According to a news report the Commerce Department has announced releasing of $53 million to Oregon and California to help West Coast salmon fishermen after the third fishery failure in four years. It is told that the Department will also send $6.7 million to Oregon to cope with the third fishery disaster in four years.
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke declared the latest disaster in a letter to the governors of the two states. In the letter Locke cited a continued low number of fish returning to the Sacramento River in California. He added that the river is the second-largest producer of salmon on the West Coast. He informed that the Department released $53.1 million in unspent money from a fishery disaster declared last year. A total of $46.4 million will go to California and $6.7 million to Oregon.
It would not be wrong to say that Locke’s decision opens the way for Congress to allocate more money for salmon fishermen. Congress appropriated $170 million in disaster aid in 2008 and $60 million in 2006. Fishing salmon off California and most of Oregon has been closed for months as the less numbers of fish are returning to spawn in the Sacramento.
