The declaration has clears path for congressional action. NOAA’s Fisheries Service issued regulations to close or severely limit recreational and commercial salmon fishing in the area. Gutierrez told that the unprecedented decline of the salmon population will hit fishermen, their families, and fishing communities hard, and that is why we have moved quickly to declare a fishery disaster.
He also said that the scientists are working to better understand the effects that ocean changes have on salmon populations. He also said that they are working closely with fishing communities to improve salmon habitat in river systems to support sustainable fishing. Jim Balsiger, NOAA’s Fisheries Service acting assistant administrator, informed that this year fewer than 60,000 adult Chinook salmon wil make it back to the Sacramento River to spawn.
Balsiger explained that the decision was tough but the condition of the salmon fishery forces us to close most of it to ensure healthy runs of this valuable fish in the future. The reason for such decline in salmon population is still unknown but scientists suggest that changes in ocean conditions, including unfavorable shifts in ocean temperature and food sources for juvenile salmon, likely caused poor survival of salmon that would have comprised this year’s fishery.
Now it is clear that the declaration opens the door for Congress to appropriate money towards alleviating the financial hardship caused by the fishery disaster.
