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Golden Gate Salmon Association

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GGSA in the News

AP: California’s native salmon struggling in 5th year of drought

California’s native salmon struggling in 5th year of drought

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
  • California Drought Struggling Salmon

In this photo taken Monday, Aug. 29, 2016, Jared Davis hauls in a salmon caught off the coast of… Read more

Sep. 4, 2016 10:56 AM EDT
STINSON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — The sleek, flapping salmon that fishermen hauled aboard the rolling Salty Lady charter boat near the Golden Gate Bridge were the survivors of the survivors.

After five years of drought, the native Chinook salmon that the men were reeling in this past week were there only because state and federal agencies have stepped in to do much of the salmon-raising that California’s overtapped rivers once did. Most of the fish were born at the agencies’ hatcheries and carried in trucks for release downstream.

As the men watched and waited for one of their fishing poles to dip sharply, Victor Gonella, president of the Golden Gate Salmon Association, remembered his childhood in the 1950s and 1960s when the salmon population was healthy enough that he could fish most months.

Gonella recounted fishermen struggling to land salmon that had made their way to the Pacific Ocean from the San Joaquin River in particular, the fish powerful from muscling their own way from river to ocean.

These days, he said, “if it weren’t for these fish that were trucked, we wouldn’t be fishing.”

The San Joaquin River has been dry for dozens of miles at a stretch for decades, its water diverted to booming farms and cities.

With the drought bringing one of the driest periods in California’s history, federal and state authorities increasingly have had to intervene mechanically to carry out key stretches of the life cycle of salmon, whose numbers were already declining.

In 2014 and 2015, authorities reared millions of young salmon in artificial hatcheries and trucked them downstream to keep the fishing industry’s mainstay supply of fall-run Chinook salmon afloat.

Another kind of California Chinook salmon, the winter-run, won federal listing in 2015 as one of the eight U.S. species most in danger of imminent extinction, after too-low and too-warm water in state rivers all but wiped out the 2014 and 2015 populations of the youngest winter-run salmon.

Not all salmon from state and federal hatcheries are tagged, but on this day, after hours of fishing, two of the nine salmon that were caught bear the clipped fin and tiny metal tag of hatcheries.

Management of California’s river water is a balancing act that’s often described as fish versus farmers. With dams blocking more than 90 percent of the salmon’s original river habitat, agencies have struggled in the drought to release enough water at the right times to suit the needs of both crops and wildlife in the San Francisco Bay-Delta complex, the West Coast’s largest estuary.

Because the salmon grow, spawn and die in three-year cycles, the troubles of 2014 and 2015 made it “critical that everything go well this year” for winter-run salmon in particular, said Jason Roberts, a fisheries supervisor for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

So far, Chinook appear for now to have caught the critical break they needed, thanks to rain and snow from El Nino-related storms this past winter.

Chinook salmon are an anchor species in California, not just for the state’s estimated $1.4 billion commercial and sport fishing salmon industry, but for the health of land, river and ocean habitats. Because salmon divide their lives between the ocean and rivers, they provide food for animals ranging from orcas to bears and eagles. Once the fish die upstream, their decomposing bodies supply nitrogen that helps sustain forests.

Along with putting the winter-run salmon on the highly endangered list, federal authorities announced this year that they would formally review their management of key state waterways and reservoirs with regards to survival of native species.

Farmers and some fishermen envision a different future for salmon, with more machinery aiding their life cycle and less water.

Paul Wenger, an almond farmer and president of the California Farm Bureau Federation, has urged water managers, unsuccessfully so far, to consider widespread use of prototype mist incubators, touted to hatch larger numbers of salmon eggs in temperature-controlled machines using a fraction of the water the eggs would get in river beds.

Gonella, the fishing industry representative, thinks California’s hatcheries might have to be moved to the oceanside, eliminating young salmon’s ancient migration down rivers that now have too little water.

Environmental groups want agencies to go the other way, with less machinery and more water.

“The fact that these fish can no longer survive in the system that they’ve become genetically adapted to over how many centuries says something about how badly we’re managing the system,” said Kate Poole, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “What we really need to focus on is creating healthy river conditions so these fish can survive and thrive in the wild.”

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GGSA in the News

  • Bay Area Salmon Advocates Decry Proposed Delta Water Diversions

    Bay City News Service Published 12:13 am PST, Friday, February 8, 2019 Officials from a San Francisco-based group dedicated to preserving the region’s salmon habitat say a new federal plan to divert…

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Golden Gate Salmon Association added 3 new photos.
Golden Gate Salmon Association
Yesterday GGSA founder Victor Gonella received the Salmon Conservation Lifetime Acheivement Award. He also received recognition from the CA State Legislature and the US Congress. First photo, Victor (center), GGSA president John McManus (left) and GGSA chairman and West Marine Founder Randy Repass (right) with award plaque. Second photo, Victor and State Legislature Resolution, third photo, Victor and US Congressional Record. … See MoreSee Less

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Yesterday GGSA founder Victor Gonella received the Salmon Conservation Lifetime Acheivement Award.  He also received recognition from the CA State Legislature and the US Congress.  First photo, Victor (center), GGSA president John McManus (left) and GGSA chairman and West Marine Founder Randy Repass (right) with award plaque. Second photo, Victor and State Legislature Resolution, third photo, Victor and US Congressional Record.Image attachmentImage attachment

  • Likes: 33
  • Shares: 4
  • Comments: 4

 

Comment on Facebook

Great event for a wonderful and great man! A leader and visionary! Thank you Victor for championing Salmon!

very well deserved honor...and a great fisherman!

Congratulations

Heckuva a guy. Great job recognizing his contribution to a great organization.

Golden Gate Salmon Association
Golden Gate Salmon Association
CDFW has issued strong flow requirements for the Sacramento River before water could be diverted to the proposed Sites Reservoir. Important for them to hold the line and not agree to weaker standards. No doubt the big water users are pounding on Gov. Newsom to back away from these. Please don’t. see www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article225944195.html … See MoreSee Less
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Sites Reservoir is Sacramento Valley’s water project. But L.A. is taking a huge role

sacbee.com

Sites Reservoir was heralded as the Sacramento Valley’s answer to California water problems. But the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is taking on a bigger role.

  • Likes: 9
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  • Comments: 3

 

Comment on Facebook

So how fast could the Sites Reservoir be filled with the current storm flows going down the Sacramento River?

How can I get tickets to March 1 fundraiser at Marin Rod club?

Westlands Water District Is also a small player in Sites reservoir. But the overall effect, if MWD, was able to secure its full allocation of 50K Acre feet, would still leave 1.75M Acre feet available! And as the states own findings, the environmental benefits to the fish(through more cold water releases thru Shasta) would be significantly better than current practices.

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About The GGSA
GGSA’s mission is to restore California’s largest salmon runs in the Central Valley rivers because they provide the bulk of salmon caught off our coast and inland rivers. We serve the sport and commercial anglers that rely on salmon as a long-term, sustainable resource. Salmon recovery is our passion.

GGSA is a coalition that includes commercial and recreational salmon fishermen, related businesses, restaurants, a native tribe, environmentalists, elected officials, families, and communities that rely on salmon GGSA has a board comprised of representatives of this diverse community, which reaches from Oregon to the Central Coast, through the Bay-Delta and up a dozen rivers in the Central Valley.
GGSA on Instagram
  • You don’t want to miss this party! Get your tickets now.
  • Stop into the Pavilion building (booth 3716), at #internationalsportsmansexpo and say hi to the GGSA folks that are working everyday to protect and restore our salmon population now, and for our future generations.  #supportggsa
  • Thank you @saltyladysportfishing for the great ‘office’ space today! #saveCAsalmon #salmon #fishing #boardmembers #meetingsonaboat
  • GGSA shows up at SF protest of Sen. Feinstein’s support for diverting even more salmon water to almond growers in the western San Joaquin Valley.
  • The upper Sac is still producing some nice ones.  Helps to fish with Fishing guide Mike Bogue!  These were caught before the last storm.
  • Crab feed, Alice Collective, Oakland benefit for GGSA.  Thanks! #crab #alicecollective #goldengatesalmonassociation
  • Flock of plovers(?) on the beach after the storm.
  • Yum, a bucket of fresh salmon eggs.  Some of these will turn into 20 pound fish on the back deck of the boat a few years from now.
  • Big king salmon beating down the doors to get back into the Mokelumne hatchery where they cane from three years ago.

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