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Fishermen to Interior Secretary: Don’t make fish the scapegoat for valley unemployment and water woes

Posted by: Maven on June 29, 2009 at 6:29 am

From YubaNet.com:

A coalition of commercial and recreational fishermen and allied businesses are calling on Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to let science and facts be his guide when he meets with growers and water agencies on Sunday in Fresno.

The fishing groups warn that protections for fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay are critical for the livelihoods of thousands of Californian’s along the coast. Some agricultural leaders and water contractors, along with a few members of Congress, have blamed the San Joaquin Valley’s high unemployment and economic woes on protections for fish — including measures to make sure there is enough water for fish survival.

“We feel the pain of unemployed farm workers. Salmon fishermen have been out of work for two years now because of the total closure of the fishery,” said Zeke Grader, Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA), which represents working men and women in the West Coast commercial fishing fleet. “But don’t make the fish or their protections a scapegoat for the problems of the San Joaquin Valley.”

Experts have pointed out that the San Joaquin Valley’s unemployment rates have historically been much higher than the rest of the State. A switch to less labor-intensive crops has added to the problem while cutbacks in water deliveries to growers are mainly due to the current drought, not protections for fish, say fishing groups.

“We’ve had a long history of political meddling with fishery protections by water interests that have left fish vulnerable and resulted in tremendous losses to our fishing economy and the jobs it represents. We’re sympathetic with those in the Valley currently without jobs, but we’ve had tremendous job losses in recreational fishing businesses and among commercial fishermen over the years because no one was looking out for the water needs of the fish,” noted Dr. Mark Rockwell of the Northern California Federation of Fly Fishers. “This is a fish and people problem, not a fish versus people problem,” continued Rockwell.

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June 29, 2009 · Filed Under San Joaquin Valley

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