The Future of the California Salmon Industry

The Future of the California Salmon Industry

Quarter 2

Article 1

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/bnelson/the_future_of_the_california_s.html

Natural Resources Defense Council

Miller Chapter

The area covered is regional.

A federal district court in Fresno will hear a request from water users south of the Delta for a temporary restraining order to block protections under the Endangered Species Act for threatened and endangered species that are harmed by water project operations in the Central Valley. The combined pumping of the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project increased to record levels five years ago, helping to drive the fall-run population to record lows today. The water projects appear to have forgotten their legal mandate to double salmon – and the fishing community is now paying the price. The California salmon fishery has been closed for two years now, because of the collapse of the Central Valley fall-run, and initial spawning counts suggest that the fishery may be closed for a third year

I think that the species should stop being harmed by the State Water Project and that the State Water Project needs to find a new means to operate without disturbing the existing ecosystem.

Vocabulary-

Spawn- the eggs of aquatic animals

The Endangered Species Act- The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is one of the dozens of United States environmental laws passed in the 1970s. As stated in section 2 of the act, it was designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation."