Record salmon run likely for Mokelumne River

[AngryAmish]

"The Mokelumne River is experiencing the biggest salmon run in recent years.

As of Thursday, 10,723 Chinook salmon have made their 100-mile trek from the Golden Gate through Woodbridge Dam, according to the East Bay Municipal Utility District.

Wildlife technicians take salmon out of tanks before knocking them out Thursday at the Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery. The salmon were sedated first. (Angelina Gervasi/News-Sentinel)The record of 10,755 salmon -- since video cameras were installed at Woodbridge Dam in 1990 -- should be broken next week."

Good conservation news from CA.

[illflem]

1. Most big salmon runs in the NW

have been equated to favorable ocean current conditions that make the ocean part of the salmon's life-cycle easier for them. Marine biologists have gotten to the point where they predict salmon runs just like el Niños.

[nosmokes]

2. this is OK news, but not cause for rejoicing

these are all hatchery fish, and as such lack the biological diversity and stamina of the wild strains they replaced. but with headlines and stories like this the energy industry and timber interests can point to it and say, 'look we aren't causing any harm, see all the pretty fish.'

[Judi Lynn]

3. Exactly! All the info. we've been hearing about Bush's hideous policy

and plans for the salmon population is probably left-wing mischief, oh, yeah. I think we've heard more about this in the very last week. Interesting timing with this article.

A quick look at Mr. Compassionate's accomplishments in this area:

July 25, 2003

Klamath River Salmon
Federal Judge Rules Bush Coho Plan is Illegal
By DAN BACHER

A federal judge in Oakland on July 17 rejected the Bush administration's plan to "protect" threatened Klamath River coho salmon from the devastating impact of the Klamath Irrigation Project and ordered the agency to revise the plan.

Judge Saundra Armstrong of the U.S. District Court ruled that incidental take permit and reasonable and prudent alternative provisions of the National Marine Fisheries Service's 2002 biological opinion are "arbitrary and capricious." Armstrong found that the 10 year plan was illegal because it didn't meet the requirements of the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

A broad coalition of commercial fishermen and conservation groups joined with Congressman Mike Thompson, the Yurok Tribe and the Hoopa Valley Tribe to file the lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service and Bureau of Reclamation in September 2002. They charged that the agencies' 10-year plan failed to leave sufficient water in the river for fish and relied on future, speculative actions from the states of California and Oregon to make up for the missing water. During the plan's first five months, low, warm flows killed over 33,000 adult salmon in the largest fish kill in U.S. history.
(snip/...)

http://www.counterpunch.org/bacher07252003.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Critics Say Bush Salmon Policy Undermines Recovery

Source: Copyright 2004, Environment News Service
Date: May 3, 2004

PORTLAND, Oregon, May 3, 2004 (ENS) - The Bush administration's decision to push ahead with a policy that allows hatchery fish to be considered alongside wild fish in determining whether the wild stocks retain current federal protections has been widely condemned by many conservation and fishing organizations, as well as scientists originally asked to review the policy for the federal government.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is expected to release the new policy in June.

It paves the way for the removal of many of the 27 listed salmon and steelhead stocks from the northwest tip of Washington down to southern California and inland to central Idaho.

Critics say that instead of working to improve river habitat for listed species or to implement other viable recovery measures, the policy relies on hatcheries for long-term recovery.

"This policy circumvents the most basic tenets of the Endangered Species Act and effectively lets the federal government off the hook for any responsibility to recover salmon and healthy rivers and streams up and down the West Coast and inland to Idaho," said Kaitlin Lovell of Trout Unlimited. "Hatchery fish certainly have a role in restoring salmon runs and mitigating some of the damage inflicted by salmon declines, but they have no place in determining federal protections."
(snip/...)

http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=31321