Red Lodge Clearinghouse

The oversight hearing will include a look at the recent salmon disaster and its effects on local communities, as well as the broader questions of NOAA's management of West Coast salmon stocks, according to a committee aide.

Lawmakers are expected to ask about the low returns of salmon to the California Central Valley, as well as NOAA's biological opinion for water management on the Sacramento River. The two issues are technically separate, according to NOAA, but both lead back to low levels of salmon in the Sacramento River.

The Commerce Department declared a "fishery failure" for West Coast salmon earlier this month and approved regulations to shut down this year's commercial and recreational catch for California and most of Oregon.

The ban largely results from the decline in the Sacramento River, which became the powerhouse of the chinook industry as other runs suffered. But in the past few years, its chinook salmon numbers have dropped. While hundreds of thousands of fall chinook typically return to the river, federal scientists estimate that fewer than 60,000 adult chinook will make it back this year.

The freeze on the salmon fishery -- the first since the West Coast fishing industry began 150 years ago -- comes in response to collapsing populations of the fish.

NOAA blames the low returns of salmon to the Central Valley in 2005 on poor ocean conditions and a flagging offshore food chain, possibly brought on by climate change.

But some environmentalists and fishing groups say the agency's management is contributing to the problem. They contend there are other culprits, including bridge construction, water diversion and pesticide contamination from agriculture.

Separately, NOAA announced a final plan last week intended to boost stocks of salmon that are listed under the Endangered Species Act. But the plan is being heavily criticized, with many groups hoping Congress or the courts will weigh in and amend the plan (Land Letter, May 8).

Under the plan, federal agencies and tribes will work together to upgrade fish passage over federal dams, restore river and estuary habitat and use fish hatcheries. Critics claim its biggest failure is that it does not call for removal of dams along the Columbia and Snake rivers.

The final federal biological opinion is NOAA's fifth take on the matter; all four previous biological opinions have been struck down in the courts on the grounds that the salmon recovery requirements set out by the Endangered Species Act would not be met.

Schedule: The hearing is Thursday, May 15, at 10 a.m. in 1324 Longworth.

Witnesses: Rodney McInnis, regional administrator of National Marine Fisheries Service's southwest region, and others TBA.

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