Dire fish numbers prompt major closure of Columbia

[struggle4progress]

Almost entire border stretch closed for shad, steelhead, salmon

Statesman Journal


April 20, 2005

Faced with the lowest counts on record for spring-run chinook salmon on the Columbia River, decision-makers Tuesday decided to exercise the nuclear option, closing salmon fishing on nearly 300 miles of the Columbia River.

Beginning at midnight today, fishing for salmon, steelhead and shad is prohibited from the mouth at Buoy 10 upriver to McNary Dam near Umatilla, virtually the entire Oregon-Washington border section of the river.

Anticipating the closure, sportfishing and tribal representatives said during a Tuesday morning conference call that the effects were nearly instantaneous and devastating.

"Before the season is even halfway through, we are already canceling hotels and guided trips, packing up our coolers, fishing rods, tackle boxes and boats and heading home," said Liz Hamilton, executive director, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association. "Individual businesses will lose as much as $50,000 each over this closure." <snip>

http://159.54.226.83/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050420/OUTDOORS/504200336/1034

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Well, that's a bitch, isn't it...

yet another industry goes belly up because of lousy planning on someone's part or just plain ol' bad luck.

Whaddathey wanna do, keep fishing till there's not one damn salmon left?

[struggle4progress]

2. It's an opportunity to forge alliances between the environmental ...

... movement and the recreation/tourism industries that depend on functional ecosystems.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. It could be, but...

I doubt much will happen in the current climate.

A similar problem has been ongoing with the collapse of the North Atlantic fishery. Cod, pollack, and a number of other commercial species all but disappeared due for various reasons, not the least of which was overfishing with drag nets. There are all sorts of state and federal programs to pay the fishermen while the stocks rebound, if they do, and I haven't kept up with it but it doesn't look good.

Chesapeake oysters, Long Island lobsters and clams, scallops, fluke, tuna, swordfish... all are stressed, and there are limits on catch and size. And everyone bitches and blames everyone else. The commercial fishermen and the sport fishermen blame each other and everyone blames the foreign factory fleets. And they all try to cheat when they can.

Meanwhile, the ocean is being mined of all the fish that aren't being killed by pollution and the loss of coastal wetlands.

[struggle4progress]

6. I really agree the situation looks grim. But we cannot afford to ignore ..

... old-fashioned standard political techniques, even if we must be aware of their limitations ...

[LdyGuique]

3. The "Save Our Wild Salmon" website has a good library

on fishing issues that have been long in the making -- here's a snippet:

FOUR-YEAR SUMMARY - Another Federal Fish Tale

Once the most prolific salmon and steelhead populations in the world, salmon and steelhead in the Snake and Columbia rivers are now teetering toward extinction. All remaining species of Snake River salmon and steelhead, for example, are listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and Snake River coho are already extinct. The major cause of decline for Snake River salmon is the existence and operation of four federal dams on the lower Snake River in Washington State.

The listing of twelve different salmon and steelhead populations in the Columbia and Snake River Basin under the ESA led the federal government to issue a plan in December 2000 — the so-called Federal Salmon Plan — to address the adverse impacts of the federal dams on these listed species. This plan, though stating that removing four federal dams on the Snake River was the surest and best way to protect and recover the salmon and steelhead of these rivers, set forth an “everything but dam removal” approach. Due to several critical deficiencies, including the federal government’s overreliance on voluntary and speculative measures, the plan was ruled illegal by a federal court in May 2003. At the request of the federal government, the judge left the plan in place and gave the Administration until November 31, 2004 to rewrite the plan.

[megatherium]

4. My dad will be broken-hearted.

He lives in Portland, and goes fly-fishing for salmon. Occasionally, he catches one, and grills it. Yum!