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Monthly Newsletter of Water4Fish.org
May, 2009

Thanks to Our new Supporters

In the past few months Water4Fish has added over 4,000 new supporters.  A special thanks to those who have signed on and carried the message to others.  We are particularly grateful to the ISE and Fred Hall shows for their support.  We now have over 70,000 who have either signed online or signed hardcopy petitions.  We are having more and more political impact.  Keep up the good work.  Forward this email to a friend and ask him or her to sign on and give us support.  It only takes about a minute at www.Water4fish.org.  Bart Hall, the show producer, and Steve Fukuto, President of United Anglers of Southern California, helped gather signatures at the Long Beach show.

Help Get Our Salmon Fishing Back

After suffering for two years with no fishing and very little done to recover the Central Valley salmon, a group of major stakeholders has developed a plan.  Coastside Fishing Club, The Golden Gate Fishermen’s Association and Water4Fish developed a plan that will rapidly recover the Fall Run.  It involves expanding hatchery production and smolt survival in the short range followed by new hatchery reform technology to rebuild the runs of wild natural spawning fish.  The elements of the plan are:

1.    Get all the Central Valley hatcheries running at capacity.  Two are now essentially shut down (Mokelumne and Merced) because of water diversions.  Move eggs from Nimbus to support Mokelumne and Merced.

2.    Truck nearly all the state hatchery fish around the delta to eliminate the 92% loss from the river and delta problems.

3.    Truck the smolts to acclimation pens in San Pablo Bay to avoid launch ramp predation.

4.    Mark all hatchery fish by clipping the adipose fin and install weirs in the tributaries to block the hatchery fish and allow the natural spawning runs to rebuild.  This system has worked well in the Northwest and has dramatically improved the returns.

This plan will work but some groups oppose it.  If you want to fish for salmon again, we need your help.  Please review the plan at www.Water4Fish.org/resource-links/salmon.  To help, go the last page of the proposal.  If you want a pdf copy of the plan to print or distribute, get it at www.coastsidefishingclub.com or email action@water4fish.org and we will email you one..

Help Us Keep the MPA Process from Closing Our Fishing Zones

On May 14th the Fish and Game Commission took testimony on which areas to close to fishing in the Central California Ocean.  The Partnership For Sustainable Oceans has proposed a reasonable plan supported by fishermen labeled 2XA.  Please help by logging on to www.keepamericafishing.org and voting to support plan 2XA.  Click on California and Take Action.

Mark Your Calendar for a Major salmon Event

On June 20th and 21st the Salmonaid Festival (www.salmonaid.org) will again take place at Jack London Square in Oakland.  The event is free and open to the public from noon to 8pm.  There will be food, music and lots of information on how you can help restore our salmon.  If you can donate a day, please volunteer to help us sign up supporters in the Water4Fish booth.  Contact Bob Mellinger at Bob4Fish@comcast.net.

Congratulations to the Striped Bass Team That Saved Our Fishery

In a move sponsored by some water contractors, Assemblywoman Jean Fuller (R Bakersfield) introduced a bill in the legislature to remove the gamefish status of striped bass.  This would have removed all fishing restrictions on stripers and would have allowed anyone to catch stripers of any size any time with no restrictions.  The intent was to wipe out the fishery.  Ms. Fuller learned a few things about fishermen at the April 28th hearing.  Following a massive demonstration and expert striper testimony, the bill was quickly gutted.    

Thanks for your continuing support

Dick Pool - editor

 

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