"A lot of misplaced anger will be directed at the Pacific Fishery Management Council as it meets in Sacramento this week to set ocean salmon fishing harvest levels. That's because the wrong people will be sitting across the table from representatives of thousands of fishermen and residents of coastal communities who will suffer because of poor land- and water-use decisions made on the Klamath River four years ago.

Those decisions in the Klamath River basin are the direct cause of the crisis now faced by coastal communities from the Channel Islands to Astoria, and which also threaten fisheries along the Washington coast and in Puget Sound.

But it won't be the secretaries of Commerce and Interior or the chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality -- those responsible for the collapse of Klamath River chinook stocks -- who will be listening to the heartbreaking testimony in Sacramento. They won't be around to discuss the consequences of their decisions."

Get the Story:
Billy Frank Jr: Ocean salmon recovery is all about habitat (The Seattle Post-Intelligencer 4/5)

Relevant Links:
Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission - http://www.nwifc.org

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