For Immediate Release: December 20, 2024
Contacts: Scott Artis, Golden State Salmon Association, 925-550-9208, scott@goldenstatesalmon.org
The Grinch Who Killed Salmon. In Its Last Days, Biden Administration Devastates CA Salmon Families With Continued Failed Water Policies
AMERICAN CANYON, Calif. – Today the Bureau of Reclamation issued a Record of Decision to finalize the recently released biological opinion from NOAA Fisheries. This devastating news to the salmon industry comes as Gavin Newsom advocates for industrial agriculture operations over fishing families.
Actions taken under the previous biological opinion severely impacted California’s fall-run Chinook salmon – the state’s only remaining commercially viable salmon run. The Bureau of Reclamation continues to flout federal law and the requirements of the State Water Resources Control Board by ignoring the state and federal obligation to double the 1967 through 1991 naturally producing salmon population.
“This is not the Christmas present we asked for and certainly not the lifeline already struggling salmon fishing families needed while neck deep in a two-year salmon fishing shutdown,” said Scott Artis, executive director of Golden State Salmon Association. “Instead of providing those families and businesses with hope for the future, Biden’s Bureau of Reclamation threw some coal in their stockings in the form of water policies that have been an environmental disaster – a disaster that’s also impacted Tribal and Delta communities. It’s clear the Biden Administration was led astray because it defaulted to Governor Newsom for guidance.”
California’s Bay-Delta salmon are the backbone of salmon fishing in California and coastal Oregon. The Sacramento River had once been the most important salmon producing river south of the Columbia River, but that’s not the case today. The population is just a small percent of what it was 20 years ago. With dwindling salmon numbers, the Bureau continues to plan to ask the State Water Board to waive salmon protections during droughts – through a process known as Temporary Urgency Change Petitions. Those TUCPs played an important role in destroying salmon runs during the drought.
“Sure the new NOAA Fisheries biological opinion includes a few modest improvements,” said Artis. “But it’s not near enough. Our salmon need a transfusion, not a band aid. And the transfusion we need is enough cold water to keep baby salmon alive. But even the Bureau’s own analysis showed that, in some areas, the record of decision could be even worse than the 2019 biological opinion. The missing ingredients are strong flow and temperature protections in our salmon rivers. This decision is not enough.”
Under the 2019 Endangered Species Act rules in the previous biological opinion, and in effect over the last five years, California witnessed the biggest crash in salmon in state history. Those very water policies are the reason why some of California’s once great salmon runs are on the brink of extinction and why salmon fishing has been shut down for two years, imposing tremendous impacts on thousands of fishing businesses, families, and communities.
Golden State Salmon Association (www.goldenstatesalmon.org) is a coalition of salmon advocates that includes commercial and recreational salmon fishermen and women, businesses, restaurants, native tribes, environmentalists, elected officials, families and communities that rely on salmon. GSSA’s mission is to restore California salmon for their economic, recreational, commercial, environmental, cultural and health values.
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