SAN FRANCISCO — Humboldt County fisherman Dave Bitts is bracing for another lean year after the sudden collapse of California’s most important salmon run.
Like many West Coast fishermen, Bitts depends on wild “king” salmon for up to two-thirds of his income. Now, he doesn’t know how he’s going to pay his bills.
“We’ve never been in this situation before,” said the 59-year-old Bitts. “It’s my bread-and-butter, as it is for all my pals. And this year, it appears our bread-and-butter is not there.”
Federal fishery regulators said this past week that the number of chinook salmon returning to the Sacramento River and its tributaries last fall was astonishingly low. That could trigger severe fishing restrictions and economic hardship for fishermen and related businesses from Central California to the Canadian border.
Restaurants and consumers will have to pay high prices or do without the prized wild salmon, and the crash could force the state to change the way it manages its increasingly precious water.
“This is an economic rumbling that will go right through every coastal community,” said Rep. Mike Thompson of California’s north coast. “It’s not just the commercial fishermen that are economically harmed; there are all kinds of businesses that depend on the fishery.”
Experts are unclear about what caused the collapse, but many fishermen blame an increase in the amount of water being pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to drought-stricken farms and cities to the south.
They plan to aggressively lobby for reduced water diversions from the delta, through which the migrating salmon must pass. Environmentalists who have fought for years to draw attention to the damage done by the water diversions believe the salmon collapse might be the thing that finally stokes public outrage.
“It’s proof that the operation of these water projects is harming salmon,” said Mike Sherwood, an Earthjustice attorney who is suing the state and federal governments over delta water diversions. “It may put more pressure on state and federal agencies to do something.”
Only about 90,000 adult salmon returned to the Central Valley to spawn in the fall of 2007, the second lowest number on record. By comparison, 277,000 spawners were counted there a year earlier, and 804,000 in 2002.
Even more troubling, only about 2,000 2-year-old male fish, or “jacks,” were recorded — the lowest number ever and far below the 40,000 counted in a typical year. Jacks are used to predict returns of adult chinook the next year, so this year’s numbers are likely to be even smaller.
Because Central Valley chinook normally make up 90 percent of wild salmon landed in California, and a big share of those caught in Oregon and Washington, it’s fishermen who will immediately feel the impact.
Craig Barbre, of Morro Bay, said he and his wife took their boat to troll off the coast of Alaska last summer and may have to do the same this year. But with soaring fuel costs, there’s no guarantee they can make ends meet.
“Taking our boat to Alaska is a pure gamble,” said Barbre, 57. “We don’t know if we’ll make enough to cover our costs, but that’s our only choice.”
The anxiety is being felt as far away as Washington state. Although Central Valley salmon only make up a fraction of their catch, Washington fishermen worry that regulators may limit all West Coast fishing in order to protect the Sacramento stocks.
Even if their fisheries remain open, Washington fishermen could face competition from California and Oregon boats unable to fish their home waters.
“The mood here is extremely grim,” said Joel Kawahara, 52, of Quilcene, who relies on salmon for his income. If there are more fishing restrictions, “for me it would pretty much be an economic disaster.”
The Pacific Fishery Management Council will hold hearings over the next two months to discuss restrictions on this year’s salmon season, which typically starts in May. Most fishermen expect extreme restrictions — perhaps even a total ban on both commercial and sport fishing.
The industry is preparing for a third straight year of poor salmon harvests. In 2006, the federal government imposed strict limits on ocean salmon fishing to protect dwindling stocks in the Klamath River, where chinook runs have been devastated by hydroelectric dams and disease. Regulators allowed more ocean fishing last year, but fishermen complain there weren’t many fish to catch.
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