(Update after the break.) On Jan. 1, the California Department of Fish & Game made the switch to its new name: California Department of Fish & Wildlife. New year, new name — and new game, perhaps? Actually, that old monicker was already a relic, according to our new congressperson, Jared Huffman, in a Los Angeles […]
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When Winter Met Summer
“Kissing fish” by Joel Lueders We always knew there was something peculiar about our Eel River steelhead — those two “standoffish fish clans,” as writer Sid Perkins refers to the Eel’s winter run and summer run steelhead in a story this week in Science Magazine‘s online edition. They don’t mingle, they hang out in different […]
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Illegal Diversions
A California Department of Fish and Game program permitting ranchers to divert water from two major tributaries to the Klamath River has been deemed illegal by San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ernest Goldsmith, reports Klamath Riverkeeper in a news release this afternoon. For years, diversions from the Scott and Shasta rivers were unregulated and, says […]
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Scenes From Tribes’ MLPA Protest
Big rigs, many of them empty log trucks, blared support as they passed the 25 or so protesters, most from local tribes, gathered on both sides of Highway 101 Tuesday afternoon in front of the Red Lion Hotel in Eureka. Inside the Red Lion, the California Marine Life Protection Act Initiative Master Plan Science Advisory […]
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Thompson’s Earmark Wish List
Rep. Mike Thompson, our perennial squeaky wheel in the U.S. Congress, has requested $387 million from the federal gubmint for 128 projects including: $80 million to restore salmon habitats $5 million to widen Hwy. 299 for big semis (do the Richardson Grovies know about this?) $5 million for St. Joseph Hospital’s new tower construction $3.9 […]
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MLPA Science Advisory Team Picked
Forest. The scientists who will advise development of marine life protection areas on the North Coast of California have been appointed — by outgoing Department of Fish and Game Director Donald Koch, who resigned last week and whose last day in office will be Nov. 1. The science team includes several notables — but not […]
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MLPA Effort Kills Blue Whale
MLPA Effort Kills Blue Whale: Fish reporter Dan Bacher writes that the blue whale that washed ashore in Fort Bragg earlier this week was in fact killed by private contractors mapping the sea for the controversial North Coast implementation of the Marine Life Protection Act. The contractors’ boat apparently struck the 72-foot whale — a […]
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The MLPA Protest
Oddly, the protest outside the Red Lion Inn today — fishermen objecting to Northern California’s implementation of the Marine Life Protection Ac t — resembled nothing so much as the protest outside the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s hearings at the same venue three years ago . Stranger still, today’s protest happened on the same day […]
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Booing Salmon
Zeke Grader of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman’s Associations submitted himself to a virtual lynching on the Sean Hannity show last week, as the host broadcast live in front of a mob of Central Valley farmers. Grader gave as good as he got, but guess what? Everyone lost.
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Limit agribusiness – for salmon’s sake
Limit agribusiness – for salmon’s sake: Paul Johnson, fishmonger to the stars, has an editorial in today’s San Francisco Chronicle urging lawmakers to throttle back agricultural water usage to save salmon runs. He delivers a call to action: “At 9 a.m. Tuesday, the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee will hold a hearing on proposed […]
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Miners and Indians
blown!Miners and Indians: Karuk Vice-Chair Leaf Hillman takes the legal battle between the tribe and recreational dredge miners up a notch with the strongly worded op-ed in the Sacto Bee