Posted on 06/22/2006 4:13:29 PM PDT by Chuckster
Agency Delays Salmon Disaster Declaration
WASHINGTON (AP) - West Coast salmon fishermen waiting for up to $80 million in disaster relief from a sharply curtailed fishing season are caught in a dispute between a regional fisheries office and the national headquarters.
A disaster recommendation from a regional office of the National Marine Fisheries - which cleared the way for the fishermen to receive aid - was overruled by officials at the agency's suburban Washington headquarters.
A final decision is not expected until February, well past the end of the fishing season, said Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., who is furious over the delay.
Thompson, who represents California's north coast, used an expletive as he accused officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of ``lying'' about the disaster declaration, which has been pending for nearly two months.
``I've got fishermen who are going to lose their boats, and bureaucrats who have never missed a paycheck are completely ignoring a real-life disaster,'' Thompson said.
A spokesman for NOAA Fisheries acknowledged that a ``decision memo'' recommending a disaster declaration was sent last month by the agency's Southwest regional office in California.
But the memo was sent back ``because it was outside their scope,'' NOAA spokesman Jeff Donald said Thursday.
Regional officials ``are not the ones who make the decision, and they were asked to correct'' the May 19 memo, Donald said. ``It's not the Southwest region's decision to make. It's the secretary's,'' he said, referring to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.
Donald denied Thompson's claim that a decision has been put off until February, saying the agency is ``trying to work through the process and trying to figure out exactly what's going on.''
Thompson and other West Coast lawmakers have criticized Gutierrez for inaction, saying West Coast fishermen are losing millions of dollars while federal bureaucrats procrastinate.
In late April, the Bush administration sharply reduced the commercial salmon fishing season in a 700-mile stretch of Oregon and Northern California coastal waters, an effort to protect struggling returns of chinook salmon in the Klamath River.
Since then, officials have said they are studying the issue, despite requests for help by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski.
``The Department of Commerce hasn't moved fast enough to declare a fisheries failure,'' said Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore. ``The bottom line is, we have fishermen without a fishing season, and our fishing communities need help.''
Smith and other West Coast senators worked to include a salmon disaster provision in a major fisheries bill approved this week. The bill, which reauthorizes the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, makes salmon fishermen in California and Oregon eligible for disaster assistance.
Smith has estimated economic losses in Oregon alone at more than $20 million, and Thompson said total losses could exceed $80 million.
So we are going to reward salmon fisherman with tax %s for fishing salmon to extinction?
I'm zapping salmon in the microwave as we speak. I better go see if it's a disaster.
Tax $s
It is actually much more complicated than that. Salmon return to spawn every 5-7 years. The salmon run is way down. Is it a fluke or a trend? Issues may include over fishing, or some say it is the dams built on rivers for hydro-power generation. The salmon don't seem to like some of the fish ladders. Then again it could be the sea lions like Mr. 404 that brings his buddies up the Columbia river and camp out by the fish ladders for a salmon buffet. We don't know for sure.
In there defense, if you made a living as a fisherman and the government told you you can not perform your craft, you might be in a bind too. The job market in the Northwest is not what it is in the rest of the country.
That's for danged sure!!! It's probably that Indian down near the mouth of the Klamath with a huge sein net hooked to his Ford tractor that I saw running completely across the river. He'd throw 'em into the back of his pick 'em up truck till the tires were nearly flat and drive 'em into town to sell 'em to the white man!!!
The dumb city slickers believe all the phoney stories about the ficticious Chief Seattle who was dreamed up by some high school teacher for a school play and how these supposedly righteous indiginous peoples are way more protective and respective of the environment than us White Anglo-Saxon Protestants!!! (Wasps)
It's all a huge pantload!!!
When you become reliant on a resource you don't own you're asking for trouble. This seems to be a "Tragedy of the Commons" class problem.
It's quite a bit more complicated than the list of bogus half-truisms you offered.
The Klamath River fall chinook runs failed to meet minimum escapement levels under the Magnusson Stevens Fisheries Management Act for the third year in a row. The Pacific Fisheries Management Council closed down most of the fishery 700 miles above Pigeon Point to protect the weak Klamath salmon stocks. This is the second year that area has been closed. It is also where the abundant stocks from the Sacramento fisheries are found.
This has caused extreme and real financial hardship to fishing families and coastal communities. Some are fishing other fisheries - like tuna, but their boats are not really big enough.
Unfortunately unscrupulous environmental and tribal interests are using the disaster to pit fishermen against ranchers and farmers. Although there is substantial evidence that the decline is due largely to the impact of the parasites C-Shasta and parvacapsula on juveniles (infection has been tracked to the 80-90% level,) these interest groups are blaming dams, irrigation and farming for their plight. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Klamath leads the state in restoration efforts.
Our Board supported relief for the fishermen. They are hurting.
Ahhhhh... we must honor the noble savage.
Did you see the recent story about the Thunder Valley Casino employees (female) who are suing for sexual harassment because their manager had this little thing about grabbing their a55es, calling them honey, and working continuously on expanding their role within the organization to include humping him?
Apparently, the noble savages are not allowed to be sued. They are a "sovereign nation" and are not subject to our laws. Even though the manager was not a noble savage, his employer was and therefore the judge is set to determine whether the suit can go forward against these noble savages.
At what point are we going to fix the bevy of problems created when we put people on the reservation system? It is the equivalent of calling them 5/4 human. They are not equal to American citizens because they get all of our benefits and do not get our responsibilities.
We should abolish the system. Create a "Tribal Corporation", grant the corporation all assets of the tribe, and give all members of the tribe an equal share of the corporate stock and then subject them to US laws.
Article 3 Section 3 of the constitution prohibits "Corruption of Blood" which means to bind any person for the acts of his ancestors. By giving special status to the noble savages, all other citizens have our blood corrupted. This needs to change. All people should be treated equally in this land.
I note that you do not include competition from farmed fish as a contributing factor in their plight. IMO, commercial fishing is ultimately a doomed industry for both sets of reasons. Probably all that will be left in the long run will be party boats and a few museum pieces.
Said, no, implied, definitely, by virtue of the "facts" you selected.
I stated what some of the arguments are as to causes of low salmon runs other than fishing.
And chose not to mention a raft of others that don't fit the agenda.
The amount of discharge from the dam acts to attract the salmon to the fish ladder. Depending on the snow pack in a given year, the dam may or may not be able to discharge sufficient CF/S of water to act as an attractant.
Instead the BPA adds "spill" that oxygenates the water to the point that it kills the fish.
Second. Some dams are capable of regulating the water temperature down stream based on whether the water is released from the top, middle or lower levels of the upper pool. If the water is too warm it repels the fish.
If the water is too warm, it can kill the fish by abetting parasites and infections, as is what happened at the mouth of the Trinity. The fish came into the Klamath in the first place because "protect the fish" mandated flows from the dam at Lower Klamath Lake were sufficient to open the bar before the rains. The fish came in and died. Who was blamed? Farmers upstream, for using too much water. Strangely, it WAS farmers, but not the ones who were accused. Colder water from the Trinity would have kept the fish alive but that had been diverted south to Westlands.
When you have rivers run by politics, activists, the courts, and dependent bureaucrats, no wonder the system doesn't work.
"Sometimes" the water is warmed by dams (such as Klamath Lakes), sometimes they cool it. What matters is local conditions. If there is significant interjection of ground water into the river, the bottoms of the pools may be cooler with lower flows making better summer refugia for smolts, the importance of which is seasonal. It's complex.
And just FYI. Bonneville Power Administration is responsible for the distribution of the power generated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) at the dams. They are not in the fish business.
The marginal price of power is significantly affected by fish because of the requirement for an amount of spill that does more harm than good. See the connection? BTW, BPA was one of the government agencies that was found to be gaming the market and gouging California for exported peak power.
The USACE Natural Resource Department along with the Federal and State Depts of Fish and Wildlife do that.
I don't see NMFS on that list, which is the lead agency when it comes to salmon.
I still have to ask if read the whole thread. My INITIAL comment was in defense of fishermen accused of causing the low fish runs. The examples I gave were just a couple of the top of my head to support that position.
You are the one that has chosen to attack me.
My only agenda was to say it ain't all fishermen. That's it. Other than that all I say is that it is complicated and we don't know for sure. Except for you of course. You seem to be a know it all.
And by the way, BPA doesn't add "spill" or anything else. The Corps controls the dams. BPA sells the power.
"When you have rivers run by politics, activists, the courts, and dependent bureaucrats, no wonder the system doesn't work."
The only thing you said I agree with.
Still not sure why you chose to attack me.
Yes! Here's to assimilation into the traditional American culture, as opposed to the pseudo celebration of divisions and divercity. There's nothing but divers in divercity anyways!!!
My, how important you are that I should even bother attacking you, as if what I posted had nothing to do with what you wrote.
I attacked what you posted, not you.
Dams are, if anything a net contributor to salmonid populations, in part because some of the river sections they inundated were quite dangerous to both smolts and returning adults (indeed, some were impassable) and the ladder and transport systems induce lower mortality than does a native river. NMFS is the lead agency for all anadromous fish; Fish and Wildlife only deal with fresh water fish. Get over it.
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