A few more thoughts compiled by other reviewers, including Save Our Salmon, that suggest this policy shift is not about recovery and is about delaying effective actions. I didn't see anything inaccurate in these.
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This is part of a coordinated plan to shift attention from the huge "harvest" done by the hydrosystem, and shift the burden onto the backs of the commercial, sport and tribal fishermen and fishing-dependent businesses. According to the 2004 BiOp, on average the dams/reservoirs kill 49% of juvenile Snake River spring/summer chinook and 15.4% of adults, 86% of SR fall chinook juveniles and 15% of adults, and 33% of upper Columbia spring chinook juvies and 8% of adults. Fishing, sport, commercial and tribal, accounts for about 5% of human caused salmon mortality in the Columbia Basin, while hydroelectric dams account for 80%. The single most effective and cost effiecient action we can take is removal of the four lower Snake River dams.
This is exactly what we thought the Administration would do cut a tack towards harvest and hatcheries, because they dont have any other options to address the problem, outside of the dams.
This is a distracting diversionary tactic that seeks to delay delay is victory for the Administration.
The bottom line is the dams are the big killer the science is clear. The feds 2004 salmon plan sought to allow the dams to legally kill as much as 80% of a stock just for juvenile fish on their way to the ocean not including the impacts on adults returning.
Harvesters have already contributed to the solution harvests are way, way down compared to 15 years ago. Harvest is so low now that the feds determined in 2000 that further reductions in harvest would not significantly protect and certainly not recover endangered stocks. Harvesters have been the victim in this giving whenever the pressure mounts.
This years harvest on Columbia basin stocks will be determined today, and the numbers will be very small and coastal and fishing communities are going to take a hard hit. Meanwhile, the dams are allowed to go on killing like every other year (Actually, the spills on the dams last year and next will provide for increased survival we forced those spills on the BPA and feds in court they would not do them otherwise.)
These are some quotes from NOAA Fisheries' 2000 BiOp (2000 Federal Salmon Plan for Columbia and Snake Rivers) on harvest reforms:
For most of the listed ESUs, opportunities to improve survival through additional harvest reductions are limited because they are not affected, or are affected only minimally, by todays much reduced fisheries. (9-144)
Impacts on those ESUs that are still affected by harvest occur in fisheries targeting healthy and abundant stocks, particularly hatchery stocks. Even for the ESUs affected by these incidental harvests, impacts have already been greatly reduced in recent years in response to declining abundance of non-listed as well as listed species. As a result, even the complete elimination of all remaining fisheries would yield only limited benefits for many of the ESUs. (Id. Emphasis added).
...further reductions in harvest may benefit some species, such as Snake River fall chinook or Snake River steelhead, but [] such additional reductions, even if achieved, will not help recover listed species. (9-143. Emphasis added.)
As for hatcheries there are some adverse impacts due to hatchery operations, and reforms are needed but a wholesale reduction of hatchery production, suddenly, without strong habitat restoration measures as the same time (like removing the 4 lower Snake River dams) would further devastate fishing communities, and while providing some benefits, will not alone (or coupled just with harvest elimination) be able to restore our endangered stocks.
Salmon declines do have multiple causes, but in the Columbia Basin, dams are the big problem especially the 4 lower Snake River dams, and we need to keep the Administration and the region focused on these causes, and not let them take us down some alternative path that is really a dead end.
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