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/* Written 11:06 PM  Aug 24, 1994 by nec in igc:econews */
Title: Split Threatens Klamath Salmon

by Tim McKay

Commercial fishermen broke with other salmon and steelhead groups
to block support for renewal of the Trinity River Restoration Act
last month.

They prevented a consensus decision by the California Advisory
Committee on Salmon and Steelhead Trout (CACSST), a group
predominantly composed of commercial, sport and Native American
interests which advises the state legislature and the Department
of Fish and Game.

Zeke Grader, director of the Pacific Coast Federation of
Fishermen's Association, saying his group had to separate moral
from pragmatic considerations, told the committee that
restoration of Klamath River runs is not in his group's best
interest because half the Klamath fish are allocated to Native
Americans.

Restoration of the Klamath fishery would lead to more Klamath
fish mixing with Sacramento River stocks, which could cause that
fishery to be curtailed, he said.

Ocean conditions have been good off the Golden Gate, where the
California salmon fishery is centered this year. Sources say that
five million pounds of mostly Sacramento River fall-run chinook
salmon will be landed by seasons end, making it an average year
despite early gloomy predictions. During the exceptional years of
1987 and 1988, some 16 million pounds of salmon were landed.

Not Topic

Klamath River runs have been the subject of closures and
contention since the Commerce and Interior Departments joined to
require that 50% of that fishery be allocated to the Yurok, Hupa
and Karuk tribes of the lower Klamath-Trinity basin.

The California Fish and Game Commission is expected to further
curtail sports fishing on the river to effect the 50% goal.

A deficit accounting procedure for allocating fish will be
discussed by both the Klamath Fishery Council and the Pacific
Fisheries Management Council at meetings in Portland in early
August.

Deficit accounting is based on a finding that 35,000 spawning
fall chinook are required for maintaining wild fish stocks in the
Klamath/Trinity basin. The Hupa tribe is recommending that if the
35,000 spawning goal isn't met, then that deficit should be added
to the following year's spawning target.

Last Stop

The Hupa tribe lives up on the Trinity River, where the salmon
that arrive must have negotiated all of the natural dangers that
a salmon must weather--as well as the commercial, sport and Yurok
tribal fishermen downstream.

In exchange for support of Trinity River Restoration, commercial
fishermen would like to negotiate a stock-by-stock treaty with
the Indians under which they would give up their rights to half
of all Klamath Salmon in exchange for 50% of all fish.

The commercial groups' offer would achieve this goal by
allocating 80% of the spring chinook commercial steelhead or
sturgeon fishery at this time.

Wild coho or silver salmon are the subject of a petition to list
under the Endangered Species Act.

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From ECONEWS, Newsletter of the Northcoast Environmental Center,
August, 1994. Write for a free copy of the print version:
879 9th St., Arcata, CA 95521; e-mail: nec@igc.apc.org.
Reprints are OK in non-profit publications and networks if
credit is given to ECONEWS and the author; please send us a copy.
All others must write for permission.
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