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Assemblyman John Breaux, Chairman

5-7-79

1146 Pulora Court
Sunnyvale, CA 94087

Subcommittee on Fisheries and Wildlife, Conservation

and the Environment

Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries
House Annex #2

Washington, D.C. 20515

Gentlemen:

Our organization representing over 50,000 members will not be able to attend your hearings on May 26, 1979 in Eureka, California regarding the fishery problems of the Klamath River.

We are concerned that this important economic, social and recreational resource is in imminent danger of destruction. Our analysis indicates that Agencies of the Federal Government, over a period have been responsible for this great loss. We also find that solutions to these many problems also fall within the jurisdiction of the Federal Government and petition your committee to review all facts in these matters and to take appropriate action on many levels that will be needed to restore and protect this fishery.

It is herewith requested that this correspondence be considered as written testimony and be made a part of your hearing records. Specific details of our testimony are provided on the attached pages.

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STATEMENT Of Federation OF FLY FISHERMEN

STATE OF THE RESOURCE

Our organization and others have maintained that the fishery of the Klamath River Watershed including the ocean was in imminent danger for several years. Action by the Bureau of Indian Affairs that conferred commercial fishing rights on a small segment of the Indian community have all but destroyed a once magnificant fishery. The California Department of Fish and Game has stated that: This total watershed should support a run of 500,000 king salmon.

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Minimum Escapement to sustain the run is 115,000 king salmon per year.
The run during 1978-1979 was only 87,000 king salmon.

We have witnessed a decline of this fishery due to damage to the habitat
and fishing pressure of approximately 65% per decade.

Aside from damage due to logging improperly, development and other factors, the major factor that has caused severe environmental damage to this fishery centers on the action of the Bureau of Reclamation, who diverts 90% of the flow of the major spawning tributary of the Klamath River, the Trinity River. Our organization maintains that on a biological basis only 60% of these flows should be allowed to be diverted and that 480,000 acre feet per year, scheduled to enhance the fishery, should be released into the Klamath to allieviate the severe damage that both Iron Gate and Lewiston Dams have done. The commercial sale of fish from this watershed has been illegal under California law since 1932. It was largely eliminated until action by the Bureau of Indian Affairs preempted California law and set up conditions that allow about 18 hard-line, gill net, Indians to take enough fish,that if allowed to continue, will surely destroy this significant American heritage, the Klamath River fishery. Actions by these about 18 Indians have not been shared by the tribes. All recognized tribal entities are opposed to commercial fishing. Indians living upriver are being deprived of fish to eat, because of the downriver gill-netting.

The ecomomic impact of this fishery must be noted. Assuming the

river can support runs of 500,000 king salmon under optimum conditions; we can
then assume that between 2% &5% of the total number of fish in the ocean return
to the river. This would mean 10,000,000 fish in the ocean or a total resource
of 10,500,000 king salmon supported by the river. If we assume an average of
only 15 pounds per fish and a retail value of $3 per pound, the total value
of the fishery would be approximately $ 472,000,000.

Actions by the Bureau of Indian Affairs that started commercial fishing on this river have also resulted in commercial fishing for both steelhead trout and sturgeon. These fisheries will be similarly impacted,on a long range basis,unless something is done to prevent the present conditions of serious overharvest, of c!! species of fish. Smoked sturgeon is selling for as much as $35/pound.

THE NEED FOR A MORATORIUM

Our organization strongly believes that an equitable moratorium on ALL COMMERCIAL fishing on the inland waters of the Klamath and Trinity Rivers must be instituted and maintained as an interim measure until such time as the Jessie Short case is finally resolved and fair and equitable controls are established by the common tribal entity.

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The fishery problem we have today centers on the fact that the moratoriums established by the Bureau of Indian Affairs have not been fair and equitable. They have stopped about 1,000 fish per year being harvested by the non-Indian resort community and by sportsmen ; but they have allowed the approximately 18 Indian gill-netters that are destroying the resource to continue their illegal operations without fear of enforcement. During April, 1979, one of our members in discussion with the well meaning Indian Enforcement officers now on the river, posed the Question, "What would you

do if you came upon a truck load of 1,000 pounds of gill-netted king salmon on the bank,adjacent to the river, at one of the locations used by the major Indian gill-netters?" The response was that they were told to take notes, that they do nothing or note the license number of the truck, or that they might give them a citation. They have no instructions to take any action that would result in any sort of arrest or confiscation of the fish. As things are at the present time, the commercial gill-netters are laughing at the regulations - there is no enforcement at all, and no evidence that anything like reasonable enforcement will take place that would stop this rape of the resource. The Internationa! Pacific Salmon Commission in 1956 stated very clearly that a gill-net fishery of the type being used here is capable of completely destroying this type of fishery.

Present regulations favor commercial gill-netting operations, are not

enforced and disenfranchise both the sportsmen and the over 5,200 traditional Yuroks and Hopas of the Reservation,as well as the many Indians of tribes such as the Karok,who find no fish

in the upper river areas to eat.

REGULATION OF THE FISHERY

The various interest groups involved in this fishery have not been able to obtain equity from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It will not make precise definitions of Indian Subsistence fishing. It insists on allowing a class of fishing called " Ceremonial " which does not exist and just allows more fish to be sold commercially. It insists on setting down administrative regulation details that encourage commercial gill-netting.

The best legal interpretations we have been able to assemble all indicate that the BIA has no legal basis for conferring commercial fishing rights in California. The BIA refuses to have such matters determined by the Judicial Agencies to provide equity for all. Appendix "A" to this testimony is a copy of a letter written by the Del Norte County District Attorney to Cecil Andrus, Secretary of the Interior to these points.

In order to regulate the resource with any reasonableness it is MANDATORY that the resource first be measured. Present data is fragmented and highly inaccurate. Action by the Congress is requested to immediately carry out a $ 1.7 Million study proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Our best methods must be used to assess the fishery resource, to develop escapement and harvest plans that provide equity to ali user groups, and that develop watershed-wide plans for habitat evaluation and restoration. Such plans must also include the ocean segment of the fishery including both population studies and allowable harvest determinations. Such determinations can

not be made by Indian Agencies or by the Court or the Congress. Such data must come from professional biologists and determined scientifically. Such data is not presently available. We petition the Congress to require that such studies be accomplished without continuing delays. Cost of such studies are insignificant when compared to the need and the value of the resource.

The present fishing regulations issued by the Bureau of Indian Affairs are a travesty of justice. The BIA continues to thwart resolution of the Jessie Short Case and is in complete disregard to the need to preserve this important fishery. The BIA is destroying the fishery by allowing long nets and drift fishing rather than traditional Indian fishing methods. Again, we must petition the Congress for redress of these continuing wrongs. Appendix "B" an article from the recent issue of Angler Magazine also addresses these points.

DIRECTIONS FOR SOLUTIONS

The Federation of Fly Fishermen and our 50,000 members fully supports the efforts of the Klamath/Trinity River Coalition in its attempts to bring equity to the river and to save this fishery. We ask Congress to adopt the Coalition's "Negotiating Platform" and "Viable Alternative " and bring about: A continuing Moraturium that can be enforced; proper enforcement; Initiation of a full scale, emergency program as proposed by the U.S.

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