All too often the story of the West Coast salmon fishery and its struggles works like a painting that’s only a third done, a stool that’s missing a leg, a combo meal without a drink.
The common narrative is: Here’s where they’re caught; there aren’t enough; fishing must be limited, or even stopped completely, as it was this spring when the 2023 salmon season was closed.
To be clear, that story is correct. It’s simply incomplete.
That reality is something Scott Artis thinks about a lot. He’s the Executive Director of the Golden State Salmon Association (GSSA), which was formed in 2012 to protect and restore salmon populations across California and particularly in the San Francisco Bay-Sacramento Delta ecosystem. He comes to that role with a fresh perspective—and a background in environmental science, biotechnology and business development, giving him an uncanny combination of science and marketing.
“Now I sell the survival of salmon,” he says.
GSSA is a political advocacy group who works to advance salmon protection and recovery on behalf of commercial and recreational fishermen, charter boat skippers, inland river guides, restaurants, fishing manufacturers and retailers, tribal members and the citizens of California who, at the end of the day, collectively own the natural resources of this state.
According to Artis, the three key elements to the complete—and complex—story about salmon, which goes well beyond what’s caught at sea, can be summed up as ‘the three H’s’: improved habitat, hatcheries and hydrology. And all must be working in harmony. “The river habitats can be restored and hatcheries can be better supported, but without the water that goes through those flows, you’re not going to have the fish,” Artis says. “The most damaging development salmon populations face is competition with other water users—mainly the central valley farmers—for freshwater.”
In a state where eight of the last 10 years had drought conditions, finding fair and ample distribution for water between farms and fish is a tricky political needle to thread. Fortunately Artis and the team at GSSA have laid out a six-part plan for the California state legislature to meet the season-closure crisis.
This week the GSSA heads to Sacramento to share that reality for the Day of Action for California Water Justice & Salmon.
Come noon-2pm Wednesday, July 5, GSSA will gather with tribal groups, conservation organizations, commercial and recreational fishermen and women and concerned citizens to call out the mismanagement of West Coast rivers on the west steps of the capitol building.
“California is forcing our salmon into extinction, and denying people of color clean water and a healthy Delta and San Francisco Bay,” the California Water Justice website reads. “Why are they choosing export crops over people?”
The coalition behind it arrives far-ranging and deep. Sponsors of the rally include the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, Winnemen Went Tribe, Hoopa Valley Tribe, Karuk Tribe, Round Valley Indian Tribes, Pit River Tribe, Mechoopda Indian Tribe, Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, Save California Salmon, Restore the Delta, California Indian Environmental Alliance, Little Manila Rising, Indigenous Justice, San Francisco Barkeeper, North Coast Native Protectors, Sierra Club, Friends of the River, Tuolumne River Trust and more.
The Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust is promoting the event through our social media channels, and will be there to support and report on what takes place.
In the meantime, here is a short list of the priorities the GSSA would love to make front of mind for state lawmakers:
Set temperature and flow standards - The State Water Board has the opportunity and authority to apply science-based flow requirements for the Bay-Delta and its tributaries, while making sure rivers don’t get so warm that salmon eggs and juveniles can’t survive.
Enforce the standards - Regional Water Quality Control Boards perpetually flout state flow requirements that protect Central Valley salmon runs. State authorities can and should apply those protections at the local level.
Discontinue New Bay-Delta Water Rights - The California Water Board should stop granting new water rights that take additional water from the Bay-Delta system until flow standards are asserted (point 1) and salmon populations are recovering. That mechanism finds potential implementation in SB 687, recently submitted to the California Senate.
Revisit dated water contracts - A number of agricultural water users have historically large allotments that are no longer justifiable and come at the expense of other farmers, urban areas, the Bay-Delta ecosystem and, yes, salmon. They desperately need renegotiation.
Widen access to cold-water habitats - A series of actions can boost salmon access to the foothill waters that will help them thrive, including denying PG&E’s request to transfer partial ownership of hydroelectric facilities to salmon restoration is completed; and California Department of Fish and Wildlife working with the Solano County Water Agency to eliminate the salmon migration barrier caused by the Los Rios Check Dam on Putah Creek.
Help hatcheries across the Central Valley - Maintain strategic hatcheries to help restore salmon populations, and improve hatchery policies in favor of supporting wild salmon populations as a long term goal.
Boost parentage-based salmon tagging - Accelerate the use of genetic testing instead of physical tags to allow for younger salmon fry—in greater amounts—to be traced in their journey from river to sea.
Please join us, share with friends, and for more information, check out the the Golden State Salmon Association website.