FISHERIES

Fish Wrap: Salmon fishing outside the bay continues to run hot

Column
By Alastair Bland
From Marine Independent Journal – Thursday, May 16, 2013
Salmon fishing seems great right now – except that federal law says it needs to be even better. That’s because the Central Valley Project Improvement Act, passed by Congress in 1992, required water managers to do whatever it took to bring populations of fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin river system back to their historic levels – roughly a million fish per year spawning in the Central Valley’s rivers. That goal was not achieved and remains to be.

California Farm Water Coalition response:

Millions of acre-feet of water have been taken from agriculture to benefit fish since the passage of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act by Congress. Despite 20 years of water supply cuts intended to help fish, salmon numbers have continued to fluctuate through the years, meaning that dedicating more water to fish has not resulted in higher numbers.

Scientists from the Pacific Fisheries Management Council and the National Marine Fisheries Service have identified poor ocean conditions—warm temperatures and reduced food supply—as the leading cause of the drop in salmon numbers.

In February 2008 a NMFS report (http://swfsc.noaa.gov/publications/FED/00994.pdf) concluded  that the overall cause of the recent salmon decline was ocean conditions. A year later the Pacific Fisheries Management Council reported that all the evidence they could find pointed to ocean conditions as being the proximate cause of the poor performance of the 2004 and 2005 broods of Sacramento River Fall Chinook — http://www.pcouncil.org/bb/2009/0409/H2b_WGR_0409.pdf.

Since the adoption of CVPIA, studies conducted by the California Department of Fish & Game and UC Davis have also shown a strong increasing trend in the abundance of warm water predatory fish in the Delta that feed on juvenile salmon as they make their way through the Delta.  The result is predator species consuming and replacing native fish in the Delta — http://www.farmwater.org/centrarchids.pdf. The article doesn’t mention it but that’s the real reason salmon smolts are trucked around the Delta.

In contrast, public water agencies are translating science into action by supporting, developing and/or implementing solutions that address the need for multi-solution approaches, such as those found in the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. Those solutions will increase both the quality and quantity of habitat diversity through ecosystem based management, as will solutions recommended by a range of science interests from Pacific Fisheries Management Council to the Public Policy Institute of California.

Environmentalists and fishermen have the opportunity to be part of the solution but it will take a concerted effort to move beyond the old approach of simply blaming the pumps.

Nestor Guillermo, right, of Ocean Beauty Seafoods fillets a 40-pound Copper River king salmon after its arrival at Sea-Tac Airport outside Seattle on the first shipment of the season from Cordova, Alaska, Friday, May 17, 2013. The arrival of the Copper River salmon, which is prized for its taste and color, is a rite of spring in Seattle, and the fish bring top dollar in restaurants and fish markets.

Ted S. Warren — AP

                    Published: May 16, 2013

           The Associated Press

      SEATAC, Wash. — The first planeload of Copper River salmon from Cordova landed Friday morning at Sea-Tac Airport and the Alaska Airlines pilots carried a 40-pound king to waiting chefs.

The annual cook-off among local chefs this year includes Master Sgt. Robert Schulman, a 31-year Air Force Reserve chef representing the 446th Airlift Wing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

The arrival of fresh Copper River king and sockeye salmon is a rite of spring in Seattle where the fish are prized for their flavor. They typically bring the highest prices at restaurants and fish markets.

The plane carried 24,600 pounds of fish, and Alaska Airlines scheduled three more salmon flights Friday. The airline says it will ship more than 2 million pounds of salmon this year across its 95-city network.

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2013/05/16/2904907/seattle-has-big-appetite-for-copper.html#storylink=cpy

May 6, 2013

U.C. Davis News and Information

A team of University of California, Davis, scientists is developing a groundwater management tool that could lead to better streamflow conditions for salmon and steelhead in northern California’s Scott River Valley, which provides critical fish habitat within the Klamath Basin.

This mountain valley also supports an agricultural economy composed of small family farms and ranches, raising alfalfa hay, pasture, and cattle. Regulatory agencies, farmers, ranchers and the local community are working to find win-win solutions for both fish habitat and agriculture.

“For most other rivers in California, summer and fall water flows are entirely dictated by dams that have water behind them,” said Thomas Harter, a Cooperative Extension groundwater hydrologist in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources who led the study. “Scott River is very dependent on the groundwater system.”

The 57-mile-long, undammed Scott River is a tributary of the Klamath River, and portions of it are designated as a federal and state Wild and Scenic River. A combination of irrigated agriculture in Scott River Valley, a lack of streamside shade on the river, and climate change has led to warmer river temperatures and reduced late summer and fall stream flows on the river, particularly in dry years, Harter said.

In a recent report to the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, the researchers summarized the hydrology of the Scott Valley, gathering data about rainfall, climate, soils, land use, irrigation and groundwater flows distributed across the basin for the past 21 years. Harter will combine this information into an integrated hydrologic model, expected to be complete in early 2014.

Read it:

 http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10576

http://www.marinij.com/sports/ci_23161060/fish-wrap-salmon-anglers-having-field-day

By Alastair Bland IJ correspondent

Marin Independent Journal.com

Posted:   05/02/2013 07:28:39 PM PDT

Medford Mail Tribune |

 April 22, 2013 2:21 a.m. |

 Updated: April 22, 2013 9:21 a.m.

By MARK FREEMAN

Mail Tribune

Oregon salmon advocates believe they are inching toward developing a federally approved plan in which over-populations of fish-eating cormorants could be killed to reduce their impacts on salmon and steelhead runs.

A bill in the Oregon Legislature sponsored by Rep. Wayne Krieger, R-Gold Beach, asks the U.S. Department of the Interior to allow Oregon to join 24 other states with cormorant management programs, which could include killing some of the birds to protect out-migrating salmon and steelhead smolts in spring and fall.

The bill last week was passed out of the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Current laws allow only the hazing of cormorants in Oregon, and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has a hazing program going on in places such as the Coquille River estuary in Bandon, Alsea Bay in Waldport and the mouth of the Columbia River.

Cormorants are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and cannot be harmed or killed under federal law. ODFW is conducting population surveys to identify where they might be considered over-populated.

“This ratchets up the conversation,” said Steve Beyerlin, a Gold Beach fishing guide who said he’s seen hundreds of cormorants at a time work in unison along the Lower Rogue in the fall when millions of hatchery and wild chinook salmon head en masse to the ocean.

“It would be nice to see 20 cormorants in the bay instead of 250,” Beyerlin said. “I think this is part of the process, getting us into position to do something about it.”

Cormorants are large seabirds that inhabit Oregon estuaries in spring and summer. Over the years they have expanded inland along certain rivers, including the Rogue. They can eat up to 2 pounds of fish a day, making them a threat to the survival of out-bound salmon and steelhead smolts.

The hazing programs, which are conducted largely by volunteers, target cormorants that intercept wild and hatchery coho smolts migrating to the ocean in April and May.

Under the program, volunteers drive at the birds in small boats while occasionally firing pyrotechnics toward them, according to ODFW. The hazing is done largely by coastal fishing groups, with ODFW providing oversight and paying for boat fuel, the agency said.

Cormorants have more of a presence in the Lower Rogue bay in the fall, when chinook smolts are moving through, said Todd Confer, ODFW’s Gold Beach District fish biologist.

The fall migration includes 1.6 million smolts released from Cole Rivers Hatchery for the 157-mile trip to the Pacific.

“We don’t really see (coho predation) as a potential issue as much as the predation of chinook smolts in the fall,” Confer said.

Many of the cormorants fishing the Lower Rogue in late summer and fall include fledglings and immature transient birds that show up just as the chinook make their way downstream, Confer said.

The Lower Rogue could be part of the hazing program, but there is only a small amount of money to cover some expenses for volunteers who take it on, Confer said.

Beyerlin said local anglers looked at the hazing program but declined to take part because of the time, amount of detailed reporting, and fear it would take away from the fall sea-lion hazing program that scares off pinnipeds known to snatch salmon off the lines of bay anglers. Sea-lion hazing occurs at the same time as the chinook smolt migration.

Beyerlin said he would like to see cormorants hazed by ODFW along the Rogue in the fall, as well as during the spring nesting season.

“I think it would be a good thing to encourage them to set up elsewhere,” Beyerlin said.

This story originally appeared in Medford Mail Tribune.

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130422/NEWS/304220308/-1/NEWS02

PNP comment: There has been a BIG push by Greenies, Tribes and fed agencies to push the KBRA in large, well-known newspapers recently. They make it sound like it is a DONE DEAL. 

It is NOT.

Bottom line: There will be millions of dollars in “restoration” monies for these Greenie groups, several Tribes and government agencies to continue a welfare existence. Even though taking out the dams will kill the fish, wildlife, destroy water quality for years and dump huge amounts of toxic sediment into the Klamath River and allow the unfiltered spread of noxious weeds, whereever water recedes.

Also, the salmon have swam 191 miles up the Klamath River, when they reach the first dam — Irongate Dam. They typically have sores and are ready to spawn and die, which they do in the Irongate Fish Hatchery. If we need more fish, they can certainly increase the number to release from the hatchery. 

So our mantra remains:

 SAVE the dams and we will SAVE the fish, wildlife, streambeds and water quality. Simple. — Editor Liz Bowen

The Wall Street Journal

Landmark 2008 Pact to Aid Region Remains in Limbo as a New Drought Hits

By JIM CARLTON

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore.—One of the most bitter water wars in the West is erupting again.

This past week, the Klamath County Commission in southeastern Oregon and Gov. John Kitzhaber both declared a drought emergency to help make farmers eligible for federal subsidies to alleviate any losses. The agricultural county of 70,000 has been dealing with unusually dry conditions for the past four months, with farmers and ranchers saying they face potentially crippling water cutbacks by federal agencies.

If “they shut water off here, there could be some violence,” said Tom Mallams, a rancher and member of the Klamath County Commission. The drought declaration “will help defuse some of the tensions—I hope, anyway.”

The move is the latest attempt to quell water concerns in the 6,135-square-mile county of rugged sage and timber land, where one of the West’s most heated water wars broke out in 2001. At the time, federal officials shut off irrigation to thousands of acres of farmland in Oregon and California to protect endangered fish during another drought. In the aftermath, federal marshals had to be called in to stop angry farmers from reopening locked irrigation gates.

The squabbles resulted in a landmark 2008 agreement to end the fighting, including a provision by PacifiCorp, a Berkshire Hathaway  BRKB +2.21% Inc.-owned utility based in Portland, Ore., to remove four dams on the Klamath River by 2020. The agreement was unique because it brought many of the warring parties to the negotiating table, including PacifiCorp, the U.S. Interior Department and California and Oregon. At the time it was signed, many looked at the agreement as a model for resolving other water disputes in the West.

But in the five years since, the agreement has hit stumbling blocks, showing how difficult it remains to settle Western water disputes, even after the feuding sides have come together. And the recent dry conditions have renewed water tensions over who gets what. This past week’s drought declaration was partly an attempt to help protect mostly ranchers not covered by the 2008 agreement.

One big issue hindering the 2008 agreement is that the deal’s provisions have yet to be approved by Congress. The pact is languishing amid resistance in the Republican-held House to nearly $1 billion in projected federal costs to meet key goals, such as restoring wetlands.

In Klamath County, the agreement also has faced local opposition to dam removal among residents who believe it would reduce water further in the basin. In addition, locals who oppose the 2008 deal have risen in power. Last year, Mr. Mallams—a rancher who said the agreement favored farmers’ water rights over ranchers’ rights—was elected to the three-member Klamath County Commission. The commission, which had signed the 2008 agreement, voted last month to withdraw its support for the deal.

READ more:

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887324763404578428962610094212-lMyQjAxMTAzMDIwMTEyNDEyWj.html?mod=wsj_share_email

FISHERIES

Salmon raised in a rice field thrive

Story
From SF Chronicle – Thursday, April 4, 2013
Four thousand juvenile chinook salmon, now grown fat and sassy, swam into the Sacramento River toward the Golden Gate on Wednesday as scientists released them from weeks of thriving in a flooded rice field on the north end of the river’s fabled Yolo Bypass.

Yolo Bypass floodplain experiment produces salmon ‘fatties’

Story
From Sacramento Bee – Wednesday, April 3, 2013

The salmon swam out of the rice fields Wednesday, and they came out fatter than ever. The experiment to raise juvenile salmon in flooded rice fields began in February when scientists put 50,000 pinky-sized fish into flooded test fields on 18 acres in the Yolo Bypass north of Woodland.

Farmers, researchers fatten fish in rice fields

Story

From San Jose Mercury News – Wednesday, April 3, 2013

From KRCA 3 – Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Alongside a flooded field of rice stubble, Jacob Katz dipped a fish net into turbid water and came up with a half dozen or so silvery juvenile salmon.

Researchers laud ‘spectacular’ success of salmon grown in Yolo Bypass

Story

From Woodland Democrat – Wednesday, April 3, 2013

A few miles down a slatted road in the Yolo Bypass, scientists are working on a new way for farmers to grow fish along with their crops.

Greg Henderson, Editor, Associate Publisher,

Drovers CattleNetwork  |  Updated: 03/20/2013

Whole Foods Market, Aldi and Trader Joe’s Co. are among retailers who have pledged not to sell genetically engineered salmon or other seafood, according to a new advocacy campaign.

The Campaign for Genetically Engineered-Free Seafood – a coalition formed by the Consumers Union, Friends of the Earth and other groups – announced Wednesday that food retailers representing 2,000 U.S. stores have vowed not to sell GM seafood if it is approved in the United States. The announcement was made as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration appears close to approving genetically engineered salmon from AquaBounty Technologies, Maynard, Mass.

In December the FDA announced a draft environmental assessment indicating the genetically engineered salmon from AquaBounty – called AquaAdvantage – would not have a significant impact on the U.S. environment. The salmon would be farmed in Panama.

AquaBounty formally applied for approval of the GM salmon in 1995. Last month the public comment period was supposed to end, but the FDA extended the deadline to late April. If approved, the salmon would become the first genetically engineered animal to enter America’s human food supply.

Journalist Emily Anthes described AquaAdvantage in The New York Times as “an Atlantic salmon that carries two foreign bits of DNA: a growth hormone gene from the Chinook salmon that is under the control of a genetic ‘switch’ from the ocean pout, an eel-like fish that lives in the chilly deep. Normally, Atlantic salmon produce growth hormone only in the warm summer months, but these genetic adjustments let the fish churn it out year round. As a result, the AquAdvantage salmon typically reach their adult size in a year and a half, rather than three years.”

AquaBounty says the faster-growing “AquaAdvantage Salmon” saves time and resources, and that the products are safe. Critics claim such GM products are not sufficiently tested for safety, carry allergy risks and should be labeled.

“We won’t sell genetically engineered fish because we don’t believe it is sustainable or healthy,” Trudy Bialic from PCC Natural Markets in Washington State told Reuters.

Whole Foods Market, a 335-store organic and natural food chain, announced earlier this month that by 2018 it will require all products in its stores to be labeled indicating whether they contain GMOs.

But scientists, including the FDA’s experts, have concluded that AquaAdvantage is just as safe to eat as conventional salmon and that, raised in isolated tanks, it poses little risk to wild populations, Anthes wrote in The Times.

“We should all be rooting for the agency to do the right thing and approve the AquaAdvantage salmon,” Anthes said. “It’s a healthy and relatively cheap food source that, as global demand for fish increases, can take some pressure off our wild fish stocks. But most important, a rejection will have a chilling effect on biotechnological innovation in this country.”

http://www.cattlenetwork.com/US-Retailers-vow-not-to-sell-GMO-salmon-199228711.html