What do salmon mean to you?
On April 1, a congressional panel led by Congressmen George Miller and Mike Thompson will assemble in San Francisco to hear from fishery leaders and the public about the economic and human costs of the closed 2008 and 2009 fishing seasons. This is the best opportunity in years for salmon fishermen and other supporters to join in a united statement that we support salmon, salmon fishing and the water and habitat needs that will allow the stocks to rebuild. Please attend and help make a statement. Show our leaders that salmon are important.
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The Pacific Fisheries Management Council, at it’s Sacramento meeting this week, has announced three options for the California recreational salmon season in 2010. They range from a full-blown season to none at all. Keep in mind, these are the options and the National Marine Fisheries Service gets the last say on the matter in April.
But for now, here’s what’s being considered… [click to continue…]
Will things never change??
To keep up on the fast moving, often underhanded and corrupt water politics of California and how they usually don’t turn out so well in the favor of fish and those who make their livings off them, check out Lloyd Carter’s
Chronicles of the Hydraulic Brotherhood.
There’s you’ll learn about all kinds of interesting stuff like Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s efforts to gut the Endangered Species Act on behalf of the Westlands Water District; that the United Farm Workers Union has come out against the $11 billion water bond and why the salmon weren’t saved half a century ago…thanks to all the usual political B.S.
It’s all a very good read…though pretty sobering in many cases…
by JD on February 24, 2010
Will we or won't we??
The $1 billion question…Will California have a salmon season in 2010? Some folks are suggesting we should have a season, based on the fact that Sacramento River Fall Run jack counts were high enough in 2009 to forecast a run this year that should be well above minimum escapement goals, but I think that is very flawed logic.
Jack counts alone are, overall, a poor predictor of run size and to open a season based on that seems irresponsible to me. All you have to do is look at the jack numbers in 2008, which predicted a full run of 121,000 adult kings in 2009. We of course ended up with 35,000 that year!
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by JD on February 11, 2010
The numbers are in for California’s Central Valley Chinook salmon in 2009 and they aren’t pretty: The Pacific Fisheries Management Council’s just-released counts indicate the state’s salmon population hit a new all time record low in 2009.
The Council reports “In 2009, a total of 39,530 natural and hatchery Sacramento River Fall Chinook (SRFC) adults were estimated to have returned to the Sacramento River basin for spawning….The 2009 adult escapement estimate is the lowest on record and continues the declining trend in SRFC escapement despite the 2008 and 2009 closures of nearly all ocean Chinook fisheries south of Cape Falcon…” [click to continue…]
Sac River Kings: Are these days gone forever??
The counts are in and fall Chinook salmon runs in Northern California’s Central Valley were again low in 2009, which could lead to Federal Endangered Species Act protection in the not-too-distant future. The upside of it all was a few rivers — like the American — had better returns than in the previous year and jack counts statewide were up.
Read the story HERE
by JD on November 2, 2009
So, just how bad has the salmon situation in Northern California gotten? Well, here’s a little spreadsheet I found stapled to the wall of the Nimbus Fish Hatchery on the American River near Sacramento.
Take a close look…the numbers to the right of the red line are Chinook salmon counts; to the left of the blue line are the corresponding years in which those fish returned to the river. Beginning in 2000, we had five straight years of 100,000+ kings in the American. And then by 2007-08, the run had dwindled to 10 percent.
I floated an 8-mile stretch of river on Nov. 1 just to see for myself how things were shaping up for the 09-10 fall and I saw a total of two alive kings, 1 dead one and no redds. A trip to the hatchery a few days before revealed a few fish behind the weir, empty holding ponds and no water yet even running down the ladder. This, my friends, is not looking good…
Late October and not a single fish in the hatchery...
