August 21, 2007 Press Release - Save Our Salmon
“This year was another body blow to fishermen who are struggling to survive from one poor season to the next,” said Joel Kawahara, a member of the board of the Washington Trollers Association based in Quilcene, Washington. “Year after year in Washington, we have cut our seasons to accommodate the shrinking limits, just to try to keep our jobs, support our families, and keep fishing in the future. But our backs are against the wall for the third year in a row.”
“This continuing decline has economic consequences,” said Liz Hamilton of the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association. “Our fishing seasons have been shut down or drastically reduced this year, hurting the business of fishing guides and equipment suppliers. In many places, fishing was closed almost as soon as it opened. Boats remained in dock, guides were idle and millions of dollars destined for thousands of miles of river communities in Oregon, Washington and Idaho won’t be realized this year.”
Anglers made 175,000 trips in pursuit of spring chinook on the Columbia River in 2001 but only 70,000 this year, Hamilton said. This hurts not only fishing guides, but trickles down to motels, eateries, equipment suppliers and retailers throughout the region.
Inland in fishing towns like Riggins, Idaho, the situation was just as bleak. The salmon fishing season in Idaho closed on some rivers in late May, while fishing continued on the Lower Salmon near Riggins through June 2. The closings came much sooner than the anticipated date of June 25th.
Gary Lane with Wapiti River Guides in Riggins says so few fish returned that the subsequent fishing restrictions kept anglers away. “Usually, there’s elbow-to-elbow fishing on the little river, and fairly crowded on the big river,” he said. “But we’ve had pretty good elbow room for the most part this year.”
Lane blames the four lower Snake River dams, and he says every year the dams are in place is another year of struggle for small river towns.
BY THE NUMBERS
Fewer than 67,000 adult spring Chinook crossed Bonneville Dam this year, the first of eight dams salmon must navigate during their upstream migration to Idaho through the Columbia-Snake river system. That’s 30% below last year’s number (itself a dismal year), significantly below the 10-year average, and only a fraction of the 400,000-plus fish needed for sustained recovery. Summer chinook returns at Bonneville registered less than half of the 2006 count, and only about two-thirds of the 10-year average.
Returns of combined wild and hatchery Snake River spring/summer chinook were virtually identical to last year’s poor numbers, with wild Snake River spring/summer chinook in no better shape than they were when they were first listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1992. As of Friday, a combined 30,184 of these fish had passed Lower Granite Dam. In a typical year, only about 20% of these fish are of wild origin.
“We’re unlikely to see more than 10,000 wild spring/summer chinook returning to the Snake River basin this year,” said Rhett Lawrence of Save Our Wild Salmon, a coalition of conservation organizations, commercial and sport fishing associations, and taxpayer and clean energy advocates working to restore wild salmon to rivers, streams and oceans of the Pacific Salmon states. “Biologists have consistently said that you need at least four times that many fish spread throughout Snake River tributaries to achieve recovery. In other words, we’re not even close.”
(2) Comments
I cannot really understand why an entire group of politicians would admit to being failures. On Sunday July 29 our entire elected delegation, Gov. Otter, Congressmen Sali and Simpson, Senators Crapo and Craig, all wrote letters that either said or inferred they were strong supporters of restoring Idaho’ wild fish runs. Fact; since these folks have been in office, Craig being the longest in office, Idaho’s wild fish runs have steadily declined. Sali being the youngest doesn’t have a clue, he is using statistics that show 92 to 98 percent of out migrating smolts are surviving dam passage. That claim is based on 2 factors. First is the failed practice of barging and the second is an experiment called removable spillway weirs. If the weirs do increase the numbers of smolt escaping through the dams they will only exacerbate the already over heated and stagnate fish killing pools the fish are then asked to negotiate. Before Sali starts talking he needs to do a little research and then perhaps he will be able to tell the difference between barging and dam passage. Certainly barging survival rates are high and only lose about 8 to 10% of the fish during transport. However when they re-deposit them below Bonneville they are confused and easy prey for predation. Some reports show well over 50% of the newly released smolt fail to make it to the ocean so the net gain for barged fish over dam passage is no success story.
Regarding the fish killing dams, National Marine Fisheries Services own figures show that each of the eight dams is responsible for up to 12% mortality of out bound smolts. In a bad water year that totals up to a ninety six percent mortality rate and those figures have not improved during the current political regime which equals failure. All our politicians can do is point to the amount of money they have voted for, about six billion in the last ten years, and claim they are for the fish. What they have voted for is six billion bucks to save the low value dams. We need our representatives to fight for the fish, not the fish killing dams.
Our politicians are not going to change until you tell them to. If that’s not obvious by now then keep your hands in your pockets and watch the rest of our wild fish go extinct. Wild fish extinction is not an option so call or write Crapo or Simpson and ask them to give up on failed policies and help our fish.
what a great pity , the salmon is such a strong fish and can navigate most “natural” hazards, But 8 Dams … future does not look too bright, We saw the same thing in Ireland on the Lee and on the Shannon and on the Liffey (all with Dams), numbers reduced drastically, causing a terrible vicous circle , not even well intended attempts by the Hatcheries made much of a difference, The only sustained the Poor numbers. In My Opinion, Lifts, Steps and Fish Passes do not really work effectively