, helped remove the splittail from the list of threatened and endangered species because of the economic threat she believed that it posed to her farm near Dixon, California.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last fall made a controversial determination that the species does not warrant protection, despite the fact that numbers of splittail found in the annual fall DFG midwater trawl surveys have fallen to consistently low levels since 2002, and that the estimated population from 2002 to 2010 has been the lowest recorded since surveys began in 1967, according to Jeff Miller, conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity.
The Obama administration, in denying the splittail ESA protection in October 2010, claimed that the capture of huge numbers of fish by the pumping facilities in wet years has little impact on splittail abundance.
The unprecedented loss of fish life in the pumping facilities occurs as the pumps are currently exporting record amounts of water to corporate agribusiness and southern California under the "leadership" of Governor Jerry Brown and Natural Resources Secretary John Laird.
"Exports from the Bay-Delta may reach an all-time high in 2011," according to Spreck Rosecrans, an economic analyst at Environmental Defense (http://blogs.edf.org/waterfront/2011/07/15/delta-exports-projected-to-reach-record-level-in-2011/). "Through July 15, pumping for the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project has totaled 4.86 million acre-feet. With ample supplies in northern reservoirs and Sierra rivers still full of melting snow, it is likely that the pumps will continue to run at or near capacity through the end of the water year (September 30)."
The annual export total is projected to reach 6,610,000 acre-feet - 140,000 acre-feet more than the previous record of 6,470,000 acre-feet set in 2005, Rosecrans explained.
At the same time, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is wholesaling water at discount prices, since southern California reservoirs have largely filled (http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_surplus11.3abcf4c.html).
Instead of taking long-needed action to stop the carnage at the water export facilities, the Brown and Obama administrations, in the foot steps of the Schwarzenegger administration, are instead pushing for the construction of a peripheral canal or tunnel through the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to facilitate the export of more northern California to drainage impaired land on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and southern California water agencies.
If built, the peripheral canal would result in the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and other imperiled species. However, if the state and federal agencies keep pumping water and killing fish like they have this year, extinction for these species may come much sooner!
First, please contact John Laird, California Natural Resources Secretary, and demand that he take immediate action to stop the killing of millions of Sacramento splittail and thousands of threatened spring run Chinook salmon by the Bureau of Reclamation and Department of Water Resources!
His contact information is:
California Natural Resources Agency
1416 Ninth Street, Suite 1311
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 653-5656
(916) 653-8102 fax
Email: secretary [at] resources.ca.gov
Second, take action to protect the Endangered Species Act and The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta by going to: http://restorethedelta.org/tak...
An Associated Press report on Tuesday, August 9 revealed that Arnold Schwarzenegger, California Governor from November 2003 through 2010, could face legal action for recently smoking a cigar at Salzburg Airport in Austria.
"Was it lit or was it cold?" the article asked. "The status of a cigar in Arnold Schwarzenegger's mouth at an Austrian airport could decide whether or not he faces legal action."
"Smoking at airports is banned in Austria and an anti-smoking lobby said Tuesday it plans to launch a suit against the former California governor for puffing on a stogie after arriving in June at Salzburg Airport," AP continued (http://www.sacbee.com/2011/08/09/3826143/was-it-lit-arnie-could-be-charged.html).
It is doubtful whether anything will come of this latest episode of the long, sordid saga of the "Governator," arguably the worst Governor in California history for fish, fishing communities and the environment.
"Salzburg municipal legal expert Josef Goldberger told state broadcaster ORF that Arnie can ignore any requests from authorities in his homeland to respond since the charge is not covered by treaties," AP noted.
Mainstream media refused to cover Schwarzenegger regime's biggest scandal
While the mainstream media makes a big deal out of this latest "scandal" about Schwarzenegger and the covert relationship with his maid that resulted in the birth of a son, AP and others persistently neglected to cover the much more newsworthy and scandalous war that Schwarzenegger waged against Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations, fishing communities and Indian Tribes during his regime.
Instead, the mainstream media and corporate environmental NGOs falsely portrayed Schwarzenegger as the "Green Governor," greenwashing his abysmal environmental policies that violated numerous state, federal and international laws.
Schwarzenegger in 2010 received awards for his "green" leadership from NRDC, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the "Beautiful Earth Group," and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Chief Prosecuting Attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper, and others in a carefully orchestrated campaign to greenwash his legacy before he left office.
In spite of the claims of his collaborators, Schwarzenegger's true legacy is the unprecedented collapse of Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, threadfin shad, young striped bass, Sacramento splittail and other fish populations spurred by record water exports out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta from 2003 to 2006.
Rather than taking the necessary measures to restore these imperiled fish populations, Schwarzenegger tried to make things even worse by attacking the biological opinion protecting Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River spring and winter run chinook salmon, green sturgeon and southern resident killer whales, along with the biological opinion protecting the endangered Delta smelt.
He relentlessly campaigned for a peripheral canal through the Delta Vision and Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) processes and the November 2009 water bond/water policy package. Meanwhile, he fast-tracked a corrupt Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative that does nothing to "protect" the ocean from water pollution, oil drilling and spills, military testing, corporate aquaculture, habitat destruction and other human uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering.
When Schwarzenegger left office on January 2, 2011 after waging an unprecedented war on California fish populations and fishing communities, millions celebrated his departure.
Arnold's true environmental record exposed
Schwarzenegger's real environmental legacy is much different from how Schwarzenegger and his collaborators portray it. What was his actual environmental record? (http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2011/05/18/schwarzenegger-screwed-fish-fishermen-and-tribes/)
• Schwarzenegger allowed the Department of Water Resources to pump record levels of water out of the Delta from 2003 to 2007, resulting in the Central Valley salmon and California Delta pelagic species collapses.The largest annual water export levels in history occurred in 2003 (6.3 million acre feet), 2004 (6.1 MAF), 2005 (6.5 MAF) and 2006 (6.3 MAF). Exports averaged 4.6 MAF annually between 1990 and 1999 and increasing to an average of 6 MAF between 2000 and 2007, a rise of almost 30 percent, according to the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.
• He constantly attacked two federal biological opinions, released in 2009, protecting Delta smelt, Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, green sturgeon and southern resident killer whales.
• His administration did nothing while tens of thousands of striped bass, Sacramento blackfish, Sacramento splittail and other species perished during a levee repair project at Prospect Island in the California Delta in November 2007.
• He vetoed numerous environmental bills, including vetoing a badly needed bill sponsored by Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) in 2008 that would provide for emergency fish rescue plans on the Delta.
• He consistently slashed funding for game wardens in the field while California has the lowest ratio of wardens to residents of any state in the nation.
• His administration directed the Central Valley Regional Water Control Board to continue to grant waivers to agricultural polluters, in spite of the dire condition of Delta fisheries.
• Since 2004, he fast-tracked the controversial, privately-funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative, a fiasco ridden with conflicts of interest, institutional racism and corruption. Rather than creating marine protected areas that truly protect the ocean, this initiative kicks sustainable fishermen and gatherers off the water while refusing to deal with pollution, coastal development, military testing, wave energy projects and other human uses of the ocean that imperil marine life and ecosystems.
• As Schwarzenegger fast-tracked the privately-funded MLPA fiasco, he twice vetoed two crab pot limit bills needed to preserve California crab fisheries.
• Schwarzenegger introduced a bill that would allow the lame-duck Governor to choose 25 development projects each year that would be exempt from the state's strict standards under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) (http://www.ecovote.org/blog/?p=1674).
• The Governor's Office of Pesticide Regulation on December 1, 2010 inexplicably approved methyl iodide to replace the soil fumigant methyl bromide, even though methyl iodide is even more toxic to animals, fish and people than methyl bromide (http://www.sacbee.com/2010/12/04/3231811/inexplicably-state-approves-new.html).
Schwarzenegger's water policies led by peripheral canal campaign
However, the "crown jewel" of Schwarzenegger's water policies was his campaign to build a peripheral canal/canal and new dams through his Delta Vision and Bay Delta Conservation Plan processes. This construction of a canal/tunnel, estimated to cost anywhere from $23 to $53.8 billion, is likely to lead to the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and other species.
In his zeal to build the canal, Schwarzenegger tried to sabotage the campaign by the Klamath, Yurok, Karuk and Hoopa Valley Tribes, fishermen and environmentalists to remove four Klamath River dams by including $250 million for Klamath River dam removal in an unpopular water bond that creates the infrastructure for a peripheral canal and new dams. Because it would have faced certain defeat at the polls last November, Schwarzenegger and the Legislative leadership postponed the water bond until November 2012.
In addition, the Schwarzenegger administration granted agribusiness permits to divert water from the Scott and Shasta rivers, resulting in the de-watering of these Klamath River tributaries at tremendous risk to endangered coho salmon. Schwarzenegger's "scorched earth" policy towards the Scott and Shasta forced Earthjustice to file a lawsuit against the Department of Fish and Game on behalf of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, Klamath Riverkeeper, the Sierra Club, the Quartz Valley Indian Tribe, Northcoast Environmental Center and Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC).
While his record regarding fishery and water issues is arguably the worst of any Governor in California history, Schwarzenegger's portrayal by the mainstream media and corporate environmental NGOs as a relentless advocate for "clean energy" is also very deceptive. Former Senator Sheila Kuel eloquently exposed the myth of the "Jolly Green Giant" in her article, "A Lame Duck Governor Fabricates A Hoped-For Legacy," in the California Progress Report on July 29, 2010 (http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/site/?q=node/8010
Brown administration continues Arnold's policies
Unfortunately, Governor Jerry Brown and Natural Resources Secretary John Laird are forging ahead with the three most notorious environmental policies of the Schwarzenegger regime - the Bay Delta Conservation Plan to build a peripheral canal, the privately-funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative to create questionable "marine protected areas," and the massive export of northern California water to corporate agribusiness and southern California water agencies that has resulted in record numbers of Sacramento splittail and other fish species perishing at the state and federal water project Delta pumping facilities this year.
An astounding 8,966,976 splittail, 35,556 chinook salmon, 430,289 striped bass, 54,412 largemouth bass, 69,383 bluegill, 76,570 white catfish, 28,301 channel catfish, 233,174 threadfin shad, 264,171 American shad, 1,642 steelhead and 51 Delta smelt were "salvaged" in the state and federal water export facilities from January 1 to August 2, 2011, according to Department of Fish and Game (DFG) data.
However, the overall loss of fish in and around the State Water Project and Central Valley Project facilities is believed to dwarf the actual salvage counts, according to "A Review of Delta Fish Population Losses from Pumping Operations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta," prepared by Larry Walker Associates in January 2010 for the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District (http://www.srcsd.com/pdf/dd/fishlosses.pdf).
The staggering losses of Sacramento splittail and other fish species in the death pumps of the state and federal water projects on the California Delta are taking place as the Brown and Obama administrations export record volumes of water to corporate agribusiness and southern California water agencies, continuing the fish killing legacy of the Schwarzenegger administration.
To read an excellent investigative piece by Patrick Porgans and Lloyd Carter about the legacy of Gov. Edmund G. "Pat" Brown and his two children, current Gov. Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown and Kathleen Brown, and their connection to public bonds, budget deficits, the Bay-Delta Estuary conflict, and the November 2012 water bond measure, go to: http://www.lloydgcarter.com/co...
As happens every year, endangered coho salmon are being stranded in drying pools in the Scott River system, due to inaction by the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG), NOAA Fisheries, the U.S. Forest Service and the California Water Resources Control Board.
An independent investigation by Klamath Riverkeeper Erica Terence reveals that in spite of the DFG "rescuing" 1,500 coho out of disconnected pools up Kidder Creek, a Scott River tributary, on July 25 and 26, hundreds of juvenile coho salmon were still trapped in Patterson Creek.
"At the rate the creek is drying up, those fish will be jerky by the end of today," Terence said in a note to DFG officials. "I suggest that in addition to rescuing what fish you can, your agency should open an investigation into nearby diversions and possible Fish and Game Code violations immediately."
CDFG Game Warden Steve McDonald responded to Terence's note within days, supplying a report that all three surface diversions upstream of the dewatered reach with the photographed dying coho were shut off or were returning all the water they diverted back into the creek after using it, according to Terence.
Although fish rescue in the Scott River fails to address the root causes of the dewatering such as irrigation dams, canals, ditches, groundwater pumping and soil deposition caused by irresponsible logging in the watershed, "it is a necessary tactic to prevent total extinction of the severely endangered Scott River coho population," Terence said.
The stranding of endangered salmon on Scott River tributaries occurs at a time when one of the largest fish kills in California history is taking place at the state and federal pumps on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
A horrific total of 8,942,347 splittail, 35,435 chinook salmon, 385,392 striped bass, 49,812 largemouth bass, 67,383 bluegill, 66,403 white catfish, 20,178 channel catfish, 91,956 threadfin shad, 166,336 American shad, 1,642 steelhead and 51 Delta smelt were "salvaged" in the state and federal water export facilities from January 1 to July 21, 2011, according to DFG data. The actual numbers of fish lost in the pumping facilities dwarf the salvage numbers.
Meanwhile, the state and federal governments are pumping record amounts of water out of the California Delta at a time when southern California reservoirs are full and the Metropolitan Water District of California is selling water at cut-rate prices.
As the Delta fish kill proceeds while Brown and Obama administration officials do virtually nothing to stop the carnage, the California Department of Fish and Game refuses to take a proactive and comprehensive approach to stopping the dewatering problem that takes place yearly on the Scott and Shasta rivers.
As the Who song said so well, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."
I applaud the Klamath Riverkeeper to standing up for the fish and fighting against the diversions of water of the Scott and Shasta rivers that lead to the stranding of endangered coho salmon every year. For more information, go to: http://www.klamathriver.org.
Below is the news release:
Klamath Riverkeeper Press Release | For Immediate Release
Stranded Salmon In Dewatered Northern California Streams Trigger Rescues, Investigations And Alarm
Scott Valley, CA-- More than a thousand ESA-listed coho were reportedly "rescued" from dewatered creeks feeding a major tributary to the Klamath River by California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) personnel last week. The agency transferred the stressed baby salmon into the nearby mainstem Scott River where water diversions to grow hay and water cattle is likely to dewater the streambed in many reaches before October.
More than 1,500 coho were transported out of disconnected pools up Kidder Creek July 25 and 26, according to the Yreka CDFG Senior Scientist Mark Pisano.
An independent inspection documented in the attached photos by the non-profit organization Klamath Riverkeeper following initial rescue efforts found hundreds of juvenile coho salmon still trapped in Patterson Creek. Other reports suggest that young coho salmon were facing similar dead ends in neighboring Kidder Creek, and that total dewatering is also imminent for Shackleford and French creeks. All four Scott River tributaries offer key juvenile coho salmon rearing habitat.
Shortly after documenting the dewatered channel and stranded baby salmon, Klamath Riverkeeper Erica Terence notified CDFG officials in writing, effectively warning them that inaction by the agency would be inadequate under numerous environmental statutes.
"At the rate the creek is drying up, those fish will be jerky by the end of today...I suggest that in addition to rescuing what fish you can, your agency should open an investigation into nearby diversions and possible Fish and Game Code violations immediately," the note by Terence said.
CDFG Game Warden Steve McDonald responded to Terence's note within days, supplying a report that all three surface diversions upstream of the dewatered reach with the photographed dying coho were shut off or were returning all the water they diverted back into the creek after using it.
"What's sad about this situation is that this isn't just happening in Patterson Creek. It's happening in tributaries across this agriculturally dominated valley, and the worst actors on tributaries we weren't able to document that day are getting away with murder because CDFG isn't taking a proactive and comprehensive approach to coping with this dewatering problem," Terence pointed out.
Although fish rescue in the Scott River fails to address the root causes of the dewatering such as irrigation dams, canals, ditches, groundwater pumping and soil deposition caused by irresponsible logging in the watershed, it is a necessary tactic to prevent total extinction of the severely endangered Scott River coho population.
The bleak reality is that scientists have already declared two out of three generations (called year-classes or cohorts) as "functionally extinct." The only biologically viable run of coho came home to spawn in the Scott River last year.
These stranded salmon have been identified as the offspring of that final coho run, and their survival rates will decide the future of the species in the watershed. Fall Chinook salmon numbers are still slightly stronger than the coho counts in the Scott River, but their populations are also in steep decline.
"Fortunately, both 2010 and 2011 were wetter than average years. Unfortunately, even in extremely wet years, we're seeing total dewatering in many reaches of the Scott River and its tributaries," Terence said.
"Even more unfortunate is the fact that the agencies with the power to do something about the problem--California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG), NOAA Fisheries, the U.S. Forest Service and the California Water Board--have all been unwilling to take meaningful steps to put water back in the river so far," she added.
A 1974 CDFG report on optimal in-stream flows for fisheries suggests that the mainstem Scott River should retain more than 100 cubic feet per second, yet the channel dropped to zero cubic feet per second in the summer of 2009 and was also dangerously low in 2010. The report is the best science currently available on the subject of in-stream flow needs of salmon in the Scott River.
Klamath Riverkeeper was the lead plaintiff in a court case challenging CDFG's California Endangered Species Act (CESA) permitting program aimed at bringing activities that could kill endangered coho into legal compliance. Riverkeeper and co-plaintiffs alleged that the program didn't do enough to protect in-stream flows or endangered coho salmon, and could even harm the species' chance of making a comeback there.
In April, 2011, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ernest Goldstein sided with plaintiffs Klamath Riverkeeper, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, Quartz Valley Indian Tribe, Environmental Protection Information Center, Northcoast Environmental Center and the Sierra Club, stating that "Program participants start with an inadequately scrutinized clean slate that is purged of past illegal take and is more permissive of future take of a population already depleted by illegal take," (Klamath Riverkeeper et al v. California Department of Fish and Game et al, Page 13, Lines 10-12.)
Judge Goldstein's opinion refers to decades of past inaction by CDFG in response to illegal coho deaths known as "take" of an endangered species under CESA.
But rather than take steps to fix the flaws in that program, CDFG has decided to appeal the judge's ruling.
The Siskiyou County Farm Bureau is also currently pursuing a legal challenge to CDFG's authority to regulate water diversions in order to save listed salmon.
Washington, D.C. - Congressman Jerry McNerney (CA-11) slammed state and federal plans to build a peripheral canal in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta during his speech on the floor of the House of Representatives on July 27.
In his remarks, Rep. McNerney also shared his strong support for landowners in the Delta area who are fighting attempts by the State of California to conduct surveys and studies without permission on private land.
"Mr. Speaker, I rise to stand shoulder to shoulder with landowners from the San Joaquin Delta who are fighting against the peripheral canal," said McNerney. "Without permission, the state is sending its employees onto private farmland to conduct the surveys and studies it would need to build a canal."
"Delta farmers aren't standing for it," affirmed McNerney. "Delta farmers have taken their case to the courts, and I urge them to keep fighting for their property rights and the health of our Delta."
"A peripheral canal or tunnel that takes large amounts of fresh water from the Delta would devastate families, farmers, and businesses in our community. A canal will cause saltwater intrusion, destroy thousands of acres of farmland, and devastate our water quality. It's time for state and federal agencies to respect the Delta and its people. We won't tolerate anything less," he concluded.
Bill Jennings, executive director/chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) and board member of Restore the Delta, applauded McNerney for speaking out against plans to build the peripheral canal.
"McNerney is one of the most celebral, educated and thoughtful members of Congress," said Jennings. "We had no doubt that, after thoughtfully analyzing the facts, he would could come out staunchly against the peripheral canal that would devastate farming, busienss and fishing communities in the Delta."
"Anyone who values the natural resources of the estuary and Delta communities would inevitably come to the conclusion that a peripheral canal would be the executioner's' warrant for this estuary," said Jennings.
McNerney joins a growing coalition of fishing groups, family farmers, Indian Tribes, environmental organizations, environmental justice communities, Delta residents and other Californians opposed to the construction of the peripheral canal/tunnel.
The Brown and Obama administrations, in the footsteps of the Schwarzenegger administration, are fast-tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build a peripheral canal or tunnel to divert Sacramento River water to corporate agribusiness and southern California.
As McNerney spoke out against the canal, one of the greatest fish kills in California history continued to take place in the state and federal Delta pumps.
An astounding total of 8,942,347 splittail, 35,435 chinook salmon, 385,392 striped bass, 49,812 largemouth bass, 67,383 bluegill, 66,403 white catfish, 20,178 channel catfish, 91,956 threadfin shad, 166,336 American shad, 1,642 steelhead and 51 Delta smelt were "salvaged" in the state and federal water export facilities from January 1 to July 21, 2011, according to DFG data. However, an array of scientific studies indicate that the actual numbers of fish killed in the pumping facilities is
Record amounts of water are being exported from the Delta, even though southern California reservoirs are full and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is selling water for cut-rate prices. For more information, go to: http://blogs.alternet.org/danb...
The Brown and Obama administrations, rather than exporting record amounts of water and presiding over one of the largest fish kills in California history, should instead work to restore Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations. They should heed the call by the majority of Californians to abandon plans put in place by the worst Governor in California history, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to build a peripheral canal or tunnel.
"The peripheral canal is a big, stupid idea that doesn't make any sense from a tribal environmental perspective," summed up Mark Franco, headman of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, who are now working to restore winter run chinook salmon to the McCloud River above Shasta Dam. "Building a canal to save the Delta is like a doctor inserting an arterial bypass from your shoulder to your hand- it will cause your elbow to die just like taking water out of the Delta through a peripheral canal will cause the Delta to die."
My dad Alfred, who worked for decades as a civil engineer for CalTrans, used to complain to me about the stupidity of past efforts by the US Army Corps of Engineers to remove trees from levees along the Sacramento River and Delta waterways.
Not only was this unsightly and bad for fish and wildlife, but he told me, as we were driving around the California Delta to fish for catfish and stripers, how removing the trees actually weakened the levees! He passed away in 2005, but if he was still alive, he would be very happy to hear that a lawsuit was filed to stop yet another hare-brained scheme by the Corps to remove trees from California levees.
Friends of the River, the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife filed a lawsuit in federal court on June 20, the day after Father's Day, challenging the implementation of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers program in California requiring removal of all trees and shrubs from levees despite clear evidence that this vegetation provides important habitat for endangered fish, birds and other species, and its removal may actually reduce levee safety.
This destructive program is being implemented under the Obama administration, an administration that is pushing the privatization of ocean fisheries through the "catch shares" program, backing the construction of a peripheral canal to export more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and fast-tracking the FDA approval process for genetically engineered salmon.
"This misguided program would further fragment remnants of Central Valley riparian forest that are essential habitat for endangered species and also provide scenic beauty and recreational enjoyment of the rivers," said Bob Wright, senior counsel for Friends of the River. "The Corps must abide by environmental laws and make environmentally informed decisions. We will pursue this case vigorously and as rapidly as the court allows."
"After Hurricane Katrina, the Corps made major changes to its nationwide levee program, including new standards in 2009 banning vegetation within 15 feet of levees, without consideration for regional differences," according to a joint press release from the three groups. "Although many levees were designed to include streamside vegetation to enhance the habitat lost by the re-engineering of rivers and streams, the Corps took steps to cancel all exceptions to the requirement that all levees be cleared, without evaluating the impacts on endangered species or their habitats in California."
"The Corps adopted a new standard requiring removal of all vegetation from levees without environmental review, consideration of regional differences or scientific support," said Jeff Miller with the Center for Biological Diversity. "Not only is there little proof trees or well-managed vegetation threaten levees in California, the Corps' own research shows trees stabilize and strengthen levees. The Corps must incorporate ongoing scientific research before proceeding."
Miller said the changes could significantly affect endangered species in the Central Valley and Southern California that rely on vegetation along levees for habitat, such as chinook salmon, steelhead trout, green sturgeon, giant garter snake, least Bell's vireo, riparian brush rabbit, southwestern willow flycatcher and valley elderberry longhorn beetle.
Central Valley fall-run chinook stocks collapsed to record low population levels in 2008 and 2009, due to a combination of massive water exports out of the California Delta, declining water quality and poor ocean conditions. Although there has been an upswing in the federal government's ocean salmon abundance estimate this year, the endangered Sacramento River winter-run chinook and spring-run chinook populations continue to decline. Removing riparian vegetation along Central Valley levees will result in higher water temperatures and increased sedimentation that are deadly to imperiled fish populations.
Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other Delta fish species have declined to record low population levels in recent years also, again spurred by water exports to corporate agribusiness and southern California water agencies.
"In many Southern California coastal streams, least vireos and flycatchers nest in riparian vegetation; longhorn beetles inhabit elderberry trees, and protected fish swim in rivers along Central Valley levees," according to the groups. "Riparian vegetation reduces sedimentation harmful to anadromous fish and provides important shade that reduces water temperatures, which is critical for salmonids and other aquatic species."
The groups contend the Corps ignored its legal obligation to analyze the impacts of this new program under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by failing to prepare an environmental impact statement before adopting the decision. They also say the Corps ignored its requirement, under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), to consult with federal wildlife agencies for the impacts on threatened and endangered species.
"Levee safety can be achieved without clearcutting some of the surviving riparian forests in the Central Valley and destroying habitat for struggling species like salmon, steelhead trout and willow flycatchers," emphasized Kelly Catlett, a California representative of Defenders of Wildlife.
The Corps for decades allowed retention and encouraged planting of trees and shrubs on Central Valley levees in cooperation with federal and state agencies because little other riverbank or riparian habitat remains for endangered species and other wildlife. "The Corps acknowledges vegetation removal may harm endangered species habitats, but instead of undertaking necessary consultation with wildlife agencies has tried to shift the burden of implementation and environmental compliance to local agencies and flood-control districts," the groups stated.
A call to the Corps of Engineers office in San Francisco regarding the agency's rationale for the removing the trees hadn't been returned at press time.
However, virtually everybody other than the Corps, ranging from state agencies to environmentalists, is opposed to the clear cutting of state state's levees. Major flood-control associations in the Central Valley and Bay Area, where most of the state's levees are located, as well as a dozen flood-control agencies, many state resource agencies, and federal and state lawmakers in California, have objected to or formally expressed concerns about the program.
Among the concerns are that compliance and subsequent environmental mitigation would be extremely costly; diverting limited funding to clear levees will prevent or hinder projects to fix structural or seepage problems; existing vegetation provides erosion control and removing it could increase risk of scouring and slope failure and compromise levee integrity. The state Department of Water Resources estimates the compliance cost at $7.8 billion.
The California Department of Fish and Game and Department of Water Resources have stated that implementation would "reduce public safety in California, result in extensive and unnecessary environmental damage, and remove the Corps' responsibility to assist state and local maintaining agencies in ensuring the integrity of California's levee system."
The agencies object to "attempting to address complex technical, financial, legal and institutional problems with a highly prescriptive, one-size-fits-all approach to vegetation management."
Hopefully, this lawsuit by the three environmental groups will stop the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from its "slash and destroy" policy of removing all trees and shrubs from levees on Central Valley and other California rivers. Kudos to Friends of the River, the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife for filing this much-needed litigation to stop the clear cutting of California levees!
For more information, contact: Bob Wright, Friends of the River, (916) 442-3155 x 207; Jeff Miller, Center for Biological Diversity, (415) 669-7357; and Kelly Catlett, Defenders of Wildlife, (916) 313-5800 x 110.
On June 15, the House of Representatives agreed by voice vote to an amendment to the House Agriculture Appropriations bill that would bar the approval of genetically engineered (GE) salmon for human consumption.
The short amendment by Representatives Don Young (R-AK) and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) would ban the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from spending any funds on the approval of the fish, called "Frankenfish" by GE fish opponents, beginning in the next fiscal year. (http://donyoung.house.gov/UploadedFiles/GM_Fish_final_version.pdf)
"Frankenfish is uncertain and unnecessary," said Rep. Young. "Should it receive approval as an animal drug, it clears the path to introduce it into the food supply; my amendment cuts them off before they can get that far. Any approval of genetically modified salmon could seriously threaten wild salmon populations as they grow twice as fast and require much more food."
Representatives of consumer, environmental and fishing groups and Indian Tribes welcomed the amendment while noting that the overall budget bill was badly flawed.
A bright spot in a bad bill
"The House of Representatives took an important first step toward banning genetically engineered salmon today - a step representing one bright spot in a Congressional budget bill that, overall, has been devastating to a large number of important consumer, environmental and social programs," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food and Water Watch.
Hauter described the approval process for genetically engineered salmon, which would be the first GE animal approved for human consumption, as "controversial" and "flawed." She said little consideration has been given to both the environmental and human health impacts of the fish.
"It appears the FDA was operating for the benefit of AquaBounty, the company that produces the fish, rather than in the public's interest. That the House is stepping in and prohibiting the FDA from using its FY2012 funds to approve this science experiment is a move in the right direction," she added.
Trout Unlimited also applauded the House Amendment to block approval of the controversial "Frankenfish" in a statement.
"TU is deeply concerned about the risks that genetically altered salmon pose to wild salmon populations through competition or interbreeding should they escape confinement or be released into the wild," according to Trout Unlimited. "TU is also concerned that the FDA is moving through its decision-making process without adequate environmental analysis and involvement by the agencies that manage salmon fisheries, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Service."
Wild salmon populations threatened by GE fish
"Many wild salmon populations, including wild Atlantic salmon in Maine, are listed as threatened or endangered species and cannot stand additional new stressors," said Keith Curley, TU's Director of Government Affairs. "This amendment would prevent the FDA from putting wild salmon at unnecessary risk of competition and interbreeding from genetically modified salmon."
TU urged the U.S. Senate to follow through on preventing the FDA from approving genetically engineered salmon for human consumption.
The Center for Food Safety (CFS) also praised the House for its decision to prohibit the FDA from approving "Frankenfish."
"We thank members of the House for stepping in to correct FDA's misguided decision to go ahead with this approval process that fails to take into account a plethora of economic, human health, environmental and animal welfare concerns," said Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director of the Center for Food Safety. "Any decision to approve GE salmon would be a continuation of the Obama Administration's illogical biotech bailout at the expense of American jobs and our fishing economy."
AquaBounty claims amendment is 'outrageous'
However, Ronald L. Stotish, Ph.D., President and CEO of AquaBounty Technologies, described the passage of the amendment as an "outrageous action." Less than a dozen lawmakers voted by voice to attach the amendment to the House Agriculture Appropriations bill, H.R. 2112.
"This outrageous action is wrong on the facts, wrong on the process and wrong on the policy," said Stotish. "A handful of representatives have chosen to subvert the FDA's rigorous 15-year plus process. It completely ignores the results of a rigorous scientific review. This sort of political gamesmanship undermines the science-based system that protects the nation's health and safety. It is astonishing that Young and a few colleagues would try to game the system in this way."
"Whether or not you support this transgenic salmon, we should all agree these types of shenanigans have no place in a complex scientific debate. These actions threaten the fundamental basis of a science-based regulatory process. Americans deserve better from their elected representatives," Stotish added.
The FDA is currently fast-tracking a permit application by AquaBounty Technologies, Inc. that would make genetically modified Atlantic salmon the first genetically engineered animal approved for human consumption. These fish, known as AquAdvantage, are designed to grow twice as fast as conventional farmed Atlantic salmon.
H.R. 2112 passed through House on January 16. The bill will now move to the U.S. Senate.
Winnemem Wintu Tribe urges Senators to block approval of Frankenfish
"Tell your Senators to do the same as the House and vote to Block FDA approval of GM Frankenfish," urged Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. "The Frankenfish doesn't has Omega 3 sufficient to our human needs for health. They will kill the Chinook and many other species!"
The Winnemem Wintu Tribe is now working on ambitious plan to return winter-run chinook salmon to the McCloud River above Lake Shasta. Members of the Tribe traveled to New Zealand in the spring of 2010 to conduct joint ceremonies with the Maori people on the Rakaira River, where the McCloud River winter-run chinooks were introduced a century ago. The Tribe received approval from the New Zealand and Maori governments to transport the eggs to the U.S. to reintroduce the fish into the McCloud. The Tribe now needs the cooperation of the U.S. and California State Governments.
The drive by the Obama administration to approve GE salmon for human consumption takes place as Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations are collapsing, due to massive water exports out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to corporate agribusiness and southern California water agencies and declining water quality. While the Sacramento River fall-run chinook populations are on the upswing after record runs in 2008 and 2009, endangered winter-run Chinook and threatened fall-run Chinook salmon continue to decline.
Witnesses in a Water and Power Subcommittee hearing held in Washington D.C. on June 13 exposed the many severe flaws in HR 1837, the San Joaquin Valley Water Reliability Act introduced by Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA).
Rep. Grace F. Napolitano (D-CA), who called for the hearing, described the bill as "a radical Republican water bill which would usurp California's water laws, roll back California's environmental protections, overturn California's water rights system to the benefit of a few powerful agricultural users, and set precedent for litigation against other states' water rights."
A diverse coalition of fishing groups, Indian Tribes, family farmers, conservationists, environmental justice advocates and Delta residents opposes the legislation for helping to engineer the extinction of imperiled populations of Sacramento River chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and other speices. Tribes opposing the legislation include the Yurok Tribe, Winnemem Wintu and Modoc Nation.
"This radical legislation threatens California's ability to manage its own water and protect its environment," Napolitano said. "Its provisions would damage our environment, undercut decades of agreements and ongoing negotiations to improve our water supply, and almost guarantee the extinction of California's salmon industry and damage our economy. By allowing a select group of agricultural users to bypass state environmental regulations, this bill overturns our state water rights system upside-down, pushing the costs of future droughts, climate changes, and environmental needs onto the backs of water users and taxpayers across the state."
Napolitano said HR 1837 overrides state water and environmental regulations, threatening California's fragile ecosystem and pushing the cost of environmental protection onto other senior water rights holders.
Bill will destroy California salmon
Members of the subcommittee heard testimony from California salmon fisherman Dave Bitts, whose industry experienced 100% unemployment in 2008 and 2009 from lack of salmon and lost millions in revenue.
"H.R. 1837 would eliminate many of the protections now in place for Central Valley salmon - in the San Joaquin River and the Bay-Delta Estuary," said Bitts, president of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA). "It undermines efforts at protecting and recovering the Central Valley's listed salmon species. It jeopardizes the restoration and productivity of fall-run Chinook populations."
"It likely will destroy California's salmon fishery and the jobs of thousands up and down the coast who depend on this resource and the fishing communities this fish supports," he stated.
Pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta kills young salmon as they swim out to sea, contributing to the decline of the salmon population. HR 1837 waives pumping restrictions for the Central Valley Water project and would lead to more die-offs in order to gain more water for junior water rights holders.
"Any solution to California's water and environmental needs affects the rest of the West," said Tony Willardson, a representative from the Western States Water Council. "We wish to reemphasize the States are primarily responsible for the management of their water resources."
No Delta representatives were invited to the previous hearing on HR 1837 held by Representative Tom McClintock. However, at this hearing Stockton attorney John Herrick of the South Delta Water Agency was invited to speak against the bill.
According to Alex Breitler of the Stockton Record on June 14, "Herrick told the committee that several agencies have determined more water must flow through the estuary if the ecosystem is to recover. H.R. 1837 would take responsibility for providing those flows away from those who export water from the Delta, he said."
"H.R. 1837 limits the amount of water that one group must provide and thus shifts the burden for additional water to everyone else," Herrick testified. "'Everyone else' just happens to be all of the superior water rights holders in California. All will now be subject to decreased water supplies because the junior-most parties are limited, if this passes, in what they have to contribute. That's a monumental change...It completely undoes the water rights system in California."
Representative Nunes skips hearing on his own bill!
Representative Devin Nunes, the bill's sponsor and the darling of subsidized corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, was a "no show" at the hearing on his own bill McClintock claimed that "no new arguments" were raised in the hearing.
However, Barbara-Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta, responded, "HR 1837 would harm people in his district as much as it would harm people in the Delta. It seems the Congressman is a plant for Southern California interests who want to faciliate the water grab from the north part of the state."
The hearing took place as one of the largest fish kills in California continues to take place at the state and federal pumps on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Personnnel at the Central Valley Project (CVP) and State Water Project (SWP) pumps in the South Delta have reported "salvaging" more than 6 million Sacramento splittail in the past six weeks and more than 51,000 imperiled spring-run chinook this year.
Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, urged everybody concerned about salmon, fish and water rights to actively oppose HR 1837.
"When people are not paying attention, bad bills like this get passed," said Sisk-Franco, whose Tribe is working to return native winter run Chinook salmon to the McCloud River above Shasta Lake. "It seems that Westlands is the only winner of 'water rights' in this Bill! Make your voices heard and tell your Representives, Congressmen and Senators to STOP this horrible bill."
"This misguided and destructive effort could trigger another round of water wars," Napolitano concluded. "We must hear from all of the Californians who share our water supply and improve our water supply to the benefit of all of California."
Background on HR 1837
If passed, the San Joaquin Valley Water Reliability Act would:
• Harm the environment by rolling back the water contributions that the Central Valley Project makes to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to 1994 levels, ignoring environmental changes in the Delta and additional endangered species that have become threatened in the intervening 17 years.
• Waive environmental impact studies for new water contracts in the Central Valley Project and extends current 25-year contracts without any environmental review for a minimum of 40 years. Because the contracts are exempted from contributing water for the health of the Delta, under current law other Californians will have no choice but to make up the difference when future droughts, climate changes, and environmental needs tighten the available water supply.
• Turn California's water rights system upside-down, exempting these same agricultural interests from contributing water to help desperately weakened commercial fisheries and allowing them to use or sell water that would otherwise go to the fragile Delta. This favoritism upends California's water rights system and reduces supply for other water users who continue to play by the rules.
"The purported reason for the bill is to help unemployment in the Central Valley, yet respected California economists Richard Howitt and Jeffrey Michael have debunked claims that pumping restrictions have had any major effects on the Central Valley's economy, and the bulk of unemployment is due to the bust in the housing market," noted Napolitano.
Documents in opposition to bill:
Letter of opposition from leaders of the California State Legislature, (Speaker John Perez, Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg, Senate Natural Resources and Water Chair Fran Pavley, Assembly Water, Parks, and Wildlife Chair Jared Huffman, and Assembly Natural Resources Chair Wes Chesbro):
"H.R. 1837 undermines judicial agreements, erodes long-standing water law principles, usurps California's sovereignty, and lays waste to any hope of progress in the Delta."
http://napolitano.house.gov/si...
Editorial from the Contra Costa Times:
"[This is] unbalanced legislation that would undermine key environmental protections for the Delta and flush the work of many dedicated individuals down the drain."
http://www.contracostatimes.co...
Letter of opposition from 12 different fishing industries:
"There are no words strong enough to describe the complete devastation this bill would bring to the Central Valley salmon runs and those who depend on them for their livelihoods, recreation and food sources."
http://napolitano.house.gov/si...
Letter of opposition from Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar:
"This legislation would undo ongoing broad-based collaborative initiatives that have been underway for many years to solve some of California's most significant water issues."
http://napolitano.house.gov/si...
