Number: 2009-14
WHEREAS, the National Wildlife Federation is fully committed to saving endangered and threatened species through the protection and restoration of their natural habitat and to maintaining healthy populations of all wildlife species, which avoids the necessity to list species; and
WHEREAS, wild salmon and steelhead populations, already adversely affected by human activities such as flood control and hydroelectric power production, are being further affected by the current management framework, with 13 out of the 18 species of Columbia River salmon and steelhead listed as threatened or endangered and protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA); and
WHEREAS, the Warm Springs, Umatilla, Yakama, and Nez Perce tribes have treaty-protected fishing rights on the Columbia River and recently completed a ten-year fisheries management plan with the states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho and the federal government, which includes fisheries arrangements designed to achieve the equitable harvest sharing principles outlined in the U.S. v. Oregon and other federal court decisions; and
WHEREAS, the National Wildlife Federation is fully committed to working with and fostering collaboration among all stakeholders to conserve wild salmon and steelhead on the Lower Columbia River; and
WHEREAS, the Lower Columbia fishery produces high-quality fish for human consumption, supporting an important commercial fishing industry, as well as trophy-class salmon and steelhead and a robust sports fishing industry, all of which generate tens of thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Nevada; and
WHEREAS, the inadvertent harvesting (by-catch) of threatened and endangered species in the Lower Columbia prematurely closes commercial and sport fishing seasons in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, diminishing the socio-economic, political and environmental significance of the fishery; and
WHEREAS, in the current absence of abundant wild populations, hatchery salmon and steelhead in the Lower Columbia are important for ecosystem health, subsistence cultures, sport/recreational fishing, and commercial fishing; and
WHEREAS, excessive hatchery salmon and steelhead competing and inter-breeding with wild salmon and steelhead can cause damage to wild salmon and steelhead populations; and
WHEREAS, commercial gill-net operations on the Lower Columbia River inadvertently harvest significant numbers of ESA-listed salmon and steelhead, as well as non-ESA-listed wild salmon, steelhead and sturgeon, thereby harming conservation efforts to restore all these wild species to self-sustaining populations; and
WHEREAS, commercial gill-net operations in Select Area Fisheries Enhancement (SAFE) areas are less susceptible to by-catch of ESA-listed species and are able to harvest hatchery fish more intensively, with a 95% recapture rate of the returning hatchery fish, thereby reducing the number of stray hatchery salmon and steelhead competing and inter-breeding with wild fish; and
WHEREAS, reducing or eliminating the by-catch of all wild fish species in the Lower Columbia would be beneficial to the recovery of these populations; and
WHEREAS, solutions may exist to mitigate negative impacts of inadvertent by-catch of wild fish species in the Lower Columbia without significantly impacting commercial gill-net operations;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation, at its annual meeting assembled April 30 – May 2, 2009, in Pittsburgh, PA, supports efforts to recover ESA-listed wild salmon and steelhead populations and reduce by-catch of these species and other wild fish on the Lower Columbia River; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation urges the Oregon and Washington Departments of Fish and Wildlife to minimize the by-catch of ESA-listed salmon and steelhead and other wild fish, while abiding by the 2008-2017 United States v. Oregon Management Agreement; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation urges tribal, regional, and state governments and the federal government to collaborate in development and implementation of policies that aid in the recovery and conservation of wild fish populations to ensure the restoration of self-sustaining and harvestable wild salmon and steelhead populations for the benefit of all who live in and visit the irreplaceable Columbia River Ecosystem; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that National Wildlife Federation urges regional resource managers to consider appropriate development of areas known as Select Area Fisheries Enhancement (SAFE) fishing areas in a way that reduces the number of stray hatchery fish in wild fish spawning grounds during wild fish spawning season and decreases by-catch of wild fish, while increasing the available catch for commercial gill-net fishing to sustainable commercial catch in the Lower Columbia.