Darrell Ticehurst/Fisheries Issues

1.    The Westlands people who are complaining about jobs and water have “junior” water rights. Junior rights mean that their access to water is subject to availability after more senior rights and the ecology have been considered. In years of drought it has always been clear that there might not be ANY water for them.

2.    Yes there are some jobs at risk in the Westlands, but as I just noted, they shouldn’t be expecting water that is not there.  There are other jobs just as dependent with more senior rights. And for salmon fishermen, the risk of job loss is not a risk, but already a fact!

3.    There has been a lot of obfuscation about the reasons for the downturn in salmon the past few years. “Ocean conditions” have been cited by the state administration as the proximate cause of the salmon’s dwindling river returns. However, there have been good returns in specific tributaries of the Sacramento and these fish swam in those same ocean conditions. Indeed, the Sacramento salmon commingle in the ocean with Klamath River salmon.  Right now the Klamath River salmon runs are healthy.  Are we to believe that the Klamath fish are swimming in a different ocean? The reality is that the bad years correlate much more closely with the degree of irrigation pumping from the Sacramento River during the out migration of the young salmon smolts. It is habitat, especially river conditions that matter to the health of salmon, and the timing of the water pumping is crucial to their return numbers, and attributing the entire problem to the minor contribution of ocean conditions is to obfuscate and confuse. To pump water out of the river and into the irrigation system while the outmigration is occurring is to pump the entire year’s run into Central Valley irrigation ditches where they die. Stop the river pumping at critical times and the delta will be healthy and the salmon will do just fine.

 

Next, I would like to talk about the economic impact of recreational fishing in California.  According to a careful study by Southwick Associates, there are over2 3,000 jobs in California that depend upon fishing, and the majority of those jobs are dependent upon healthy recreational fishing.  Recreational fishing has such a huge impact because it is just that: recreation. We don’t really impact the fish stocks that much because we are so inefficient, but we sure spend a lot of money trying! That is why the economic impact is so great. We travel to the coast, stay in motels, eat at the local restaurants, launch our boats or pay the party boat fee, buy the latest lures at the tackle shop, keep the bait shop in business, and then buy fuel and pay a maintenance shop to keep our engines running and the boat repaired.  And when we can’t fish we don’t spend that money, nor do we get emergency relief from the government.

So recreational fishing is the economic engine that drives many of those 23,000 jobs. And the heartbeat of recreational fishing is salmon. Access to salmon is what keeps the coastal communities healthy, drives the purchase of boats, and provides the excitement and the rewards that only catching such a romantic fish can provide. Fishing is a cultural as well as a recreational sport. Look at this picture of a son catching a salmon while sister works to hook up one of her own. That is what recreational fishing means to us on this coast. Dad’s taking his kids fishing has been an important part of quality family time since the first salmon was spotted in the river. The look of joy on a child’s face when he catches that first fish, the determination on that 8 year old as that salmon pulls so hard his every muscle is strained but he won’t give in, the sense of accomplishment when that beautiful fish swings over the railing, and the pride of dad as he watches his child grow just a little older with the shared experience. That is what recreational fishing is all about. We can catch other fish, but salmon is the romance, the excitement, the perfect fish. Not only is salmon the heartbeat of recreational fishing, it is also the foundation of an entire industry.