Sonoma County snags disaster relief designation for salmon fishery devastation
“Small businesses in Sonoma County that rely on salmon fishing for their livelihood were devastated when the fishery was shut down,” said county Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, whose district encompasses the Sonoma Coast. Hopkins added the business loans are intended “to help them recover. The SBA also lists other, bordering counties, with the presumption that those “may have suffered economic injury as well.” These include Napa, Marin, Solano, Mendocino and Lake. “We have lost 80% of our fleets in the last 40 years,” said Glen Spain, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, which manages about a dozen fishing groups. He defined California’s $45 million fishing industry as being especially hard hit with state Fish and Wildlife’s permits dropping from 7,744 in 1980 to 1,006 this year. “These loans are trying to keep people intact as much as possible,” Spain said. photos, more, >>click to read<< 14:38
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