The $20.6 million earmarked for federal closure relief for California’s Chinook salmon is only two-thirds of the state’s aid request, and threatens the safety of fishing businesses, California commercial and for-hire anglers say which are recreational groups on Monday.
In a letter to US Department of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, the Golden Gate Fisherman’s Association, and the Northern California Guides and Sportsmen’s Association called for “immediate full funding of the disaster relief funding of salmon” to the $30.7 million figure sought by state officials.
“The State’s economic analysis already falls short of projected demand, and the federal disaster relief package adds insult to injury,” the fishing groups’ leaders wrote in their joint letter. “Furthermore, nearly a year after the declaration of a complete shutdown of the season, not a single dollar of relief funds has been made available to the affected businesses or their employees.”
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s annual pre-season salmon briefing in March 2023 forecast “some of the worst fishery numbers in state history. These numbers follow years of drought, poor water management decisions by Federal and State managers, occasional failures to meet hatchery mitigation goals, inaccurate weather modeling, and the inability of fishery managers to meet their own escapement goals,” the letter recounted. “Subsequently, the Pacific Fishery Management Council and the California Fish and Game Commission closed all commercial and recreational salmon fishing. in the State of California.”
NOAA Fisheries determined on Nov. 21 California salmon fisheries went into disaster, paving the way for federal aid.
But California’s share of $20.6 million from a $42 million package for disaster fisheries is “a reduction of more than 33 percent of the minimal amount of funding requested,” California fishing groups said. “This reduction of funding is unacceptable and a slap in the face of the salmon industry that supported the decision to close in 2023 for the protection and preservation of the species, with a specific commitment that their industries will will be made whole through Federal disaster funding.”
The 2023 collapse threatens the survival of long-troubled fishing businesses, the groups say.
“The economic value of this industry at the last disaster declaration, in 2008-2009, was $170 million. Today we are sitting in an industry with a calculated economic loss of $30 million (and only $20 million), not even 15 percent of the economic output of 17 years ago.”
“Most industries grow over time. This one is declining at such a rapid rate that it may not even exist 17 years from now. If that’s not a goal, we’re doing a very good job of removing not not only in species but in industries and the men and women who work alongside them.
