The regulators says it is the first time in the stat history that salmon fishing has been ban and it is likely to extend the ban to Sacramento-area rivers and the region’s fishing industry, which includes everything from commercial fishing fleets to mom-and-pop bait shops. It is fact that the fishing industry is scrambling to deal with the loss. The state and federal regulators blamed poor ocean conditions for the drastic fall in the numbers of salmon population in California and Oregon waters.
But a coalition of recreational and commercial fishermen, Indian tribes, environmental groups and some prominent scientists don’t see the collapse as a mystery at all. According to them the culprits are the other state and federal regulators. They said that the sudden fall of salmon in Sacramento River was due to massive export of water from the California Delta by the state and federal pumps and declining water quality.
Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, informed that due to massive water diversion such collapse of salmon happened. He also said that the failure to address toxic discharges into this estuary, an ecosystem critical to the survival of the salmon run that drives West Coast fishery.
It is true that the ban of salmon fishing spells economic doom for those who make their living off salmon. Don Hansen, chairman of the Pacific Fishery Management Council, told that there will be a huge impact on the people who fish for a living, those who eat wild-caught king salmon, those who enjoy recreational fishing and the businesses and coastal communities dependent on these fisheries.
According to California Department of Fish and Game assesses the potential loss from the closure of the salmon season to be $255 million and 2,263 California jobs, including many dependent on recreational salmon fishing in the Sacramento Valley.
