Congress sends salmon aid

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress approved millions of dollars Thursday to boost dwindling populations of salmon and bottom fish in Pacific Northwest waters.

The money was part of a spending bill to fund the Commerce Department, which oversees the National Marine Fisheries Service. The House approved the bill Wednesday and the Senate on Thursday. President Bush now has to sign the legislation.

The bill provides about $110 million to the West Coast Salmon Recovery Program to help salmon populations in Washington, Oregon, California and Alaska. That’s an increase of $20 million from last year, according to news releases from Northwest lawmakers.

The bill also provides $47 million for implementation of the U.S.-Canadian Pacific salmon treaty, which in 1999 established long-term fishing agreements and funding commitments between the countries.

The measure allocates more than $14 million for bottom-fish recovery, community assistance programs and research in Washington, Oregon and California, where the coastal fishing industry has been struggling under restrictions to build up bottom fish numbers. The bottom-dwelling fish include ling cod, rockfish and bocaccio.

Twenty-five populations of Pacific salmon and steelhead are now listed under the Endangered Species Act as threatened or in danger of extinction. Some environmentalists and tribes say the money in the Commerce and other spending bills is welcome, but inadequate to save the fish.

Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission spokesman Charles Hudson said he wants the federal government look at the big picture in the region rather than just focusing on threatened and endangered fish.

"We’d like to see common-sense measures on the ground," Hudson said in a telephone interview from Portland, Ore. The money "is an increase. Is it enough? Probably not."

Glen Spain, Northwest regional director for the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, said the bottom-fish money also wasn’t enough. Spain estimates that $100 million is needed to buy out fisherman who can no longer afford to stay in business, and to conduct adequate scientific research of the bottom-fish problem.

Lisa Wade Raasch, spokeswoman for Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said $2.5 million of $14 million has been earmarked to provide short-term relief to families as they transition to new industries, and $11 million is designated for Oregon.

"Congress is going to have to realize that we need to solve the problem, and it is cheaper to solve it up front," Spain said.

Associated Press