NEWS WORTH NOTING: Klamath River emergency dilution flows not required in 2017; Bill to protect Clear Lake passes State Assembly, moves to Senate; New water source for Lake Camanche Village moves forward.
Klamath River Emergency Dilution Flows Not Required in 2017 From the Bureau of Reclamation: The Bureau of Reclamation announces that Klamath River emergency dilution flows will not be required in 2017 to mitigate the effects of a parasite called Ceratanova shasta (or C. shasta) on outmigrating juvenile salmon.
The winter-spring flows were conducted on multiple occasions during February and March 2017, after which Reclamation shifted its focus to planning for implementation of emergency dilution flows, which the court ordered to be implemented between April 1 and June 15 if certain disease thresholds were exceeded.
Specifically, the court ordered Reclamation to utilize up to 50 thousand acre feet to implement emergency dilution flows if: C. Shasta spore concentrations exceed 5 spores/liter (non-specific genotype) based on quantitative polymerase chain reaction at any sampling station, or Prevalence of infection of all captured juvenile Chinook salmon exceeds 20 percent for the preceding week at the Kinsman Rotary Screw Trap site.
These flows would be required until June 15 or until 80 percent of juvenile salmon had outmigrated if either of the preceding two thresholds were exceeded.
Clear Lake is also home to the Clear Lake Hitch, a federally-endangered fish, and holds environmental significance for the surrounding region’s plant and animal life.
“This Committee and the maintenance of a healthy Clear Lake will be a community effort,” said Assemblymember Aguiar-Curry.
Aguiar-Curry represents the 4th Assembly District, which includes all of Lake and Napa Counties, parts of Colusa County, all of Yolo County except West Sacramento, Dixon in Solano County and Rohnert Park in Sonoma County.
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Commercial salmon season slashed by lingering drought impacts.
California’s commercial salmon industry is being slashed this year because of lingering environmental impacts from the drought.
In a decision expected to make chinook salmon scarcer at markets and restaurants, federal fishery managers called Tuesday for sharp restrictions on commercial catches in response to low numbers of the adult fish swimming off the Pacific Coast.
“It’s a financial disaster.
This is really going to hurt people who rely on fishing for a living, both culturally and in the pocket book.” The Pacific Fishery Management Council called for sharp restrictions that limit the commercial season to August and September off the coast from Pigeon Point near San Francisco to Point Arena in Mendocino County.
This represents about half the season in normal years.
The entire commercial salmon season will be canceled this year in an area from Florence in southern Oregon to Horse Mountain south of Eureka to protect struggling Klamath River salmon, the Pacific Fishery Management Council decided.
While officially a recommendation, the advice is expected to be adopted by May 1 by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Federal fishery biologists say the restrictions are warranted because of diminished numbers of adult fish swimming off the Pacific Coast before they return through the Delta to spawn in Central Valley rivers, or return up the Klamath River to reach spawning grounds there.
Members of the federal fishery council say sharp fishing limits are necessary to protect Central Valley chinook salmon, including the endangered Sacramento River winter run salmon.