Contact:  Michael Coats, 707-935-6203
Erin Tobin, Earthjustice, 202-489-6178, etobin@earthjustice.org

Salmon Advocates Challenge Weak Pesticide Controls in Central Valley
Proposed plan to limit pesticide pollution not strong enough to protect salmon

San Francisco  –  Fishing groups acted today to strengthen regulation in California of two widely used pesticides known to harm salmon.  More than one million pounds of the two pesticides are used annually to kill insects on a variety of crops in California and much of it washes off fields or drifts from the air into salmon-bearing streams.

The Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA) and GGSA coalition members Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and Golden Gate Fishermen’s Association submitted formal comments asking the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board to strengthen a draft plan to regulate the two poisons, diazinon and chlorpyrifos.

The fishing groups are represented by public interest law firm Earthjustice, which sent the comment letter late Monday in response to the Central Valley Water Quality Control Board’s draft plan controlling diazinon and chlorpyrifos.

“Salmon have a tough enough time surviving in California with the chronic manmade water shortage; we need to stop poisoning the rivers and streams where they reproduce,” said John McManus, executive director of the Golden Gate Salmon Association. “No one should be surprised that highly toxic agricultural poisons are damaging salmon.”

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has determined that chlorpyrifos, diazinon, and a third widely used agricultural poison, malathion, are likely to jeopardize the continued existence of 27 species of endangered or threatened salmon and steelhead. NMFS found that current uses were likely reducing the number of salmon returning to spawn. In 1989, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined that diazinon jeopardized 84 threatened and endangered aquatic species and four listed avian species.

“Our salmon are our livelihood. Agriculture needs to find ways to live lighter on the land so California’s native wildlife, including salmon, thrive,” said Zeke Grader of PCFFA and GGSA.

“Agriculture needs to be responsible for the tons of poisons they dump on their lands that end up in the state’s rivers and streams used by the rest of us.”

Both diazinon and chlorpyrofos are broad spectrum organophosphate pesticides that originate from nerve gases developed during World War II.  In addition to harming wildlife, they are highly toxic to humans, poisoning workers and communities in agricultural areas when the pesticides drift from fields.

“The U.S. Geological Survey has found that both diazinon and chlorpyrofos contaminate rivers throughout the west at levels harmful to fish or their food sources, which most people would agree is unacceptable,” said Roger Thomas of GGFA and GGSA. “We know that both poisons have been detected at levels harmful to salmon in the San Joaquin and Tulare basins, among other places.”

“These are some of the most toxic pesticide chemicals on the market, harming wildlife, people and the environment,” said Earthjustice attorney Erin Tobin. “The law requires a sound plan to control pesticide use and clean up our rivers so the ecosystem can thrive.”

Background
Chlorpyrofos is “very highly toxic” to fish according to U.S. EPA. It impairs fish reproduction by reducing egg production in fish. It inhibits juvenile salmon feeding behavior and swimming speed and harms the survival and reproduction of salmon food sources.

Diazinon impairs feeding, predator avoidance, spawning, homing and migration capabilities by impeding salmon sense of smell and leads to weakened swimming activity in juvenile trout. It’s also known to be acutely toxic to salmon food sources.  Diazinon is used on a wide variety of crops including apples, blueberries, broccoli, cherries, cranberries, pears, spinach, and tomatoes. In 2004, EPA cancelled home uses of diazinon due to the extreme risks that it poses to children, but EPA has continued to allow farm uses of the pesticide.

Chlorpyrifos is one of the most widely used pesticides in the United States. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that every year farmers apply more than 10 million pounds of chlorpyrifos on dozens of crops, ranging from apples and broccoli to walnuts and wheat.  Most residential uses of chlorpyrifos were phased out or cancelled in 2000.

The fishing groups contend the draft plan is  incomplete and inaccurate and urge the Central Valley Board to revise it.  Among other deficiencies, the draft plan fails to include legally required provisions needed to control unhealthy levels of pesticides in Central Valley waters, including managing pesticide drift and providing a margin of safety to ensure the applicable water quality standards will be attained.  It also fails to include reasonable assurances that proposed limits on the poisons will be achieved and therefore is unlikely to achieve the goals of clean water.

The plan will apply to an area encompassing 60,000 square miles, or about 40 percent of the state’s total area. The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Board is responsible for ensuring protection of water quality in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, along with their tributaries, the inland Delta, and the Tulare Lake Basin.

The draft plan estimates that agricultural sources will need to reduce chlorpyrifos discharges by between 57 percent and 99 percent. It envisions reductions required for diazinon of between 35 percent and 43 percent.

Fresno Congressman Proposes Salmon Killing Bill
Effort to seize more salmon water would harm salmon and coastal towns

San Francisco  –  Rep. Jim Costa (D) Fresno, has introduced a bill in Congress proposing to open full throttle water diversions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to extract the estuary’s fresh water flows.  Doing so threatens to decimate much of the West Coast salmon fishery and salmon dependent communities.

Rep. Costa seeks to circumvent fish protections, enacted under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), from April 1 to May 31 for the next seven years.  These are typically the months when spring and fall run baby chinook salmon are migrating down the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers through the Delta to San Francisco Bay and the Pacific, where they will grow to adults in the following three years. However, if Costa prevails, the fish would be pulled off course to their death at the Delta pumps.

“The fall and spring chinook salmon runs for the next ten years would likely be destroyed if this bill passes, along with salmon fishing off the California coast,” said Golden Gate Salmon Association executive director John McManus. “This would be a loss of a valuable food, a loss of jobs, and a body blow to the economies of our coastal communities.”

It’s not immediately clear what extra water Mr. Costa thinks could be moved in a dry year like this one because virtually all the runoff from the Sierras is captured in reservoirs behind state or federal dams.  It’s still available for delivery after June 15 when ESA-related pumping restrictions are lifted.  The shortages seen by some growers this year are the result of a dry year, not salmon protections.

“Rep. Jim Costa is proposing to suspend the Endangered Species Act to allow unfettered pumping of Northern California water for export to well-connected operators in the western San Joaquin Valley desert and perhaps elsewhere,” said GGSA Secretary Dick Pool.  “In Mr. Costa’s bill we see a parallel to the actions of the Bush administration in 2004 when the Department of Interior allowed excessive Delta pumping.  As the pumps ramped up to record exports, they sucked in salmon, resulting in massive salmon kills in the Delta.  By 2008, the destruction was so complete that the government completely shut down the salmon industry to avoid extinctions.  The impact put tens of thousands of people out of work and badly damaged communities on the California coastline.”

“It’s hard to imagine any American who favors allowing our native wildlife to go extinct but maybe Rep. Costa thinks growing taxpayer subsidized cotton is a better use of California’s water than growing our native salmon,” said GGSA board member and executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations Zeke Grader. “He’s demonstrating a callous indifference to those whose jobs depend on these fish and their communities all in favor of a handful of fat-cat growers and wannabe water merchants.”

Congressman Costa’s bill echoes a proposal by Senator David Vitter from Louisiana, who is closely aligned with the oil industry, to strip Central Valley salmon of needed water.  It’s unclear what role Mr. Costa may be playing on behalf of the oil industry as it gears up for massive water-intensive hydraulic fracture mining in California.

“The tragedy is that this bill is entirely unnecessary.  Congress can’t legislate rainfall.  And California cities and farms have plenty of options to meet their water needs,” said GGSA board member Barry Nelson.  “They can conserve, plant less thirsty crops, buy water from water rich neighbors, recycle wastewater, capture storm water and more.  But salmon have no choice.  They will only survive if we leave enough water in our rivers.”

The Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA) is a coalition of salmon advocates that includes commercial and recreational salmon fisherman, businesses, restaurants, tribes, environmentalists, elected officials, families and communities that rely on salmon. GGSA’s mission is to protect and restore California’s largest salmon producing habitat comprised of the Central Valley river’s that feed the Bay-Delta ecosystem and the communities that rely on salmon as a long-term, sustainable, commercial, recreational and cultural resource.   Currently, California’s salmon industry is valued at $1.4 billion in economic activity annually and about half that much in economic activity and jobs again in Oregon. The industry employs tens of thousands of people from Santa Barbara to northern Oregon.

###

May, 16, 2013

Mr. Phil Isenberg, Chairman
Delta Stewardship Council
890 9^th Street Ste 1500
Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Chairman Isenberg and Council Members:

The Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA) is a coalition of salmon advocates that includes commercial and recreational salmon fisherman, businesses, restaurants, tribes, environmentalists, elected officials, families and communities that rely on salmon. GGSA’s mission is to protect and restore California’s largest salmon producing habitat comprised of the Central Valley river’s that feed the Bay-Delta ecosystem and the communities that rely on salmon as a long-term, sustainable, commercial, recreational and cultural resource.   Currently, California’s salmon industry is valued at $1.4 billion in economic activity annually and about half that much in economic activity and jobs again in Oregon. The industry employs tens of thousands of people from Santa Barbara to northern Oregon.

The stakeholders of the California salmon industry are highly critical of the Delta Stewardship Council’s failure to address the recovery needs of the Central Valley salmon in the Delta Plan.  Some of the stressors which impact salmon survival have been identified in the plan, but nowhere does the plan provide steps or even a roadmap of the activities that are needed to recover the severely depleted four species of Chinook salmon in the Central Valley.  Like the BDCP, the Delta Plan addresses only habitat changes in the Delta.

The salmon cannot be restored with only habitat changes in the Delta.  There is a large body of science including the state and federal fishery agencies that recognize that only a combination of both upriver habitat actions and Delta actions can restore the salmon populations.  Delta operations, specifically the pumps in the South Delta, with their strong impact on upstream water movements and reservoir operations, severely impact the survival of juvenile salmon above the Delta.  The Delta Plan fails to address these issues.

The Delta Stewardship Council was specifically given the authority and responsibility to address conditions above the Delta in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Reform Act of 2009 (SB7).  That law said:

“The Delta Plan shall include measures that promote all of the following characteristics of a healthy Delta Ecosystem.

1. 1.    Viable populations of native resident and migratory species.
2. 2.    Functional corridors for migratory species.
3. 3.    Diverse and biological separate appropriate habitats and ecosystem processes.
4. 4.    Reduced threats and stresses on the Delta ecosystem.
5. 5.    Conditions conducive to meeting or exceeding the goals with respect to doubling salmon populations.

None of these conditions have been met for salmon in the Delta Plan especially the last one.  The Delta Plan includes no roadmap that will stop the continued downward slide of the salmon populations except in years of heavy precipitation.   The Legislature labeled the Sacramento-San Joaquin watershed in crisis and said existing Delta policies are not sustainable.  The current conditions for salmon are not sustainable and the Delta Plan has failed to respond.

The Golden Gate Salmon Association provided comments and recommendations to the Council on two occasions pointing out the salmon shortcomings in the draft plans.  We provided comments on September 12, 2011 on Draft Plan Five and we again provided comments on the Final Draft Plan on September 24, 2012.  It appears the Council paid no attention to our recommendations.

The Delta Plan fails to meet the co-equal goals of the Legislature.  The Golden Gate Salmon Association contends that the plan must be revised, amended, supplemented or otherwise changed until it is in compliance with the intent of the Legislature particularly as it relates to salmon.  Absent these changes, GGSA recommends that the Delta Plan be rejected.

Yours Truly,

Richard Pool
Secretary
Golden Gate Salmon Association

Salmon Advocates to Delta Stewardship Council: Go Back to Drawing Board
Delta Stewardship Plan fails needs of salmon and salmon communities

San Francisco  –  The Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA) delivered a letter to the Delta Stewardship Council today highly critical of the Delta Stewardship Council’s failure to address the recovery needs of the Central Valley salmon in the Council’s Delta Plan.

The message was delivered as the Council met to consider adoption of its final Delta plan and regulations.  Over the last two years, GGSA, a broad coalition of salmon interests, provided comments and recommendations to the Council pointing out the failure of the draft to protect salmon and other fish species as the law requires.

“It appears the Council paid no attention to our recommendations aimed at restoring salmon runs,” said GGSA secretary Dick Pool. “The Delta Plan fails to meet the co-equal goals set by the Legislature.  Without changes, GGSA recommends that the Delta Plan be rejected.”

Some of the stressors which harm salmon have been identified in the plan, but nowhere does the plan provide steps needed to rebuild the four species of chinook salmon in the Central Valley, including two listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Much like the Governor’s massive twin tunnels water diversion proposal – the “Bay Delta Conservation Plan” (BDCP), the Council’s Delta Plan addresses only habitat changes while totally ignoring fresh water flows into and through the Delta that are essential for fish life.

“Our salmon runs cannot be restored with only habitat fixes; fish need water” said GGSA board member and Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Association executive director Zeke Grader.  “State and federal fishery agency scientists have found that only a combination of both upriver habitat restoration and Delta fresh water flow to the Bay can restore the salmon populations.”

“Delta operations, specifically the pumps in the South Delta, with their strong influence on upstream water movements and reservoir operations, severely harm juvenile salmon above the Delta,” said GGSA board president Victor Gonella.  “The Delta Plan fails to address these issues.”

The Delta Stewardship Council was specifically given the authority and responsibility to address conditions above the Delta in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Reform Act of 2009 (SB7).  That law said:

“The Delta Plan shall include measures that promote all of the following characteristics of a healthy Delta Ecosystem.

1. 1.    Viable populations of native resident and migratory species.
2. 2.    Functional corridors for migratory species.
3. 3.    Diverse and biological separate appropriate habitats and ecosystem processes.
4. 4.    Reduced threats and stresses on the Delta ecosystem.
5. 5.    Conditions conducive to meeting or exceeding the goals with respect to doubling salmon populations.

None of these conditions have been met for salmon in the Delta Plan especially the last one.

“The Legislature labeled the Sacramento-San Joaquin watershed in crisis and said existing Delta policies are not sustainable,” said GGSA executive director John McManus.  “The current conditions for salmon are not sustainable and the Delta Plan has failed to respond.  We’ve got tens of thousands of jobs hanging in the balance that depend on abundant, sustainable salmon runs.”

The Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA) is an alliance of salmon  interests that includes commercial and recreational salmon fishermen, businesses, restaurants, tribes, environmentalists, elected officials, families and communities that rely on salmon. GGSA’s mission is to protect and restore California’s largest salmon producing habitat comprised of the Central Valley river’s that feed the Bay-Delta ecosystem and the communities that rely on salmon as a long-term, sustainable, commercial, recreational and cultural resource.   Currently, California’s salmon industry is valued at $1.4 billion in economic activity annually and about half that much in economic activity and jobs again in Oregon. The industry employs tens of thousands of people from Santa Barbara to northern Oregon.

###

Golden Gate Salmon Association Appreciates Congressional Call to Keep Key Fish Personnel in California

Restructured National Marine Fisheries Service considering moving top jobs to Seattle

San Francisco  –  The Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA) appreciates the leadership of members of the California Congressional delegation for their call to keep key personnel with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in California.  Seventeen members of Congress from California sent a letter to the Department of Commerce making the request in response to the proposed merging of the Northwest and Southwest regional NMFS offices.

The California Congressional representatives say the regional administrator’s office and the sustainable fisheries office should remain in California.  Without these, salmon and other key fishery issues in California will take a back seat at great price to the tens of thousands of people who make a living in salmon related industries.

“The salmon industry is very appreciative of the leadership shown by California members of Congress who are calling on the Department of Commerce to keep key federal fishery offices in California,” said GGSA executive director John McManus.   “The state’s salmon runs are threatened now by both climate change and the insatiable demand for salmon water by agriculture and urban interests. Now more than ever, we need NMFS personnel to lead the effort in California to keep our salmon runs alive.”

“California is currently proposing to build a massive water diversion project capable of diverting the entire Sacramento River at some times of the year, “said Zeke Grader.   Grader is a GGSA board member and the executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations.  “The peripheral tunnels project has already been slightly scaled back after vigorous warnings from fishery biologists, including those from NMFS.  More right sizing is in order but may not happen if key NMFS personnel are forced to relocate or operate from Seattle.”

Current federal rules written by NMFS restrict water diversions in the Sacramento, San Joaquin Bay Delta in order to protect winter and spring run salmon, steelhead and sturgeon.  These rules are under fire from the agriculture and southern California urban interests and are currently being defended at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals by the federal government along with fishing and conservation groups that have intervened.  The presence of NMFS officials in the state is critical to keep this defense going.

New threats to salmon are being addressed daily in California by NMFS personnel.  The latest example is a possible shortage of water in the Klamath River system that could be needed in the late summer and fall to accommodate the spawning needs of what could be a large run of salmon.  The US Bureau of Reclamation will only reserve this water under pressure from NMFS and salmon advocates.

“California has the longest coastline, the most population and some of the biggest challenges to its fisheries of the three affected western states,” said GGSA president Victor Gonella.   “Locating the regional administrator in any state other than California would send a message that the federal government isn’t really focused on the urgent fishery issues of California.”

Currently, California’s salmon industry is valued at $1.4 billion in economic activity annually and about half that much in economic activity and jobs again in Oregon. The industry employs tens of thousands of people from Santa Barbara to northern Oregon. This is a huge economic bloc made up of commercial fishermen, recreational fishermen (fresh and salt water), fish processors, marinas, coastal communities, equipment manufacturers, the hotel and food industry, tribes, and the salmon fishing industry at large.

The Golden Gate Salmon Association (www.goldengatesalmon.org ) is a coalition of salmon advocates that includes commercial and recreational salmon fisherman, businesses, restaurants, elected officials, environmentalists, families and communities that rely on salmon. GGSA’s mission is to protect and restore California’s largest salmon producing habitat comprised of the Central Valley river’s that feed the Bay-Delta ecosystem and the communities that rely on salmon as a long-term, sustainable, commercial, recreational and cultural resource.

Commercial Salmon Season Set to Open Wednesday
Fresh wild salmon headed for market, consumers’ plates

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (April 30, 2013) – The Golden Gate Salmon Association (www.goldengatesalmon.org ) welcomes the opening of the 2013 commercial salmon fishing season Wednesday, May 1 in coastal waters south of Pt. Arena in Mendocino County. Weather permitting, fresh salmon should be in local markets soon thereafter.

Commercial fishermen are looking forward to what should be decent fishing this season based on predictions from the Pacific Fisheries Management Council and recent reports from the sport fleet which has been fishing since April 6. Good conditions for salmon exist in offshore waters with the best reports so far coming from south of Pt. Reyes.

“We’re looking forward to the finest natural food California produces,” said Larry Collins who manages the San Francisco Community Fishing Association. “The salmon our fishermen bring in are cleaned and iced immediately for the highest quality of freshness. These fish are feeding on krill or tiny shrimp at this time of the year and the flavor can’t be beat.”

Wild caught salmon don’t require the artificial coloring farmed salmon do. Nor do they come from a process that puts antibiotics and concentrated waste products in the environment. The meat is naturally red versus farm salmon gray. Even now some farm salmon is being marketed as sustainable. Wild caught California salmon should be available in select stores and restaurants that support local fishermen as well as a number of local farmers markets. They can also be bought directly from the fishermen off their boats in Half Moon Bay, generally on weekends.

The commercial salmon fishing season will closed in parts of June and July below Pt. Arena in order to avoid take of protected winter run king salmon which mix with other salmon stocks, including the targeted fall run kings.

Salmon fishermen acknowledge that most winter run salmon are killed by water diversion in the Sacramento/San Joaquin Bay Delta, not by fishing activity. Salmon fishermen may be penalized again in seasons to come if damage to the winter run from misallocation of river water and water diversions at the delta pumps isn’t curtailed.

“The best investment we can make is to give the salmon the freshwater they need to thrive,” said Chuck Cappotto, president of the Fishermen’s Marketing Association of Bodega Bay. “Investing our precious water resource to grow salmon is undoubtedly its highest and best use. If you have any doubt in your minds, buy some, put it on the barbecue and enjoy it with a wonderful California wine.”

Golden Gate Salmon Association (www.goldengatesalmon.org ) is a coalition of salmon advocates that includes commercial and recreational salmon fisherman, businesses, restaurants, tribes, environmentalists, elected officials, families and communities that rely on salmon. GGSA’s mission is to protect and restore California’s largest salmon producing habitat comprised of the Central Valley river’s that feed the Bay-Delta ecosystem and the communities that rely on salmon as a long-term, sustainable, commercial, recreational and cultural resource.

Currently, California’s salmon industry is valued at $1.4 billion in economic activity annually and about half that much in economic activity and jobs again in Oregon. The industry employs tens of thousands of people from Santa Barbara to northern Oregon. This is a huge economic bloc made up of commercial fishermen, recreational fishermen (fresh and salt water), fish processors, marinas, coastal communities, equipment manufacturers, the hotel and food industry, tribes, and the salmon fishing industry at large.

To see a video documenting damage to salmon encountered during the 2012 spawning season in the Central Valley and what GGSA is doing about it, click here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG4a2Dk_u2g&feature=em-uploademail

# # #

Media contact: Michael Coats (707) 935-6203 or michael@coatspr.com

KCBS report 2

The Golden Gate Salmon Association (www.goldengatesalmon.org ) is a coalition of salmon advocates that includes commercial and recreational salmon fisherman, businesses, restaurants, elected officials, environmentalists, families and communities that rely on salmon. GGSA’s mission is to protect and restore California’s largest salmon producing habitat comprised of the Central Valley river’s that feed the Bay-Delta ecosystem and the communities that rely on salmon as a long-term, sustainable, commercial, recreational and cultural resource.

We understand that under the recently passed continuing budget resolution there is language merging the Northwest and Southwest NOAA fisheries offices and that some key personnel could be removed and others likely reassigned. We understand there is strong pressure from the Washington state Congressional delegation to move several key positions to the Northwest office in Seattle.

We write today to ask you to use your influence with the Obama administration’s Department of Commerce to keep two key NMFS offices in California under the newly merged offices. These are the regional administrator’s office and the sustainable fisheries office. Without these, we fear salmon and other key fishery issues in California will take a back seat at great price to the tens of thousands of people who make a living in salmon related industries.

California’s salmon runs are threatened now by both climate change and the insatiable demand for salmon water by agriculture and urban interests. Now more than ever, we need NMFS personnel to lead the effort in California to keep our salmon runs alive. As you know, the state is currently proposing to build a massive water diversion project capable of diverting the entire Sacramento River at some times of the year. This project has already been slightly scaled back after vigorous warnings from fishery biologists, including those from NMFS. More right sizing is in order but may not happen if key NMFS personnel are forced to relocate or operate from Seattle.

Additionally, a biological opinion restricts water diversions in the Sacramento, San Joaquin Bay Delta in order to protect winter and spring run salmon, steelhead and sturgeon. The biological opinion is under fire from the agriculture and southern California urban interests. This biop was written by NMFS and is currently being defended at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals by the federal government along with fishing and conservation groups that have intervened. The presence of NMFS officials in the state is critical to keep this defense going.

New challenges to salmon are being addressed daily here in California by NMFS personnel. The latest example is a possible shortage of water in the Klamath River system that could be needed in the late summer and fall to accommodate the spawning needs of what could be a large run of salmon. The US Bureau of Reclamation will only reserve this water under pressure from NMFS and salmon advocates.

In addition, California has the longest coastline, the most population and some of the biggest challenges to its fisheries of the three affected western states. Locating the regional administrator in any state other than California would send a message that the federal government isn’t really interested in majority rule.

Currently, California’s salmon industry is valued at $1.4 billion in economic activity annually and about half that much in economic activity and jobs again in Oregon. The industry employs tens of thousands of people from Santa Barbara to northern Oregon. This is a huge economic bloc made up of commercial fishermen, recreational fishermen (fresh and salt water), fish processors, marinas, coastal communities, equipment manufacturers, the hotel and food industry, tribes, and the salmon fishing industry at large.

Our coastal communities evolved around salmon fishing which continues to provide much needed income to many. The multiplier effect of these dollars breathes life into all manner of business from restaurants and hotels to the local grocery stores and harbor districts. We need the regional administrator and sustainable fisheries office in California.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
John McManus
Executive Director
Golden Gate Salmon Association

cc: Rep. Garamendi
Rep. Speier
Rep. Miller
Rep. Matsui
Rep. McNerney
Rep. Farr
Rep. Huffman
Rep. Thompson
Senator Feinstein
Senator Boxer

For Immediate Release:  April 22, 2013

Contact:  Michael Coats, 707-935-6203

Golden Gate Salmon Association Calls on Bureau of Reclamation to Release Needed Salmon Water
2015 salmon season dependent on survival of this year’s baby salmon

Petaluma, CA  –  The Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA) is calling on the US Bureau of Reclamation to release adequate water from Shasta reservoir to help  transport six million baby salmon down river, past the Delta and into Suisun Marsh where they are safe.  The baby salmon are to be released by the Coleman fish hatchery, more than 250 miles upstream from San Francisco Bay, on Wednesday, April 24.  Any water release will need to be coordinated with fishery officials and not diverted downstream.

Golden Gate Salmon Association Executive Director John McManus said, “We consider the salmon produced by hatcheries to be an important part of the future fish in the ocean needed to keep the commercial and recreational salmon industries alive.  We’re calling on the federal Bureau of Reclamation to release a short-term pulse of water from Lake Shasta to help the baby salmon safely navigate down river and out to the ocean.”

The Coleman National Fish hatchery, located on a tributary of the upper Sacramento River, is responsible for mitigating the loss of salmon habitat blocked by the Shasta Dam.  This hatchery produces and releases about 12 million fall-run baby salmon every year.

Salmon fishermen are worried that without additional water release, too many baby salmon will die before reaching the safe areas.  Fishermen are especially worried about the impacts to the 2015 fishing season after the feared loss of a high number of the hatchery’s baby fish that were part of an earlier fish release on April 10^th and 11^th when river conditions were unfavorable.

In nature, baby salmon generally ride turbid winter and spring runoff flows from the upper river down to the ocean.  The runoff carries them downstream while providing some cover from predators in the murky water.

Heavy rains in November and December helped to replenish much of Shasta Reservoir’s water storage, but near-record low precipitation has persisted since January.  However, there was some rain runoff in the upper Sacramento April 5^th through the 8^th and this natural runoff would have provided improved conditions into which this first group of baby salmon might have been released (see documentation of these flows in attachment).

Fishery managers apparently missed the opportunity provided by this natural runoff and instead released the baby fish several days after its passage when the river was lower, slower, and clearer, providing a big advantage to the predators hunting baby salmon.  Fishing guides along the river reported high numbers of salmon smolts in the stomachs of predators following that fish release.

If no water can be found to assist the outmigration, GGSA asks federal fishery managers to consider trucking a percentage of the Coleman juvenile salmon to the some location on the lower Sacramento River for release.

“We need federal and state water managers to make our rivers fish friendly again,” said GGSA board president Victor Gonella.  “We understand this was a low water year for northern California but the future of the salmon industry is riding on getting this year’s crop of baby salmon safely out to sea and for that, we need an additional water release or we need to truck some of those fish.”

GGSA also calls on federal fish and water agency staff to ask major water diverters of Sacramento River water to decrease their diversions for the few days the baby salmon are expected to be near their intake pumps.

“Pulse flows have worked very well in the past and represent a good strategy for moving salmon smolts safely down the river, particularly in low flow years,” said GGSA board member Dick Pool.  “In the past, many of the water diverters cooperated by reducing diversions when the smolts were passing.  We need that type of coordination and cooperation again.”

GGSA proposes renewed spring pulse flows as part of its salmon rebuilding plan.

John McManus will be testifying on behalf of GGSA at the California legislature’s Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture Thursday, April 25 and is expected to touch on related issues.

The Golden Gate Salmon Association is a coalition of salmon advocates that includes commercial and recreational salmon fisherman, businesses, restaurants, tribes, environmentalists, elected officials, families and communities that rely on salmon. Their mission is to protect and restore California’s largest salmon producing habitat comprised of the Central Valley river’s that feed the Bay-Delta ecosystem and the communities that rely on salmon as a long-term, sustainable, commercial, recreational and cultural resource.

Currently, California’s salmon industry is valued at $1.4 billion in economic activity annually and about half that much in economic activity and jobs again in Oregon. The industry employs tens of thousands of people from Santa Barbara to northern Oregon. This is a huge economic bloc made up of commercial fishermen, recreational fishermen (fresh and salt water), fish processors, marinas, coastal communities, equipment manufacturers, the hotel and food industry, tribes, and the salmon fishing industry at large.

The Golden Gate Salmon Association applauds the recent announcement that your stores will not sell genetically engineered or modified salmon.

Genetically engineered salmon pose a serious potential threat to wild salmon stocks that our members rely on to make a living or fish for food and sport. In addition, GE salmon also pose a threat to threatened and endangered salmon protected by the federal Endangered Species Act.

The Golden Gate Salmon Association (goldengatesalmon.org) is a coalition that includes commercial and recreational salmon fisherman, businesses, restaurants, an Indian tribe, environmentalists, elected officials, families and communities that rely on salmon. GGSA’s mission is to protect and restore California’s largest salmon producing habitat comprised of the Central Valley river’s that feed the Bay-Delta ecosystem and the communities that rely on salmon as a long-term, sustainable, commercial, recreational and cultural resource.

Currently, California’s salmon industry is valued at $1.4 billion in economic activity annually and about half that much in economic activity and jobs again in Oregon. The industry employs tens of thousands of people from Santa Barbara to northern Oregon, including in the California’s Central Valley. This is a huge economic bloc made up of commercial fishermen, recreational fishermen (fresh and salt water), fish processors, marinas, coastal communities, equipment manufacturers, the hotel and food industry, tribes, and the salmon fishing industry at large.

Although the creator of the GE salmon, Aquabounty, claims the fish will be sterile and kept in closed tanks, other reports have suggested that as many as five percent will be fertile and able to reproduce or possibly hybridize wild fish if they escaped into the wild.  No one knows if genetically engineered fish would spell the end for wild stocks if they escaped and hybridized but it’s not something any of us wants to find out.  History clearly shows that to date, farmed salmon have escaped every form of capture where they’ve been confined.

Although we understand you specifically oppose genetically engineered fish, we also note that as currently practiced, farming of salmon requires large amounts of wild forage fish as food, produces large volumes of waste that pollute waters near the salmon farms, and produces large volumes of parasites and pollution from drugs given farmed fish to combat parasites and other fish disease.

Although the federal Food and Drug Administration apparently believes genetically engineered fish are safe to eat, the consumer has no way to know under existing regulations if they were to buy and eat an engineered fish. This is why your commitment to not sell GE salmon is so important

Again, we applaud your brave stand for the environment, the consumer, and the communities where we live, work and operate.

Sincerely,

John McManus
Executive Director
Golden Gate Salmon Association