Jared Huffman calls for relief after salmon season closure

North Coast U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman joined former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a handful of business people affected by the closure of the salmon fishery for the season, calling for emergency funding to get to stakeholders faster than in past years.

“This is not a happy occasion,” Huffman said as he began the news conference. “This dreary weather is pretty fitting for the dark situation that we’re all here to talk about; a statewide closure of the California salmon season is terrible news.”

On Thursday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis announced they requested federal aid in the face of the economic downturn that will result from the closure of the fishery.

“Countless families, coastal communities and tribal nations depend on salmon fishing — it’s more than an industry, it’s a way of life. That’s why we’re requesting expedited relief from the federal government,” Newsom said in a prepared statement. “We’re committed to working with the Biden Administration and Congress to ensure California’s fisheries aren’t left behind.”

Huffman explained there is a “two-part challenge” facing lawmakers to help the industry — expediting disaster relief and working toward restoring salmon populations for long-term sustainability.

“The good news is in the last Congress with Speaker Pelosi in leadership, we made some very important legislative changes to the way we do fishery disasters, it should speed things up quite a bit,” Huffman noted. “We also appropriated $300 million. That should give us a head start on trying to secure those funds and get them out the door to folks who need it.”

California Natural Resources Agency Secretary Wade Crowfoot noted that some funding has already been provided to assist in

salmon recovery.

“There’s a lot that we can do and we need to do,” Crowfoot said. “… the sovereign Yurok government, our most populous tribe in California, yesterday received almost $5 million from our California Department of Fish and Wildlife to construct or restore habitat along the Trinity River, which is going to be really helpful to salmon. It’s projects like that, that give me hope that we’re going to persist through this.”

Several business owners spoke about how disastrous the closure is for restaurants, fishermen and outdoors suppliers.

Ken Elie of Outdoor Pro Shop said he’s already had to lay off one-quarter of his workforce.

“Up until recently I had 39 employees,” Elie said. “I am the largest independent fishing tackle dealer west of the Mississippi. But we’ve already had to lay off 10 people and probably going to have to lay off more. I can only get down to a certain number because I have a very, very large retail store.”

John McManus, with the Golden State Salmon Association, echoed the comments of others noting it was a very worrisome time for many people.

“There’s a lot of fear and panic all up and down the coast with families trying to figure out how they’re going to pay the bills this year because there’s no salmon,” he said. “We’ve got tens of thousands of people in California that rely on salmon to make a living.”

But he also offered a note of optimism.

“I’m heartened to actually hear the report from Congressman Huffman that working with Speaker Pelosi there’s some reason to believe we might see this disaster relief get to the people that it needs rapidly,” McManus said.

Pelosi closed out the news conference by thanking Huffman for his critical leadership on natural resources issues along the West Coast.

Watch the news conference at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnfrMq2H4Gg.