Sunday’s top of the scroll: California fall Chinook salmon run looks big for 2012
Posted by: Maven on March 4, 2012 at 7:40 amFrom Sierra 2 the Sea:
“The fall Chinook salmon runs on the US West Coast look good this year with the Klamath river run estimated at 1,567,000 fish, a 31 year old record. Returns of 3-year-old adults on the Klamath were only 21,000 in 2009.
The 2012 fall run estimate on the Sacramento River is 819,400, four times the number that returned in 2011.
Thank improving ocean conditions, cold ocean water temps, that have nurtured growing salmon off the West Coast for the past few years after several disastrous years. … “
Continue reading from Sierra 2 the Sea by clicking here.
Humboldt, Hoopa ask for more water to avoid possible fish kill
Posted by: Maven on March 4, 2012 at 7:16 amFrom the Eureka Times-Standard:
“Humboldt County officials and the Hoopa Valley Tribe are saying a fish kill on the Klamath is possible this year if the government doesn’t release more water from the Trinity River.
The Hoopa Valley Tribal Council sent a letter to the U.S. Department of the Interior and the governor’s office last week asking for action from the Bureau of Reclamation to establish the county’s right to no less than 50,000 acre-feet of the Trinity’s water.
In 2002, federal officials overrode the recommendations of their own scientists and decided to divert more water to farmers and residents of Southern California, which led to an unprecedented fish kill in the Klamath River. … “
Continue reading from the Eureka Times-Standard by clicking here.
Environmental Defense Fund wins suit affirming CVPIA directive to double California; Salmon levels Ninth Circuit rules that Central Valley Project must dedicate water for salmon
Posted by: Maven on March 3, 2012 at 6:59 amFrom the Environmental Defense Fund, this press release:
“Environmental Defense Fund, along with other environmental and fishing organizations in California, won a victory in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that affirmed the directive of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA) to double the population of California salmon and other anadronomous fish that spawn in fresh water.
“This ruling is a victory for California salmon and the economic health of our state's salmon industry, and the hundreds of communities and thousands of jobs that depend upon it,\” said Cynthia Koehler, lead counsel for the environmental plaintiffs and EDF's California water legislative director.
The 1992 CVPIA, sponsored by George Miller (D-Calif.), directed the Bureau of Reclamation to ensure that natural production of anadromous fish in Central Valley rivers and streams will be sustainable on a long-term basis at levels at least twice the average levels attained between 1967 and 1991 by 2002. … “
Continue reading from the Environmental Defense Fund by clicking here.
Cynthia Koehler/EDF: Ninth Circuit rules in favor of California salmon runs
Posted by: Maven on March 3, 2012 at 6:56 amFrom Cynthia Koehler at the Environmental Defense Fund’s On the Water Front blog:
“The Ninth Circuit vindicated environmental and fishing group plaintiffs in their 14-year litigation to implement the Central Valley Project Improvement Act's ( “CVPIA\”) requirement to reallocate 800,000 acre-feet of federal project water back to the ecosystem.
The 1992 CVPIA, also known as the Miller-Bradley bill for its co-sponsors, requires that the federal government double Central Valley salmon population levels from their average of several decades ago. California has adopted a similar salmon doubling objective. Key to meeting this goal was the directive that the Department of the Interior must dedicate 800,000 acre-feet of Central Valley Project water for salmon and other restoration measures in the CVPIA. … “
Continue reading from On the Water Front by clicking here.
Kate Poole/NRDC: A victory for Central Valley salmon
Posted by: Maven on March 3, 2012 at 6:53 amFrom Kate Poole at the NRDC Switchboard blog:
“Today, the Ninth Circuit ruled, once again, that Westlands Water District and other junior Central Valley Project (CVP) water users in the San Joaquin Valley are only entitled to “surplus\” water from California's Bay-Delta, and are not entitled to flows that Congress dedicated to restore California's beleaguered salmon runs. The decision may be found in full here [Link available on click-through]. This decision should put a rest to the relentless campaign by Westlands' approximately 600 agribusinesses to elevate their claims to California's water resources above the public's interest in healthy rivers and fisheries. … “
Continue reading from the NRDC Switchboard blog by clicking here.
California Water Blog: Have our salmon and eat them too: Re-thinking salmon hatcheries in the Central Valley
Posted by: Maven on March 1, 2012 at 5:26 amFrom the California Water Blog:
“In the previous blog, Jay Lund argued that wide-scale, integrated management of California's water system will better balance water needs of the environment and water demands by humans. Here we expand on the need for fundamental shifts in policy to recover populations of Central Valley salmon using integrated management approaches.
The Central Valley is the only place on Earth with four distinct runs of Chinook salmon (fall, late-fall, winter, and spring). Each run was adapted for different conditions and had multiple independent populations that spawned in different valley tributaries. Historically, this “diversified portfolio\” included 1-2 million spawning fish per year in Central Valley rivers (Yoshiyama et al. 1998). In 2009, total returns for all four runs were just over 70,000 fish, around 5% of average historical abundance. Today, the winter and spring runs are listed under the Endangered Species Act (in 1990 and 1998, respectively), and the late-fall run is small and in decline. In recent decades most salmon returning to the Central Valley have been fall-run fish, primarily of hatchery origin (AFRP 2011). The decline of California's wild fall-run Chinook salmon populations has been both obscured and exacerbated by massive hatchery production. … “
Continue reading from the California Water Blog by clicking here.
River of plenty: Oregon projects huge salmon run for the troubled Klamath River
Posted by: Maven on February 29, 2012 at 9:59 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
“Talk to a fisherman on the West Coast and he'll give you a hard-luck story. The once-glorious salmon runs of the Pacific Northwest are mostly shadows of what they once were, some threatened with outright extinction, and few rivers have had as many troubles as the Klamath, as it runs from southern Oregon into Northern California.
Once the third-most productive salmon river system in the U.S., the Klamath last year saw only about 233,000 fall chinook the big, meaty salmon prized by fishermen headed back to spawn. In 2008, the number was only 68,000.
That's why it was stunning news Tuesday in Newport, Ore., when the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife presented its annual forecast for the Klamath's fall chinook run. Nearly 1.6 million fish are expected to be in this year's run, a figure that's nearly triple anything on the charts that go back to 1996. … “
Continue reading from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Controversial fishery plan derailed by court
Posted by: Maven on February 28, 2012 at 9:29 amFrom California Watch:
“A ruling by a federal court in California threatens to upset a controversial new fishing management plan embraced by environmental groups, including the Environmental Defense Fund and The Nature Conservancy.
In 2011, the regional council overseeing marine fisheries on the Pacific Coast instituted a kind of cap-and-trade program for the Pacific whiting fishery and the groundfish fishery, which includes fish such as Dover sole and petrale sole.
The council, which oversees marine fisheries off the coast of California, Oregon and Washington, decreed the government would no longer tell fishermen when to fish or what kind of gear to use. Instead, they’d tell fishermen how many fish each could catch by assigning them shares, or a percentage of the fishery. … “
Continue reading from California Watch by clicking here.
Sunday’s top of the scroll: Tiny delta smelt still provokes water fight in Central Valley: Endangered Species Act faces increasing challenges as it nears 40th anniversary
Posted by: Maven on February 26, 2012 at 7:38 amFrom the Salinas Californian:
“When the federal government considers protecting threatened plants and animals, the Endangered Species Act requires that economic consequences for humans largely stay out of the equation.
But as the law nears its 40th anniversary, some wonder how much longer that tenet can withstand growing demand for land, water and other resources.
While the public supports protecting threatened plant and animal life, “at what point are they going to say, ‘Can we afford to do this and take care of ourselves’” says Jason F. Shogren, professor of natural resource conservation and management at the University of Wyoming. … “
Continue reading from the Salinas Californian by clicking here.
Half Moon Bay: Local net pens would boost salmon population; Pens help juvenile salmon bypass Delta dangers
Posted by: Maven on February 24, 2012 at 7:17 amFrom the Half Moon Bay Review:
“Net pens in local waters could be a major boost to the salmon population. After searching for locations around the Bay Area to place the pens, Coastside Fishing Club has homed in on Pillar Point Harbor.
“It’s not just for the club, but for anyone coming over to the coast wanting to fish salmon,” said Paul Pierce, who sits on the board of Coastside Fishing Club, a locally based community of recreational fishermen. … “
Continue reading from the Half Moon Bay Review by clicking here.
Commentary: The high priests of eco-destruction
Posted by: Maven on February 23, 2012 at 8:03 amFrom Michele Maulkin at Human Events (a conservative commentary outlet):
“Rick Santorum is right. Pushing back against Democrats’ attempts to frame him as a religious menace, the GOP presidential candidate forcefully turned the tables on the White House: “When it comes to the management of the Earth, they are the anti-science ones.”
Scrutiny of the White House anti-science brigade couldn’t come at a better time (which is why Santorum’s detractors prefer to froth at the mouth about comments he made four years ago on the existence of Satan). It’s not just big-ticket scandals like the stimulus-subsidized Solyndra bankruptcy or the Keystone pipeline debacle bedeviling America. In every corner of the Obama administration, the radical green machinery is hard at work — destroying jobs, shredding truth and sacrificing our economic well-being at the altar of environmentalism. … “
Continue reading this commentary by clicking here.
Mutated trout raise new concerns near mine sites
Posted by: Maven on February 23, 2012 at 7:57 amFrom the New York Times:
“It was the two-headed baby trout that got everyone's attention.
Photographs of variously mutated brown trout were relegated to an appendix of a scientific study commissioned by the J. R. Simplot Company, whose mining operations have polluted nearby creeks in southern Idaho. The trout were the offspring of local fish caught in the wild that had been spawned in the laboratory. Some had two heads; others had facial, fin and egg deformities.
Yet the company's report concluded that it would be safe to allow selenium a metal byproduct of mining that is toxic to fish and birds to remain in area creeks at higher levels than are now permitted under regulatory guidelines. … “
Continue reading from the New York Times by clicking here.
Wednesday’s top of the scroll: Locals to attend fisheries forum in Sacramento today; effect of marijuana cultivation on fish to be discussed
Posted by: Maven on February 22, 2012 at 9:08 amFrom the Eureka Times-Standard:
“A handful of Humboldt County residents are attending the 39th Annual Fisheries Forum today in Sacramento to discuss the impact of marijuana cultivation on fish and a variety of other aquatic issues. …
Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro, D-Arcata, will open the meeting, which will be held before members of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture. Chesbro chairs the committee and said the forum allows members of the fishing community and conservation groups to air their concerns.
\”The Fisheries Forum is the primary opportunity in California for those involved in fishing and aquaculture to come together and speak directly to the Legislature about issues of critical importance to them,\” Chesbro said in a statement. “California’s fisheries and aquaculture industry are vital to the state’s economy and serve as an indicator of the health of our entire aquatic environment. … “
Continue reading from the Eureka Times-Standard by clicking here.
Wild salmon numbers are dwindling
Posted by: Maven on February 22, 2012 at 9:01 amFrom the Silicon Valley Mercury News:
“There are thousands of salmon swimming through the lazy currents of the Mokelumne River. In an industry where numbers have faltered for several years, this should be good news.
But a recent study says these fish are almost all born as a result of human intervention. Wild salmon populations are still dwindling.
The study compared salmon bred at the Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery with wild salmon born in the river, using data from 2004.
“Hatchery production was radically sweeping natural production in this year,” said J.D. Wikert, a biologist with the Anadromous Fish Restoration Program run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who contributed to the study. … “
Continue reading from the Silicon Valley Mercury News by clicking here.
Liberty Blog: Continuing the fight for recreational fishing
Posted by: Maven on February 17, 2012 at 7:55 amFrom the Pacific Legal Foundation’s Liberty Blog:
“Pacific Legal Foundation attorneys represent the California Association for Recreational Fishing in a challenge to a variety of “underground regulations\” that the California Department of Fish and Game is imposing on those who seek permits to stock lakes, ponds, and the like with fish. Under California law, one must obtain a permit from the Department in order to place fish into the “waters of the state. Traditionally, obtaining such permits has been relatively easy: fill out the application, check the appropriate boxes, and pay the fee. But beginning in 2010, the Department changed its permitting program by requiring that permit applicants complete a prohibitively expensive environmental impact analysis to determine the effects of the planned fish stocking on a list of arbitrarily selected “decision species. … “
Continue reading from the Liberty Blog by clicking here.
Pacific Fisheries Management Council’s fall run Salmon findings confirm San Joaquin River Tributaries Association’s assertion that salmon population is being mismanaged
Posted by: Maven on February 16, 2012 at 8:33 amFrom the San Joaquin River Tributaries Association, this press release:
“A long-awaited report by the Pacific Fisheries Management Council reveals that despite a rosy forecast, returns of the fall-run Chinook salmon to the Sacramento River plummeted this year to numbers far below a healthy level.
The report is a review of the 2011 salmon fishing season off the coast of California, Oregon and Washington. Released Tuesday, it showed returns to the Sacramento River of fewer than 122,000 adult salmon, less than one-third of the 377,000 salmon that the Council predicted would return under last year's fishing regulations.
The Council advises the National Marine Fisheries Service on fishing regulations along the West Coast. After recording much improved salmon returns in 2010, the Council banked on a second straight good year. From 2007 through 2009 salmon returns were so bad that the Council closed the west coast salmon fishery in 2008 and 2009 and allowed only very limited salmon fishing in 2010. Nonetheless, it fully reopened the commercial salmon fishing season for 2011. … “
Continue reading by clicking here.
Thursday’s top of the scroll: Study finds efforts to boost salmon numbers with hatchery-raised fish weakens wild fish
Posted by: Maven on February 9, 2012 at 8:18 am
From the New York Times:
“Since 1964, the Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery in California has supplied the watershed with four to 10 million juvenile Chinook salmon each year. The hatchery began the practice as a way of countering the effects of dams that block migration and making sure that the salmon population remained viable. But recent research shows that the massive influx of hatchery-raised fish is masking the fact that wild fish populations are not holding up.
“Without distinguishing hatchery from wild fish, the perception is that we have healthy salmon surviving in a healthy river,\” said Rachel Johnson, a fish ecologist affiliated with the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the lead author of a new paper published in the journal PLoS One.
Most hatchery-raised fish are unmarked, but Dr. Johnson and her colleagues navigated past this obstacle by using a new technique that measures sulfur isotopes deposited in salmon ear bones, or otoliths. Chemical elements from food and the environment accumulate in otoliths over a salmon's lifetime, giving scientists a way of determining an animal's origins and movements. … “
Continue reading from the New York Times by clicking here.
MORE COVERAGE:
- Effort to Boost Salmon Numbers Weakens Wild Fish, from the Bay-Citizen
- Hatchery fish mask the decline of wild salmon populations, from PhysOrg
Photo of salmon by USFWS Pacific Southwest Region.
Striper fishing proposal voted down
Posted by: Maven on February 8, 2012 at 8:27 amFrom the Corning Observer:
“North State officials are warning about the dangers of a proposed San Joaquin Delta restoration plan, and a Colusa outdoors shop owner believes an attempt to change striped bass fishing regulations was a carefully disguised attempt to get more water, too.
The state Fish & Game Commission last week voted down a proposal that would have allowed fishermen to catch three time more stripers each outing, and reduced the size of keepers from 18 inches to 12.
Pat Kittle, owner of Kittle’s Outdoor & Sports, said had the regulations changed, his business would have benefited.
“In the short term, business would boon,” Kittle said. “I would have made money.” … “
Continue reading from the Corning Observer by clicking here.
SEE ALSO: Rule rejection kicks off fish vs. water delta debate, from the Davis Enterprise
Can the California delta smelt survive our demand for water?
Posted by: Maven on February 7, 2012 at 9:06 amFrom News10:
“When the federal government considers protections for threatened plants and animals, the Endangered Species Act requires that economic consequences for humans stay out of the equation.
But as the law nears its 40th anniversary, some wonder how much longer that tenet can withstand growing demand for land, water and other resources.
While the public supports protecting threatened plant and animal life, “at what point are they going to say, ‘Can we afford to do this and take care of ourselves’” says Jason F. Shogren, professor of natural resource conservation and management at the University of Wyoming. … “
Continue reading from News10 by clicking here.
You Tube: Video lab book – March of the steelhead trout
Posted by: Maven on February 7, 2012 at 8:56 amFrom Doc on Monterey Bay (Marine Biologist and Fisheries Geneticist Carol Reeb):
“This movie documents a walk in late summer along the Carmel River to a small creek where steelhead trout spawn. It shows a river disconnected from the ocean with little water after a long, dry summer. Remarkably, dozens of tiny trout are found clinging to life in small, drying pools, patiently waiting on the rain.”
More from Doc On Monterey Bay by clicking here.
Alex Breitler’s blog with more on the striped bass saga
Posted by: Maven on February 4, 2012 at 7:43 amFrom Alex Breitler’s blog:
“It was Jim Kellogg's last meeting as president of the California Fish and Game Commission. He took advantage.
“Nobody's got an answer on how this is done, or who declares it, so I'm going to declare the striped bass a native species of the state of California,\” he said.
And a crowd of fishermen erupted in cheer. … “
Continue reading from Alex Breitler’s blog by clicking here.
‘Striper’ catch increase voted down; proposal would have tripled limits
Posted by: Maven on February 3, 2012 at 8:52 amFrom the Record Searchlight:
“The California Fish and Game Commission rejected a proposal Thursday that would have upped the limits on striped bass, in what would have been the first step to eradicate the species from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and its tributaries to protect native fish.
After months of intense opposition from sport-fishing groups, the commissioners voted unanimously not to pursue a proposal that would have changed regulations to triple daily catch limits and reduce the size of bass anglers could take home.
The proposal to increase striped bass fishing was introduced by the Department of Fish and Game after the agency agreed to a settlement in a 2008 lawsuit. … “
Continue reading from the Record Searchlight by clicking here.
SEE ALSO:
- Striped bass fishing regulation changes rejected, from the Oroville Mercury-Register
- Commission rejects striped bass eradication proposal, by Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org
California Water Blog: Extinction is a sustainable condition
Posted by: Maven on February 3, 2012 at 8:10 am
(If I make the image smaller, than you can’t read the writing, and considering I’ve posted a big Infographic below, it will just be big picture day on Aquafornia.) From the California Water Blog:
“Sustainability is favored by everyone, but, people and groups view and use sustainability differently. Alas, as Keynes observed, “In the long run we are all dead,\” and achieve the same sustainable end.
As illustrated above, the word “sustainable\” seems to be approaching an unsustainable level. Sustainability is often a buzz-word, which sounds hip, sophisticated, and engaged, but actually says little and sadly substitutes for substance. “Adaptive management\” has developed similar usage. … “
Continue reading from the California Water Blog by clicking here.
Promising winter run of Marin coho brings cautious optimism about recovery
Posted by: Maven on February 3, 2012 at 7:46 amFrom the Marin Independent Journal:
“Eric Ettlinger, aquatic ecologist for the Marin Municipal Water District, stood ankle-deep in the waters of Lagunitas Creek on Thursday and liked what he saw.
“The fish are all around,” Ettlinger said of numerous steelhead trout and a few coho salmon and their fish eggs.
After years of low numbers of endangered coho salmon in Marin creeks, Ettlinger observed a small but resurgent number of those fish and their eggs this winter. … “
Continue reading from the Marin Independent Journal by clicking here.
SEE ALSO: Celebrated Marin County salmon make their return, from the San Francisco Chronicle
Dan Bacher: Commission to discuss striped bass eradication proposal
Posted by: Maven on February 2, 2012 at 8:17 amFrom Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org:
“Hundreds of anglers, conservationists and supporters of Delta fish restoration will be attending the Fish and Game Commission meeting in Sacramento on Thursday, February 2 at 8:30 a.m. to oppose the Department of Fish and Game’s striped bass eradication proposal. The meeting will held at the Resources Building in the First Floor Auditorium, 1416 Ninth Street, Sacramento.
The eradication proposal, the “request for the authorization to publish notice of the Commission intent to amend the striped bass regulations,” is number 9 on the agenda. There will be two special presentations, the first by the Department of Fish and Game and the second by the Allied Fishing Groups.
“Fishing regulations are supposed to be based on the best available science,” said John Beuttler, spokesman for the Allied Fishing Groups. “These regulations are not based on the best available science.” … “
Continue reading from Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org by clicking here.
Conservationists concerned over coho recovery plan; fisheries service emphasizes that plan is not final
Posted by: Maven on February 1, 2012 at 7:13 amFrom the Eureka Times-Standard:
“Watershed groups and other conservationists expressed concern Tuesday night with terms used to rank salmon population areas in the a long-awaited draft recovery plan in fear it would reduce efforts for populations not listed as a “priority.
National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’ fish biologist Julie Weeder, the recovery coordinator, said the terminology was not meant to reduce any efforts, but the feedback was exactly the type of information the National Marine Fisheries Service was looking for. She said the agency is required to create the plan, a set of guidelines for the recovery of coho salmon in Southern Oregon and Northern California, but the implementation is voluntary. The coho salmon was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1997 after habitat degradation, harvest and water diversion, drought, floods and poor ocean conditions led to its depletion. … “
Continue reading from the Eureka Times-Standard by clicking here.
State-proposed eradication plan hides real problems for salmon, other fish, says the Golden Gate Salmon Association
Posted by: Maven on January 26, 2012 at 11:24 pmFrom the Golden Gate Salmon Association:
” The Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA) submitted formal comments to the California Fish and Game Commission proposing an alternate common sense approach to address the striped bass predation problem. The Commission is currently considering a proposal from the Department of Fish and Game to greatly increase fishing of striped bass in an effort to decrease or eradicate them. The Department made the proposal after being sued over its management of the striped bass fishery by a group of San Joaquin Valley growers calling themselves Coalition for a Sustainable Delta.
The growers brought the lawsuit to deflect attention from their overuse of delta water and the steep decline they've sent salmon, smelt and other native fish into. The growers annually siphon huge quantities of subsidized water from the delta for their agricultural operations in the San Joaquin Valley. The loss of this water to the delta and bay estuary has badly damaged state and federal endangered salmon and smelt runs as well as commercially valuable fall run salmon in the past decade. … “
Continue reading from IndyBay.org by clicking here.
ACWA submits comments on striped bass regulations
Posted by: Maven on January 26, 2012 at 8:14 amFrom ACWA’s Water News:
“ACWA submitted comments today supporting proposed changes to fishing regulations for striped bass.
In a letter to the California Fish and Game Commission, ACWA said changes proposed to current striped bass fishing regulations reflect a well-reasoned approach that provides a balance between reducing a Delta stressor and maintaining a viable sport fishery in the Delta. … “
Continue reading from ACWA’s Water News by clicking here.
Kate Poole/NRDC: How to deny that fish need water
Posted by: Maven on January 25, 2012 at 8:12 amFrom Kate Poole at the NRDC Switchboard blog:
“I recently came across this checklist for global warming deniers on Michael Campana's post:
- Deny global warming.
- After global warming is determined to be real, deny that it’s human caused.
- After it is determined to be human caused, deny that it will be harmful.
- After it is shown that it will be harmful, claim that it’s too expensive to stop.
- After it is shown that it will be more expensive *not* to stop, send a threat to a climate scientist.
- Engage some scientists who may have ‘street creds,' but in another field.
Insert “Delta ecosystem collapse\” for “global warming,\” and you have the playbook of some of the biggest water users in California who are driven by a desire to continue profiting from an unsustainable level of water diversions from the Bay-Delta. … “
Continue reading from Kate Poole at the NRDC Switchboard blog by clicking here.
Dan Bacher: DFG Director should show some leadership in protecting fish
Posted by: Maven on January 24, 2012 at 8:01 amFrom Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org:
“In a January 18 press release, the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) proudly announced a new marine and coastal map viewer, called MarineBIOS.
Located at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/gis/viewer.asp, the DFG touts the website an “in-depth source of information” about California's MPAs (marine protected areas),” as well as some of the more common spatial planning data that was used to create those MPA regulations.”
“This map viewer marks a significant milestone in our effort to manage and make available planning data for marine and coastal constituents,\” DFG Director Chuck Bonham gushed. “It's also cost-effective as it was done in-house, using existing department technology and expertise.”
Of course, the release failed to mention that the majority of these so-called “marine protected areas” were created under the “visionary leadership” of a big oil lobbyist, real estate executive, marina developer and other corporate operatives under Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative, a corrupt and unjust corporate greenwashing process privately funded by the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation. … “
Continue reading from Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org by clicking here.
Living with Birddogs blog: California DFG throws West Coast striped bass under the bus…
Posted by: Maven on January 24, 2012 at 7:51 amFrom the Living with Birddogs blog:
“The striped bass has been an important Northern California fishery for over a century. But since the beginning of massive water exports from the Delta in the 1980s the population has been seriously reduced : along with the historic chinook salmon runs and a number of native Delta species.
Just as the Striped bass in California were showing signs of recovery, the California Department of Fish and Game has proposed new regulations that include…
- Increasing the daily limit from two stripers to six stripers
- Lower the minimum size limit from 18\” to 12\”
- Establish a South Delta catch limit of FORTY fish per day
- Allow taking in a number of coastal rivers south of SF Bay that have previously been off limits
If this sounds like a plan to decimate the striped bass fishery, it is. Why … “
Continue reading from the Living with Birddogs blog by clicking here.
Dan Bacher: Conservation groups, Winnemem Wintu appeal reduction of salmon protections
Posted by: Maven on January 21, 2012 at 7:29 amFrom Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org:
“A broad coalition of commercial and recreational salmon fishing groups, conservation organizations and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe today filed an appeal with the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to fully reinstate a federal water management plan intended to protect threatened Chinook salmon and steelhead throughout the Central Valley.
The “biological opinion,” issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service, functions as a water management plan governing huge water diversions in the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary as well as dams on most major Central Valley rivers, according to a news release from the groups and Tribe.
“Although a district court upheld most of the biological opinion as scientifically justified, it found that parts of the plan contained some technical problems and sent it back for further review and analysis. The court left the biological opinion in force while federal water managers and wildlife agencies make the necessary fixes,” the groups stated. … “
Continue reading from Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org by clicking here.
Southern California: Steelhead recovery planned
Posted by: Maven on January 21, 2012 at 7:19 amFrom the Santa Maria Times:
“Southern California steelhead are some of the most threatened fish in the federal Endangered Species Act, and their northern-most cousins inhabit the creeks and streams of Santa Barbara County.
The fish, whose habitat ranges from the Santa Maria River to the Mexican border, once numbered an estimated 45,000, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service.
Now they are as rare San Francisco Giants fans in Los Angeles.
Last week, NOAA Fisheries released its recently completed recovery plan for the fish, one of six Pacific salmon species native to North America, and it gives the agency a blueprint for the long term recovery of the fish in Southern California streams. … “
Continue reading from the Santa Maria Times by clicking here.
California groups appeal reduction of salmon protections
Posted by: Maven on January 20, 2012 at 8:31 amFrom the Central Valley Business Times:
“A federal water management plan intended to protect threatened Chinook salmon and steelhead throughout the Central Valley should be fully reinstated, says a coalition of commercial and sport salmon fishermen, conservationists, and a native American tribe.
Their attorneys made the argument Thursday before the 9th U.S. District Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
The biological opinion by the National Marine Fisheries Service functions as a water management plan governing water diversions in the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary as well as dams on most major Central Valley rivers. … “
Continue reading from the Central Valley Business Times by clicking here.
MORE: California Groups Appeal Reduction of Salmon Protections, Press release from Earthjustice
National strategy proposed to respond to climate change’s impacts on fish, wildlife, plants
Posted by: Maven on January 20, 2012 at 7:07 amFrom the Department of the Interior, this press release:
“In partnership with state, tribal, and federal agency partners, the Obama Administration today released the first draft national strategy to help decision makers and resource managers prepare for and help reduce the impacts of climate change on species, ecosystems, and the people and economies that depend on them.
The draft National Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy, available for public review and comment through March 5, 2012, can be found on the web at www.wildlifeadaptationstrategy.gov
The strategy represents a draft framework for unified action to safeguard fish, wildlife and plants, as well as the important benefits and services the natural world provides the nation every day, including jobs, food, clean water, clean air, building materials, storm protection, and recreation. … “
Continue reading from the Department of the Interior by clicking here.
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