The failure to follow scientific advice and the fish kills of 2002 is now being put onto the backs of family fishermen by taking away their livelihood.
The wet winter does give us time to sit down with them and see how we can meet those requirements.
For most fishermen, salmon is critical for a major portion of their income. This is a killer. This is a fishery that's a century old and this is the first time to my knowledge that it would be totally closed.
We've seen some troubling signs. Like almost every fish and shellfish that uses the bay, Pacific herring depend on a clean estuary with plenty of freshwater inflow to create productive brackish conditions. But as we ship more and more water south from the delta, we're endangering the herring and most other commercial species.
The federal government has done absolutely nothing to help, and fishermen are angry. It's almost like they created this Klamath situation to make them look competent on Katrina.
This is why it's so important to us to try to get the Klamath restored. We're talking about most of Oregon and California being shut down by this.
Year in, year out, salmon is the one that they depend upon. It's their anchor fishery.
Some are just going to tie up their boats and try to find something else.
This is going to be a horrible year. It's not a total closure, but it's the closest thing to it.
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