Wu, Defazio Call for Real Solutions to Restore Salmon Runs

Wu, Defazio Call for Real Solutions to Restore Salmon Runs

Washington, DC -- Today Congressman David Wu and Congressman Peter DeFazio sent a letter to the Pacific Fishery Management Council in support of Oregon's fishing community. The letter is in response to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's recent recommendation to the council to close sport and commercial salmon fishing on the Oregon and California coast.

The council is an advisory group on fisheries to NOAA and is meeting in Seattle, Washington this week to discuss ways to restore the fall chinook salmon runs on the Klamath River. The council is expected to make a final decision next month.

Congressman Wu and Congressman DeFazio felt the letter was necessary because harvesting only accounts for roughly 5% of salmon loss. Closing sport and commercial fishing will not restore Klamath River salmon runs, but will unnecessarily harm Oregon's fishing and tourism industries.

As an avid fisherman, Congressman Wu wants the federal government to implement effective, long-term solutions for salmon.

Below is the full text of Congressman Wu and Congressman DeFazio's letter:

March 9, 2006

Pacific Fishery Management Council
7700 NE Ambassador Place
Suite 200
Portland, OR 97220-1384

Subject: Closure of Sport and Commercial Salmon Fishing

Dear Council Members,

We are writing about the recent recommendation by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to end all sport and commercial salmon fishing on the Oregon and California coast. We ask you to repudiate NOAA's recommendation.

NOAA's recommendation is the result of bad federal policy in Oregon's Klamath Basin. Because the federal government failed to manage properly water flows in the Klamath River, the fall chinook salmon run is dwindling. NOAA's response is to completely close all sport and commercial salmon fishing, rather than to request other federal agencies to restore adequate water flows and to take other necessary steps to restore salmon runs in the Klamath River.

Sport and commercial salmon fishing account for, at most, only a miniscule loss of threatened salmon. Other factors account for the vast majority of salmon loss: dams, irrigation, water warming and water degradation. Under the NOAA recommendation, coastal communities in Oregon and California would be made to suffer for this administration's failure to address the real causes of salmon decline.

Before we implement an extreme policy such as closing off all sport and commercial salmon fishing, we need to demand that the administration do the right thing in the Klamath Basin. The administration's Klamath Basin water policies have exacerbated salmon loss. The federal government needs to look at the major causes of salmon decline rather than focus on minuscule to non-existent contributors such as fishing. No other approach can or will ever restore the Klamath fall chinook.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council must use real science as the basis of its decision and develop a real solution for salmon. We ask you to reject NOAA's recommendation to ban sport and commercial salmon fishing.

Very truly yours,

David Wu
Member of Congress

Peter DeFazio
Member of Congress

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/or01_wu/pr03102006salmon.html