Please act on this one now! We cannot afford to have this cut back. Our seasons are just starting to come back and Canada is going to start commercial netting again. This would wipe our fishing out in a heartbeat.

Forwarded Message:
Subj: URGENT--Action Alert Fall Chinook fishing at risk.
Date: 2/26/2004 8:43:31 PM Pacific Standard Time
From: NSIALIZ
To: NSIALIZ, jenglund@englundmarine.com, tammymackey@yahoo.com



Dear NSIA Members and Friends,

Bonneville Power Administration is proposing that summer spill be eliminated as an "experiment." (How many experiments do we need before we can prove that fish actually do need water?). Spill over the tops of the dams is the safest way to get smolts to the ocean. Fall Chinook smolts that are spilled over dams survive at a rate that is about 17 times higher than those that are trucked or barged!

Believe it or not Rep. Peter Defazio is currently circulating a letter among the NW delegation that supports BPA's position on this!

BPA would rather use the water for hydro generation than provide the river conditions that fish need. By their own calculations they could eliminate summer spill, thereby saving themselves about 1.2% of their annual budget. In the process they claim only 24 Snake River Fall Chinook would be eliminated. Their plan is to take what is certain (Spill) and try to mitigate with other, less certain measures, one of which is harvest reduction! There are a couple of problems with this.

1) They are ignoring that by their own calculations, (which are in deep dispute) that no summer spill would eliminate 20,000 adults. The tribal biologists say it would be more like 50,000 fish.

2) The ENTIRE sportfishery in the fall only harvests on average about 100 of the returning Snake River Fall Chinook, while we are harvesting about 40,000 healthy fall chinook, and tens of thousands of Coho.
Eliminating 24 Snake River Wild Fall Chinook would cut our fishery on chinook by 25%! There will be 10,000 LESS healthy fish to access by the removal of the limiting stock.

That's right, those 24 fish will constrain access to 10,000 healthy fall chinook, plus Coho that are in at the same time from OUR sportfishery in 140 miles of river up to Bonneville Dam! Ten thousand fall chinook translate into about 40,000 anglers trips.

3) In 2001 where water supply and snow pack were low and Bonneville was in financial trouble, the fish took it in the shorts during outmigration, because BPA did not want to give any water to the fish, saving it instead for power generation. Now, it's 2004, there is lots of snowpack, and BPA's finances are more stable-and what-fish are supposed to pay again? Every time Bonneville make a bad decision, (WHPPS, or the Energy scandal of 2001) they go for the gills.

You have to ask yourself, where do fish fit in, if at all. It looks like no matter what, Bonneville wants the water for generation, not for healthy fish populations.

What can you DO?

E-mail Peter Defazio, and tell him you do not support elimination of summer spill, unless the mitigation is to increase flows. Then, contact Rep. Darlene Hooley and Rep. David Wu, and tell them not to sign on to Rep. Defazio's letter. Flow and spill measures are the core of the so-called aggressive non breach recovery plan. Water is essential for healthy salmon populations, and cannot be sutstituted for.

Send a quick e-mail today. Please have all your buddies who fish, or care about fish e-mail today!! We are about to lose what we need for healthy fish fisheries, and about 1/4 of our fall chinook fishing in the Columbia! Please blind copy NSIA your e-mails. Thanks.

Rep Peter Defazio, C/O David.dreher@mail.house.gov
Rep. Darlene Hooley C/O mark.dedrick@mail.House.gov
Rep. David Wu C/O Kelly.scannell@mail.house.gov

Yours in service,

Liz Hamilton, Executive Director
Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association
PO Box 4
Oregon City, OR 97045
NSIALIZ@AOL.COM
503 631 8859
503 631 3887 fax