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Fish prevail over Californians again, says editorial

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 23, 2009 at 8:00 am

From the Western Farm Press:

The latest fish-saving biological opinion from the National Marine Fisheries Service reaches far beyond the infamous Delta pumps where most of the focus lately has been in the “save the minnow (smelt)” melodrama.

It would dramatically alter the way the California federal and state water projects are operated to better benefit salmon, sturgeon, Southern Resident killer whale, and steelhead. It would reduce the water supply to 25 million Californians by another 300,000 to 500,000 acre feet annually.

Yep, you read correctly. Killer whales. Shamu. Those big black and white things you pay to see leap out of the water at Sea World. You know, the fish you see swimming in the California Aqueduct; the ones that can grow to 32 feet and weigh as much as 18,000 pounds.

No kidding, the National Marine Fisheries Service says the decline in salmon can be blamed on the operation of the California state and federal water projects and they threaten Orcas since killer whales eat salmon.

Specifically Resident Southern killer whales, which according to the Marine Fisheries Web site, live much of the year in the San Juan Islands and Puget Sound in the Pacific Northwest. It’s more than 600 miles by road from the Sacramento Delta to Puget Sound and an even longer trip by sea. It seems a bit of a stretch to say these whales are threatened by the reduction of salmon due to the California water projects.

Read more of this editorial from the Western Farm Press by clicking here.

June 23, 2009 · Filed Under Salmon

Comments

One Response to “Fish prevail over Californians again, says editorial”

  1. dfb on June 24th, 2009 1:04 am

    I think the argument is disingenuous with regard to orcas (aka killer whales). It borders on specious. Although orcas spend most of the year in the Puget Sound region, they do travel as far south as Monterey during the winter months.

    http://www.whaleresearch.com/facts.html#travel
    “During the autumn months in recent years the whales shift their travel patterns southward, following salmon heading to rivers draining into Greater Puget Sound.
    During the winter months, however, the whales spend
    a increasing amounts of their time in the outer coastal
    waters; and, in recent years some members of the Southern community — K- and L-pods — have been observed as far south as Monterey, Calif., and as far north as Langara, Queen Charlotte Island.”

    Salmon, likewise, do not stay only in waters off California. For that reason, salmon fishing has been interrupted in Oregon as well due to the collapse of salmon populations in the Sacramento River – source of 60-80% of Oregon salmon accoring to the Oregonian. http://blog.oregonlive.com/pdxgreen/2008/04/feds_failed_salmon_on_sacramen.html

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