In addition to this piece in the PI, Frank also released a statement here. Seattle PI:
A lot of misplaced anger will be directed at the Pacific Fishery Management Council as it meets in Sacramento this week to set ocean salmon fishing harvest levels. That’s because the wrong people will be sitting across the table from representatives of thousands of fishermen and residents of coastal communities who will suffer because of poor land- and water-use decisions made on the Klamath River four years ago.
…it won’t be the secretaries of Commerce and Interior or the chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality — those responsible for the collapse of Klamath River chinook stocks — who will be listening to the heartbreaking testimony in Sacramento. They won’t be around to discuss the consequences of their decisions.
…We are not in this mess because of harvest. Our harvest management process works. We didn’t cause the problems that have led to these fishing closures, but we will step up to protect the resource.
I don’t kid myself for a second that I won’t soon be in the shoes of those fishermen in California and Oregon. If we ignore the importance of protecting salmon habitat, the closures, restrictions and resulting economic shockwave that is beginning down south will head this way.
Salmon recovery begins and ends with the Big H.
