Idaho Statesman
Article Published Oct. 5, 2005

Kempthorne scolds feds over fish recovery
Governor tries to shift debate from dams to other plan

Gov. Dirk Kempthorne scolded federal fisheries officials for their failure to produce a recovery plan for endangered salmon and steelhead and called for new limits on commercial fishermen.

But he applauded federal efforts to improve fish passage at dams, the very issue that a federal judge said was threatening the survival of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia Basin. Kempthorne has said he wants to shift the debate away from dams to a comprehensive recovery program that includes habitat protection, hatcheries and harvest.

"I take solace in the fact that recently Idaho saw significant increases in its salmon returns for the first time in over 30 years," Kempthorne said Tuesday at a conference sponsored by the Idaho Council on Industry and the Environment, a group that represents most Idaho industry. "This shows that the smolt-to-adult survival necessary to achieve recovery can be achieved while the dams continue to provide the benefits of navigation, irrigation, flood control, and clean, sustainable energy."

Fisheries advocates say less than 5 percent of salmon killed by humans is due to commercial and sport fishing.

Since 2000, federal and state-supported efforts to aid 12 stocks of endangered salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River system have focused on making improvements in: Hydroelectric dam passage, hatchery management, harvest limits and habitat protection. But U.S. District Judge James Redden of Portland has ruled two interim plans, called biological opinions, have not met the standards of the Endangered Species Act.

Redden ruled Friday that the federal agencies that operate the dams and the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is entrusted to protect endangered salmon and steelhead, have a year to rewrite the 2004 biological opinion for operations of 14 hydroelectric dams in the Columbia River Basin. Idaho attorneys said they would appeal the decision. The federal government also is expected to appeal.

Kempthorne expressed frustration that the legal fight over the dams has prevented the National Marine Fisheries Service from writing a separate, comprehensive recovery plan for endangered salmon and steelhead in the Columbia Basin that stretches from Canada to Nevada and inland to Yellowstone National Park.

"Proceeding without federal recovery plans is like running a race without a finish line," Kempthorne said. "It is a frustrating and reckless expenditure of time and resources." Kempthorne's effort to divert attention from the dams prevents a serious focus on salmon recovery, said Glen Spain, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman's Associations, one of the groups suing the federal government over salmon. Dams account for 80 to 85 percent of the salmon killed by human activities in the Columbia Basin, Spain said. Commercial and sport fishing account for only 5 percent, he said.

"The biological facts speak for themselves," Spain said.

But Kempthorne pointed to other numbers. Recent DNA analysis of the chinook salmon caught off the West Coast of Vancouver Island showed 88 percent came from rivers in the United States and of those, 70 percent were listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

He called on federal officials to analyze this harvest - primarily by Canadian fishermen - on the Columbia salmon.

"If we are serious, we have to reduce commercial harvest and give these fish a chance to reproduce and contribute to recovery," Kempthorne said. "If that means compensating the commercial fishing industry we need to consider that."

Questions and answers about endangered salmon

What are options for saving salmon?
The Bush administration says that raising hatchery fish, controlling predators in rivers, additional harvest reduction, stricter habitat restrictions, better dam-passage improvements and flowing water for increased flows from Idaho reservoirs can restore salmon populations while keeping all dams in place.

The majority of fisheries biologists say to restore Snake River salmon - including those that live in Idaho - four federal dams on the Snake River in Washington must be breached. Scientists on both sides of the issue agree that:

• The building of the four dams on the Snake River and the last dam on the Columbia River in the 1960s and '70s coincided with a huge decline in productivity.
• Dams killed salmon both at the dams, in the Columbia River estuary afterward and the ocean because of stress or other factors.
• A downturn in ocean conditions reduced salmon productivity from the mid-1970s to mid-1990s. Changes that brought colder nutrient-rich deep water to the areas of the Pacific that Idaho salmon migrated to greatly improved productivity through 2003.
• Salmon that spawn in lower Columbia River tributaries and the river itself return to spawn at higher rates than do those that spawn in the Snake River.

What is the major disagreement?
Scientists don't agree on why more Snake River salmon die in the estuary and ocean than lower Columbia River salmon.

What is the majority opinion?
State, tribal and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists say that the four Snake River dams, the barges that transport the majority of the juveniles past the dams to the Pacific, and fish-bypass systems are responsible for the extra mortality in the estuary and the Pacific. They say the difference in return rates between lower Columbia and Snake River salmon is evidence that the four additional dams on the Snake are the limiting factor for Idaho's salmon.

Therefore, the delayed effects of barging and the cumulative effects of migrating past the extra four dams are the only major differences and are responsible for the extra mortality of Snake River salmon.

These scientists conclude that breaching the dams is the best and perhaps only way to restore Snake River runs to sustainable levels.

What is the minority opinion?
Scientists from the National Marine Fisheries Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bonneville Power Administration say the system they developed to collect and barge salmon around the dams has offset the downstream migration problems that caused salmon to decline. Because their research shows up to 98 percent of the salmon barged past the dams survive to the estuary, the extra mortality in Snake River fish is because of some other, unknown factor.

These scientists say that hatchery fish, predator control, additional harvest reductions, stricter habitat restrictions, and more water for increased flows from Idaho reservoirs can restore salmon productivity enough with the dams in place.