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Salmon fishing season in California and Oregon may be canceled

Posted at 4:49 PM on 12 Mar 2008

So few salmon are swimming in California and Oregon that salmon fishing season is likely to be canceled completely unless an emergency exemption is granted, according to the federal Pacific Fishery Management Council. The states' salmon season, which traditionally runs from April to mid-November, has never been entirely canceled before. Even with a complete closure, fishery experts estimate that 59,100 chinook salmon will spawn this fall in California's Central Valley rivers, far below officials' minimum conservation goal of 122,000 fish. The council will make a final decision in April, affecting some 1,000 commercial fisherfolk, California's $4 billion recreational fishing industry, and hungry pescetarians.

sources: San Francisco Chronicle, The Mercury News, Sacramento Bee

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Comments: (8 comments)

You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have a Gristmill account, log in below. If you don't have a Gristmill account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.

Well, good!

Cancel the salmon fisheries in WA, BC and AK too, why don't you!

We have had preached to us (with consequences, dear Jason Scorse, at least as serious as anything that the Catholic Church is alleged to be preaching to us) for quite a while now, the gospel that we will be better, healthier, happier persons, more complete and strong and competitive and long-lived, if we eat fish, lots of it and often, especially such wonderful fish as salmon.

Well, did anybody stop to ask the salmon how they felt about that?

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 3:55 AM on 13 Mar 2008

So anyone know what happened to the Sealions?

Can someone help me understand what that means for the Sealions. A few months ago, I read on Grist that the state of OR. was thinking of killing many sea lions because they were eating only "4%" of the salmon. ONLY 4%!

I personally never want to see any sealion be killed for eating the only thing it has. Unlike the Sealions, people do not have the need to eat salmon, we have lot of other (less expensive) types of food. We have many healthy and cheap alternatives.

So anyone know what happened to the Sealions? -

I only have this one life, so I am going to try my very best to make a positive change. --- The Happy & Healthy Vegan ---

by javaearth at 7:32 AM on 13 Mar 2008

Eating Salmon Not The Problem

The problems are: 1) human overpopulation, 2) dam(n)s, 3) industrial fishing methods, which, as described by Greenpeace in the '80s, are strip mining the oceans, 4) pumping water out of rivers and streams for growing crops that are totally out-of-place in the western U.S. and thus need far too much water (cotton, etc.), 5) water pollution, 6) destruction of riparian habitats by logging and cattle grazing, 7) global climate change heating the water, and 8) acidification of the oceans caused by human emissions of CO2.

Solve these problems and people could eat all the salmon they want within reason and the salmon populations would be fine.

by Wolverine at 12:50 PM on 13 Mar 2008

"Emergency Exemption"...

...give me some background to that, please. Which agency would grant an emergency exemption and just how likely are they to actually pass one?

by Tasermons Partner at 12:57 PM on 13 Mar 2008

Emergency Exemption

The Pacific Fishery Management Council, the same federal agency that would close the fishery, would have to issue the exemption. That agency is required to stop ocean fishing in an area if the number of spawning salmon do not reach the conservation objectives set for a particular fishery in that area. The salmon counted spawning in the Sacramento River were between one-half and one-third of the conservation objective.

According to Wednesday's San Francisco Chronicle, "[f]isheries experts [whoever that is] were hard pressed to come up with any excuse the council could use ... to justify an exception, given the dire circumstances." So, short of some political shenanigans, there should be no exemption this season.

by Wolverine at 3:34 PM on 13 Mar 2008

Political shenanigans...

...are exactly what I'm afraid of.

by Tasermons Partner at 4:47 PM on 13 Mar 2008

It isn't the fishing, stupid...

Although I agree that overfishing and improperly managed fishing is at the heart of most fisheries collapses--in this case, it isn't the fishing that is the root of the problem. The Pacific Salmon fishery is highly and effectively regulated. The problem in this case is that the majority of these fish face immense threats, not in the ocean, but in their freshwater habitats. 80% of the salmon fished for off the coast of California originate in the Central Valley system in California. This system is plagued with large, obsolete dams that block salmon migration, extreme water pollution (especially from runoff caused by industrial ag in the Central Valley) and large pumping operations in the Delta which suck freshwater that would otherwise contribute to a healthy ecosystem in the delta and ship that water to large, subsidized farms in the San Joaquin valley. Until these water exports are controlled and upstream habitat improved the salmon will continue to struggle. The Pacific Fisheries Management Council is doing the right thing, and most the fishermen agree with the decision this week. They have an interest in protecting salmon stocks, unfortunately industrial ag does not.

by Edevart at 12:37 PM on 14 Mar 2008

Of course it isn't the fishing...

...that caused the problem, but if they allowed it now, it might very well end the problem, along with any chance of a solution or a future for the fish.

by Tasermons Partner at 9:36 PM on 14 Mar 2008

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