The Coho Salmon HELP Bill Passes California Assembly (or, Have You Hugged Your Coho Salmon Today?)
The Coho Salmon HELP Bill Passes California Assembly (or, Have You Hugged Your Coho Salmon Today?)
As California’s coho salmon continue their spiral towards extinction, California Assemblyman Jared Huffman has crafted legislation that makes it easier to improve critical coho habitat — which just passed the assembly and is headed for the state senate (from the [San Anselmo-Fairfax paper](http://sananselmofairfax.patch.com/articles/huffman-bill-to-protect-coho-salmon-gets-assembly-approval-4fa4bb37)):
Coho salmon have virtually disappeared in some areas of California; in other areas they are teetering on the brink of extinction, according to the release. The bill helps stop that slide by empowering the California Department of Fish and Game to use a one-stop process for approving immediate on-the-ground habitat restoration projects proposed by governmental and non-governmental partners to aid California’s struggling coho salmon populations.
“We cannot sit idly by and let an iconic North Coast fish disappear from California,” Huffman said. “My bill is about taking thoughtful, immediate actions to create near-term results. Coho salmon can’t afford to wait and neither can the communities where these restoration projects would provide much needed jobs.”
CalTrout supports AB1961, and because we’re legal eagles, we’ll keep tracking and reporting about it here.
1 Comment
Its hard to know who to believe in the case of our fisheries. As consciencous citizens,we all want to see our native iconic Coho salmon flourish. However, realistically ,population density has increased to a point that no natural system remains unchanged as demands for water resources and use of chemicals in agriculture degrade all ecosystems in California.Then there are the special interest groups that act in a self righteous and arrogant manner declaring that they know better than normal folk.Fact:too much near desert land is farmed in the San Joaquin Valley creating too much demand for water from the North. The commerce is great but at what price? Why should the resources of the North be squandered and our ecology be degraded so as to provide food and jobs for millions of illegals from other countries? Simple-because this creates vast profits for the corporate agricultural companies and imbues power to the people in the water bureacracies……and every thinking person knows this is true. There is such a thing as enough people and we need to stop the population explosion creating the demand for more at all costs and at the expense of our life quality. We must stop all immigration -legal or not- and step back,take a breather and figure out what we want to pass on to our children…an over populated, polluted and uncomfortable mess where everyone must fight to survive or attempt to set reasonable limits so our quality of life and the American way lives on. Do we want to become like the countries sending us all these immigrants? Consider India-600 million people without toilets! Consider Mexico- Mexico City with 40 million residents sends a river of untreated sewage as large as the Sacramento River out of town to the fields as fertilizer 24/7 every day of the year….disgusting and unhealthy. Dont think it can happen here? Check out the Salton Sea where the New River has basically killed the eco system with its concentrated industrial chemicals- from Mexico.
Back to the Coho….we catch many of these creatures every year offshore and wonder why they are so many if they are endangered. We know that most of the by catch Coho will die after release and it seems such a waste…but the law mandates release. Its bad law which we lament as the released fish go Belly up and disappear below the water.One of the main problems we face is the collection of idiots at the government Agencies and DFG..to wit- US fish and Wildlife Service is now supporting helping the Lamprey Eels come back on west coast ! These fish basically destroyed the fisheries in the Great Lakes and only massive action and billions of dollars of investment were required to control these disgusting parasites that killed the salmon and walleye populations. Now we will spend tax dollars to encourage these urine tasting ammonia soaked suckers to increase in numbers and kill more Salmon all under the auspices of our Agencies designed to protect our fisheries.When one thinks about recent salmon fishery closures and predictions of extinction of the King Salmon and now the incredible abundance of them, its pretty clear that the same people managing our fisheries have no idea what they are doing. We need aggresively seek change in the leadership and mission plan of our governing agencies and reign in the powerful water interests. Cal Trout has done a yoemans job show casing what can be done to be a spokesman for us and I salute its leaders. See you on the water be it on Hat Creek gently presenting feathery mock insects to salmonids or dragging a water melon krok at Duxbury Reef.