May 1, 2014 — California’s drought will have major impacts on salmon – and salmon fishermen. Last fall, declining river levels left some salmon eggs high and dry, killing them. This and other drought-related problems will reduce the salmon run in 2016.
In addition, massive water diversion pumps in the Bay-Delta turn it into a death trap for salmon and this year may be among the worst ever. In response to demands from San Joaquin agricultural interests for more water, salmon protections in the Delta and the San Joaquin River have been greatly weakened. This has made dry year conditions for salmon even worse.
When adult salmon return to spawn this summer and fall, low reservoirs are likely to release water hot enough to kill incubating salmon eggs, cutting into fish we’d otherwise be able to catch in 2017.
In spite of all of these problems, California should have a decent salmon season this year because the adult fish we’ll catch in the ocean this year were born and reared during 2011, which was a wet year. Although fishing should be decent, population levels are still far below the level required by state and federal law and what we could have if water was managed more wisely in California.
Against this backdrop, there are now proposals in Congress to permanently weaken the laws protecting salmon and to block federal fish agencies from protecting salmon when river levels dangerously drop. The Golden Gate Salmon Association suggests this should be stopped.
The concerns of the fishing community are well founded. In 2008 and 2009, California’s salmon fishery was shut down entirely – in large part because of record high levels of Delta water exports. We must avoid repeating those mistakes.
State and federal agencies and elected officials must remember that salmon and our rivers suffer badly during droughts. Two years after droughts, fishing jobs and communities always suffer when adult salmon are missing. Although the pain in our fishing communities is delayed, it’s real, and we shouldn’t respond to today’s drought in ways that makes things far worse for salmon and salmon communities down the line.
Read the full opinion piece at The Sacramento Bee