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IFR and PCFFA (Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations) publishes Sublegals, a weekly newsletter highlighting worldwide fish and ocean news.

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17 December 2010
Sublegals Vol. 16, No. 48

WEEKLY QUOTA OF FISHERY SHORTS CAUGHT AND LANDED BY THE INSTITUTE FOR FISHERIES RESOURCES AND THE PACIFIC COAST FEDERATION OF FISHERMEN’S ASSOCIATIONS

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SUBLEGALS
~WE HOOK THE NEWS THAT’S FIT TO NET~
Vol. 16, No. 48
17 December 2010
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“There is something more important in life than the richest people becoming richer when we have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world. Maybe they will understand that they are Americans, part of a great nation which is in trouble today. Maybe they have to go back to the Bible, whatever they believe in, and understand there is virtue in sharing, in reaching out; that you can’t get it all.” …………….. Rep. Bernie Sanders

IN THIS ISSUE

Judge Rules Against CA Delta Smelt Water Protections In Water Drama…….16:48/01

New Roadmap for California Water and Salmon Solutions………..……………..16:48/02

Clamping Down on Fish-Killing Power Plants..…………………………………….16:48/03

Cancun Climate Conference Makes Modest Gains, But Much Undone.…….…16:48/04

AND MORE……

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16:48/01. CALIFORNIA’S CONTINUING SALMON-WATER SOAP OPERA – JUDGE RULES AGAINST WATER FOR FISH, INTERIOR SUPPORTS BDCP: This has been a week of heightened drama in California’s long-running soap about the struggle for water between the needs of fish and fishing families and the greed of Westside San Joaquin Valley agribusiness giants and Southern California developers.

In Fresno, U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger sent the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service back to the drawing board, ruling the agency’s Biological Opinion (BiOp) for the tiny but ecologically significant Delta smelt was too restrictive on the diversion of freshwater from the Bay-Delta estuary for delivery south to growers and developers. The Judge also has before him the challenge by growers and developers to the National Marine Fisheries Service’s BiOp for the protection of ESA-listed winter and spring-run chinook salmon, steelhead and sturgeon that migrate through, or inhabit, the estuary from the Sierra-fed streams of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers to the Gulf of the Farallones and the Pacific. Wanger’s ruling on protection of listed Delta smelt may also affect Central Valley fall-run chinook, the driver of California’s commercial and recreational fisheries and a major component of the salmon harvest offshore Oregon and Washington. Expect any Wanger decision to be appealed to the U.S. Ninth Circuit. To read the press accounts of the Wanger Delta smelt decision: see the Kelly Zito San Francisco Chronicle article ; the 15 December Bettina Boxall Los Angeles Times article; and a Felicity Barringer New York Times blog post.

In the meantime, on Wednesday, 15 December, the Obama Administration’s Interior Department announced its support for the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) process and its plans to build a peripheral canal or under-the-Delta tunnel (or some combination of “conveyances”) to deliver the estuary’s life-giving freshwater inflow to south-of-Delta interests. These water delivers include those to the almond, pistachio and pomegranate orchards and cotton fields of the Westside to new development — ranging from the Mojave Water District, Tejon Ranch and more golf courses in the desert. Cost estimates for the conveyance range between $12 and $35 billion, with the water contractors claiming they’ll pay for the construction cost (watch out for a government loan that’ll never be repaid) of the conveyance, but with the public expected to pay for the mitigation/restoration costs. The tunnel proposal includes one capable of carrying up to 15,000 cubic-feet-per-second (cfs), which is the entire flow of the Sacramento River. BDCP participants (fishing and affected Delta counties have been excluded from the plan process) claim the large facility is needed to provide “flexibility” in operations and that “assurances” in the plan and “adaptive management” will protect fish and the Bay-Delta ecosystem. Opponents believe it will simply result in yet more water diversions when Delta fish runs are already suffering water depletion..

In a meeting on 13 December among fishing groups, the California Department of Fish & Game, NMFS and USFWS, PCFFA praised the fishery agencies for sticking with the science (so far) in their efforts to protect and recover the SF Bay Delta fish. Fisheries groups warned, however, that in addition to strict adherence to the science, the agencies needed to be mindful of California’s history of water development and a long string of broken promises. PCFFA’s Zeke Grader reminded the meeting of assurances that the Trinity River diversion to the Central Valley Project was to be only that water that was “surplus to the basin” and only used for Sacramento Valley agriculture. In fact, about 80 percent of the flow at the dam ended up being diverted, much of that for delivery to the San Joaquin Valley. Trinity salmon runs, as a result, declined by nearly 90 percent. The Red Bluff Diversion Dam was built, in part, to “enhance” salmon runs. The dam’s spawning channel, part of the RBDD development, never did work, but the gates remained closed at the dam over the years — decimating salmon populations. Promises to clean-up toxic agricultural tail waters — laden with selenium, heavy metals and pesticides – from Westside lands into the Delta, in return for “short-term” water quality waivers (10-years) have also not yet been met, after nearly 30 years. Finally, the 800,000 acre-feet of federal water for fish promised annually from the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA) has disappeared, apparently stolen by the State Water Project. PCFFA’s concern is that once such a massive facility is built, despite all the promises for adaptive management and restoration, it will simply be run to maximum capacity.

The tantrum by Westlands Water District and its little brother, the Delta-Mendota San Luis Canal Authority (see Sublegals, 16:46/06), appears now to have just been theatrics to push Interior to support higher levels of diversions — about 5.5 million acre-feet (maf) of the Delta’s freshwater inflow, instead of the 3.0 maf called for by the science. Despite their protests, Westlands and Delta-Mendota are still in the BDCP process. For press accounts of Interior’s BDCP announcement, see the 15 December Contra Costa Times article, Los Angeles Times article, PR/Newswire article, and the New York Times article and other article.

16:48/02. FINDING SOLUTIONS FOR CA WATER PROBLEMS PLAGUING SALMON AND ESTUARINE-DEPENDENT FISHERIES – A NEW ROADMAP: The water systems built in California are unsustainable without fundamental change, according to Peter Gleick, President of the Pacific Institute and one of the world’s leading experts on water. His article “Roadmap for Sustainable Water Resources in Southwestern North America” is one of eight featured in the December 14 edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a special feature focusing on climate change and water in southwestern North America.

“The resource issue that is going to be most difficult to address in the western United States is not land, or energy, or mining, or climate, but water, which ties each of these other resource challenges together,” wrote Gleick. He provides four key strategies for water managers, planners, and utilities to address the water problems facing the southwestern United States or any region of the world facing water challenges: (1) rethink assumptions and definitions about water supply; (2) work to reduce water demand through conservation and efficiency programs; (3) develop improved systems for managing water; (4) integrate climate change into all water system decisions. You can download the full article here.

16:48/03. CLAMPING DOWN ON FISH-KILLING, ONCE-THROUGH-COOLING SYSTEMS FOR POWER PLANTS: The environmental agencies of New Jersey and New York have begun forcing their largest power generators to either retrofit their plants with modern cooling systems or shut-down, reports Roger Witherspoon in the New Jersey Newsroom. Once-through-cooling (OTC) systems used by power plants along the ocean, rivers and other waterways typically suck up and kill millions of small or juvenile fish, along with larvae, and then discharge warm water back into waterways that can be deadly for native shellfish populations. Fishing and environmental groups have worked for years attempting to stop the practice and force the power companies to change to less harmful cooling systems. California has gone in that direction, and on 14 December an attempt to turn back that policy by the Los Angeles Water & Power Department before the State Water Resources Control Board failed on a 3 to 1 vote. The implementation date for California’s new OTC policy is 1 April. To see the 13 December issue of New Jersey Newsroom article; for more information on California’s OTC policy and the State Board vote, go to www.cacoastkeeper.org.

16:48/04. CANCUN CLIMATE CONFERENCE MAKES MODEST GAINS, LEAVES MUCH UNDONE: Negotiators from 193 countries reached a modest set of agreements on 11 December in Cancun, Mexico on how to tackle global warming problems, but punted some of the most controversial and difficult questions, including setting enforceable goals, for a later date.

A year after U.N.-led talks all but collapsed in Copenhagen, delegates from countries large and small signed off on a package of low-hanging fruit that includes establishing a program to keep tropical rainforests standing, sharing low-carbon energy technologies with poorer nations and preparing a $100 billion fund to help the world’s most vulnerable nation’s cope with a changing climate. Other provisions include an agreement that all countries will cut greenhouse gas emissions, and for inspection requirements for the US, China and all major global carbon emitters.

“What we have now is a text that, while not perfect, is certainly a good basis for moving forward,” Todd Stern, the top U.S. climate official, said during the all-night bargaining session that culminated in approval of what’s known as the “Cancun Agreement.” However, the much harder agreements on actual standards and enforceable goals for greenhouse gas emission reductions were postponed to an upcoming conference in South Africa to be held in 2011. For more information visit the official website for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which sponsored the Cancun Conference.

One good thing that came out of the Cancun Conference was a new U.N. report strongly warning the world of the threat to the world’s ocean ecosystems, the main source of food for billions, from increasing ocean acidification. Since the Industrial Revolution, the average pH of the ocean surface has already increased 30% increase in acidity over historic levels as more CO₂ has combined with sea water to form carbonic acid (H₂CO₃). If current CO₂ emissions trends continue, the increase in sea water acidity will amount to 150% to 200% above pre-industrial conditions by the end of this century, according to Dr. Richard Feely of NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. These are approaching levels which accompanied massive marine extinction events in the Earth’s past history. Because hydrogen ions dissolve more readily in colder waters than warm, some parts of the U.S. west coast already experience acidity at similar levels to this projection during the summer’s cold water ocean upwellings. Such changes threaten the very survival of many marine organisms in that region, including valuable Pacific Northwest crab fisheries. Acidic waters can also adversely affect many other fish species through changes in whole ecosystems. View the U.N Report here. For a recent article on the impacts of ocean acidification already occurring in the Pacific Northwest, see the Peter McDougall Ocean Acidification Erodes Your Future: Oyster Crisis Could Spread to Other Fisheries article. Darren Samuelsohn reports for Politico on the Cancun results in an 11 December article. See also: “Climate Talks End With Modest Deal on Emissions” (11 December New York Times); “193 Nations Sign Climate-Change Package” (12 December Washington Post); “Cancun Reignites Climate Talks Flame” (AFP in the 12 December Montreal Gazette); “UN Climate Meeting OKs Green Fund in New Accord” (11 December Associated Press); and also “Analysis: Climate Talks: 18 Years, Too Little Action?” (11 December Reuters).

16:48/05. CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE’S JOINT COMMITTEE ON FISHERIES & AQUACULTURE GETS NEW CONSULTANT: California Assemblyman Wes Chesbro (D-Arcata), Chair of the California Legislature’s Joint Committee on Fisheries & Aquaculture, has named Tom Weseloh as the Committee’s new chief consultant. Weseloh, a fisheries activist who has spent the last 20 years working for California Trout, succeeds Fred Euphrat who served under the former Chair and State Senator, Patricia Wiggins. Weseloh over the years has developed a strong working relationship with commercial fishermen, recreational anglers, tribes and local conservation groups and government. Instead of working out of Sacramento, where the Committee’s longest serving consultant Mary Morgan worked for 16 years, Wesseloh will be headquartered in Chesbro’s Eureka office. Weseloh’s new e-mail address will be: tom.weseloh@asm.ca.gov. For more information, see the 10 December Eureka Times-Standard article.

16:48/06. NEW ENGLAND CATCH SHARES AGAIN UNDER FIRE FROM CONGRESSIONAL MEMBERS AND FOR FAILURE TO CONDUCT REFERENDUM: The catch share program imposed by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the New England Fishery Management Council on the region’s groundfish fishery is again under fire. The Boston Globe reported 15 December that members of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation have sent letters to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid urging the withholding of funds for the program until the catch limits are boosted. And, the Gloucester Daily Times reported 15 December, in “its haste to convert the groundfishery of the northwest Atlantic into a catch share commodities market, the government ignored a statutory requirement to hold a referendum among participants in the New England fishery, a new federal lawsuit alleges.” This suit, by a New Jersey fisherman, has been “transferred to U.S. District Court in Boston and paired for a consolidated hearing with the higher-profile catch-share legal challenge filed by the cities of Gloucester and New Bedford and a large cohort of industry interests from Maine to North Carolina.” For more information, see the 15 December Boston Globe article, and the Gloucester Daily Times article.

16:48/07. NAVY FACES ANGRY CROWDS IN EUREKA AND FORT BRAGG OVER PLANS TO EXPAND TRAINING EXERCISES OFF THE WEST COAST: The U.S. Navy met with angry crowds this week in two different meetings in Eureka and Fort Bragg, California regarding its plans to expand training exercises off California’s north coast and the Pacific Northwest in some prime fishing grounds and habitats for a variety of important fish, marine mammals and sea birds. “The Navy’s Northwest Training Range Complex has been in use since World War II,” the Eureka Times-Standard reported. “It is about 122,000 nautical square miles, stretching from the Olympic Peninsula in Washington to approximately the northern border of Mendocino County. The Navy plans to increase the frequency of training in those waters but not expand the range.”

The meetings were held at the behest of North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson after Humboldt and Mendocino County residents complained to him of the potential harm to the nearshore marine environment. “Eureka’s Wharfinger Building was packed with people looking to air concerns about how sonar might affect marine mammals and fisheries and the potential effects of ordnance that includes depleted uranium used as part of the training exercises,” reported John Driscoll in the Times-Standard. The environmental impact statement for the proposed expansion was completed in September and NOAA has issued the Navy a permit. For more on the hearings, see the 16 December Times-Standard article.

16:48/08. FISH & GAME COMMISSION APPROVES SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA MPAS; REQUEST TO NEW GOVERNOR TO END PROGRAM: The California Fish & Game Commission approved a system of marine protected areas (MPAs), or reserves, for Southern California waters at its meeting Wednesday in Santa Barbara. The new regulations, adopted under the state’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA), will create 36 new MPAs encompassing approximately 187 square miles (8 percent) of state waters in the study region. Approximately 116 square miles (4.9 percent) have been designated as no-take state marine reserves (82.5 square miles/3.5 percent) and no-take state marine conservation areas (33.5 square miles/1.4 percent), with the remainder designated as state marine conservation areas with different take allowances and varying levels of protection. In addition to approving the MPA regulations, the Commission also certified the environmental impact report prepared pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

The south coast study region is the third of five study regions to complete the planning process under the MLPA. Once implemented, the south coast MPAs will join the MPAs currently in place from the central and north-central coast study regions to form a network ranging approximately 875 miles from the California border with Mexico to Alder Creek near Point Arena in Mendocino County. The Commission will receive recommendations for the north coast study region from the north coast Blue Ribbon Task Force in February, 2011, which will mark the start of the formal regulatory process. Planning is under way to develop the process for San Francisco Bay, the fifth and final study region.

The MLPA process has been criticized by some fishing groups for the extent of the closures being imposed on fishing, while no similar actions were being enforced against pollution and other environmental threats, leaving what some have termed a “network of no fishing zones” with no real protection. “The public image or message that proponents are giving is this is a great thing protecting the ocean,” Vern Goehring of the California Fisheries Coalition told the Associated Press. “But in reality, most people know if you regulate fishing — which is already regulated — it doesn’t do anything new about water quality, coastal development and other threats.”

On the North Coast, where local citizens including fishermen, environmentalists, tribes and local government has come together with a consensus proposal for Commission consideration, there is now a call on Governor-elect Jerry Brown to end the whole process that outgoing Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has been accused of using to color himself green. “The corrupt, privatized Marine Life Protection Act Initiative process scorns state laws and sovereign tribal rights,” wrote long-time North Coast environmental activists John and Barbara Stephens-Lewallen in a letter to Brown. “Marine Protected Areas enacted under the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative threaten great environmental and economic harm to present and future generations of Californians.” For more information on the Commission’s 15 December action, see the 16 December Los Angeles Times article. For more information on the call to end the MLPA, see Dan Bacher’s IndyBay.org article.

16:48/09. HALF MOON BAY SALMON SUMMIT CAPTURED ON SALMON WATER NOW VIDEO: The recent “Salmon Summit” held 4 December in Half Moon Bay, California is now on video for those who could not attend. The event, co-hosted by U.S. Representatives Jackie Speier and Mike Thompson, had an overflow crowd with a clear message on what needs to be done to restore the fish and the fishery. The crowd heard from fishery scientists, fishermen, business owners, and people who just want salmon back in their diet. This video is in four parts. See it here.

HMB Salmon Summit – 12/4/10 - (Parts 1 - 4) – Time Index:

Part 1 (16:40) Opening remarks by Congresswoman Jackie Spier and Congressman Mike Thompson. Representatives from the National Marine Fisheries Service, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and the California Department of Water resources describe the state of salmon. There are lively exchanges between these presenters and the attending crowd.

Part 2 (20:06) Presentations by Christina Swanson, Chief Scientist of The Bay Institute, Zeke Grader, Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA), and Dick Pool of Pro-Troll and Water4Fish. Dr. Swanson explains the state of salmon and their troubled habitat and what must be done to reverse the collapse of salmon. Mr. Grader’s comments address the human suffering caused by the loss of salmon and forcefully points to the forces in government and agriculture that have been responsible for the decline of the California and Oregon salmon fishery.

Part 3 (15:20) Salmon charter boat legend, Jacky Douglas (FV Wacky Jacky) describes her love of salmon and the need reverse their decline. Marc Gorelnik of the Coastside Fishing Club makes a passionate presentation about the importance of salmon to recreational anglers and the need to stop the “criminal” policies and actions of big agriculture on the West side of the Central Valley that has been the main cause of the decline of salmon. Duncan MacLean, a commercial salmon fisherman, describes how the loss of salmon impacts his life. His forceful comments and call to action are a rallying cry that anyone who cares about salmon should hear.

Part 4 (21:04) Peggy Beckett, owner of Huck Finn Sport Fishing in Pillar Point, describes the hardships she has been dealing with since the collapse of salmon. Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe explains her people’s connection to salmon and their efforts to be heard by the U.S. Government. Following these two presentations, the Congress people wrap up the summit with a call to have additional meetings in all 74 harbors to keep the public spotlight on the plight of salmon.

A special presentation was Salmon Moods (7:17) showing images of salmon fishing, salmon cooking and eating, and salmon dreaming set to music. For more information, go to the Salmon Water Now website.

16:48/10. US SUES BP, EIGHT OTHER COMPANIES OVER GULF OIL SPILL: The US Department of Justice has formally sued BP and eight other companies for billions of dollars in oil spill damages to the US Gulf of Mexico, including damages to its marine ecosystems. The suit asks for unlimited liability under the Oil Pollution Control Act, and also seeks civil damages under the Clean Water Act. Class Action suits have already been filed by fishing industry, business and tourism groups. So far more than 300 lawsuits, including for individual losses, have been filed over the spill. Separately, an Administrator is doling out immediate disaster assistance money to Gulf oil spill victims from a $20 billion fund of BP money, but only in return for a waiver of claims, so claimants are advised to seek the advice of an Attorney before settling. For more information on the US lawsuits, see the 15 December Washington Post article.

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