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..