Tag Archives: Gov. Jerry Brown
California shifts water from farms, cities to fish.
Despite an epic last-minute compromise brokered by Gov. Jerry Brown, state water regulators voted Wednesday to reallocate billions of gallons of San Joaquin River water from farms and cities to revive struggling fish populations. After hours of testimony, the State Water Resources Control board voted to deliver hundreds of thousands of acre-feet of water from the San Joaquin watershed to salmon, steelhead and other species that ply the fragile Delta. The vote will eventually take water from Valley farmers, who have blasted the plan as a “water grab,” as well as cities such as Modesto and San Francisco. >click to read<09:52
Central Coast should look to Rhode Island for bad experience with wind turbines
Our commercial fishermen met with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and the bureau plans on putting hundreds of wind turbines off our coastline, taking hundreds of square miles of ocean away from fishing. We spoke with fishermen on the East Coast that had five wind turbines installed off Rhode Island, and they had nothing good to say. The installation required huge cement slabs on the bottom. The blades cause radar interference for miles. They are in squid and scallop fishing grounds, costing hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars lost to Rhode Island. They are placing them in navigation lanes, causing shipping vessels to travel around them. Also, most of the time they don’t work! They need repair constantly, and if the wind blows over 50 mph, they have to shut them down! They are being federally subsidized by millions of taxpayer dollars to mainly companies from other countries! It’s costing four times the amount it costs them for natural gas-powered electricity. Gov. Jerry Brown thinks using our oceans for energy is what we need. He is wrong. The ocean is a food source. It is wild and powerful and is not meant for industrialization. Tom Hafer, Atascadero link 09:19
Del Norte fishermen and Assemblyman Jim Wood opposes landing fee hike ( from .2¢ to 25¢ per lb.!)
Del Norte fishermen and Assemblyman Jim Wood are questioning a proposal to increase commercial landing fees as a way of offsetting a $20 million deficit in the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. In his 2017–18 budget summary, Gov. Jerry Brown proposes increasing commercial landing fees statewide by $12.4 million. Brown’s proposal argues that revenue from commercial landing fees support less than one quarter of the Fish and Wildlife’s program costs and have not been adjusted in at least 20 years. But local fishermen and industry representatives say they’re worried that increasing the landing fees will prompt seafood buyers to shift their business to nearby Oregon. continue reading the story here 10:04
Congress to consider relief funds for California crab fleet as Brown proposes landing fee hike
Long-awaited federal funds to alleviate California’s crabbing fleet after last year’s dismal season could be approved by Congress as early as the next few weeks, according to California 2nd District Rep. Jared Huffman. Huffman (D-San Rafael) said Congress is set to vote on a supplemental budget appropriation to prevent a government shutdown in the coming weeks. He said he and a bipartisan group of legislators have signed on to a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi urging them to include fishery disaster funds in this budget bill.,, Meanwhile at the state level, local legislators and fishing organizations are protesting Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to increase commercial fishing landing fees by as much as 1,300 percent in order to help close a $20 million shortfall in the California Department of Fish and Wildlife budget. continue reading the story here 16:09
Bay-Delta Water Case Against EPA Advances
A federal judge refused Tuesday to dismiss allegations that the Environmental Protection Agency shirked its duty to review temporary changes California made to its water-quality standards during the drought, an action that environmentalists say shrank the state’s salmon and steelhead fish populations. U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar denied a motion by the EPA to dismiss the lawsuit filed against it last year by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Bay Institute and Defenders of Wildlife. Tigar said their claims are not moot and that they plausibly alleged that the EPA was required under the Clean Water Act to review the changes to more than two dozen water quality standards to protect fish and wildlife in the Bay-Delta Estuary. Read the story here 13:42
California Commercial crabbers still hope for relief from previous season
Commercial crab fishing opens Tuesday, but fishermen are still reeling from last year’s abysmal season and haven’t seen any sign of the hoped-for federal emergency funds Gov. Jerry Brown requested from the Department of Commerce. In February, Brown wrote a letter to Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, asking her to declare a fishery resource disaster. He sought federal help in offsetting the $48.3 million loss to the industry after crab fishing was put on hold due to toxin contamination. Dungeness crab is one of the highest valued commercial fisheries in California,” he wrote. “Declaring a commercial failure will enable the fishing communities affected by the closure to receive essential economic assistance.” “We’re all far behind,” said Vicki Crow, a crab vendor at Moss Landing Harbor. Crow, 60, has been in the fishing industry most of her adult life, starting at around age 20 with commercial abalone and sea urchin diving. Now she sells crab from a dock at the harbor. “It’s just been really bad for us,” she said. Read the story here 08:24
Governor Brown signs Whale Legislation, but the Enviros are never satisfied.
California Gov. Jerry Brown announced Friday that he signed legislation meant to bring down the record numbers of whales getting caught in fishing gear meant for Dungeness crabs, causing unknown numbers of the entangled mammals to drown or starve. The Democratic governor approved the bill that allows fishermen to collect abandoned and lost crab pots — the cage-like contraptions used to catch the crustaceans — in the off-season for a bounty, paid for by those who lost the gear. Crab fishermen joined environmental groups in backing the legislation after federal agencies logged 61 reports of entangled whales off the West Coast last year,,, Conservation groups have urged state and federal agencies to do more, including closing some areas with high numbers of whales to crab fishing. Read the story here 12:32
State legislators call on Brown to declare crab fishery disaster
A group of nine California legislators sent a bipartisan letter to Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday calling for him to declare a crab fishery disaster in order to help secure financial assistance for the state’s impacted fishing industry. The state legislators’ letter urges Brown to ask U.S. Secretary of Commerce to declare a fishery disaster through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. If approved, the designation would allow the federal government to issue disaster assistance as allowed under two federal statutes — the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and the Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act. Read the article here 08:20
Members of Congress urge disaster relief for Dungeness crab fishermen
In a bit of good news for California’s beleaguered crab fishermen, four members of Congress announced Tuesday they would call for federal disaster relief in the unlikely event the state’s commercial fishing season for Dungeness crab is canceled altogether.In a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown, the representatives urged the governor to “stand ready” to ask to provide compensation to fishermen and businesses if the crab season — postponed indefinitely Nov. 6 because of high levels of a biotoxin called domoic acid,,, Read the rest here 06:39
The California Department of Water Resources reveals its $25b Delta plan — but questions remain
A new future for the troubled Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta was laid out for public review Monday in 34,000 pages of analysis associated with two giant water diversion tunnels proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown. The question now for the public and policy makers: Is this the future they want? The California Department of Water Resources released the draft documents as part of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, a proposed $25 billion project to resolve decades of conflict between water demand and wildlife habitat in the estuary at the heart of the state. more@fresnobee 12:00
