MCGUIRE TALKS SALMON ‘COLLAPSE’
“Bleak” and “grim” were words frequently used Tuesday morning as part of a joint legislative hearing on the crisis in California’s salmon fisheries amid the historic drought.
How bad it is during the current drought in the West, however, was up for debate.
“There is no way that this year isn’t going to be worse than it was in 2014-15, when we saw 95% (of salmon) dying off,” said North Coast state Sen. Mike Mcguire, who was the chair of the hearing.
“We’re witnessing the collapse of this iconic species right in front of our eyes,” Mcguire added as he opened the hearing.
Chuck Bonham, the director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said there was potential for it to be worse, but he did not want to make that statement yet.
“We think this is a super serious and bleak situation for salmon across the state,” Bonham told the committee. “… We’re looking at pretty significant risk of loss in this dynamic of those fish’s lifecycle, whether it’s 80%, 90%, 100%, any of those percents are significant for these fish, in part because they haven’t had that full opportunity to rebound, as I was discussing in my opening remarks, so I’m worried.”
But he added that next year is also a huge concern.
“I’m more worried, to be honest, as we head into next year,” Bonham said. “Our standard methods of evaluation aren’t keeping up with these cascading climate effects so I am very focused on what I can do to mitigate.”
Conditions on the Klamath River are dire, Bonham noted.
“We’ve had a difficult several weeks working with the Hoopa Valley Tribe, the Karuk Tribe, the Yurok Tribe, commercial fishermen, and our federal agency counterparts, made the hard decision to evacuate our hatchery on the Klamath River from the fish we were raising and move them over to our facility on the Trinity River, hold them there,” he said. “While we hope for better river conditions in the Klamath in the fall to take them back.”
The chairs of the Yurok Tribe and the Karuk Tribe, who were invited to speak during the hearing, urged changes to address the lack of water and the loss of subsistence salmon.
“We’re in a crisis,” said Joseph James, the chair of the Yurok Tribe. “We’re in a full-blown emergency issue as we experience heavy death in the mainstream (of the Klamath River) from the deadly disease. … We are losing our center. And we cannot lose our salmon. They are everything to us. Our children’s future depends on ensuring that fish not only survive but thrive.”
Mcguire asked tribal leaders to compare past droughts with the current and asked what should be done before 2022.
“(That’s) just around the corner, that’s five months from now,
those plans should be in place right now,” James said. “… We’re very hardworking, blue-collar people that just want to work and get it done. We are in a crisis now, so 2022 is here already.”
Karuk Tribal Chairman Russell “Buster” Attebery offered a similar call to action.
“We have to change our water management and forest management strategies to reflect that fact today the Klamath irrigation project has simply over-allocated and there’s not enough water to go around,” he said.
Groups representing sport and commercial fishermen voiced frustration that their industry is “in dire need of assistance,” as was noted by James Stone, president of the Nor-cal Guides and Sportsmen’s Association.