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Coho recovery plan is no good
Herald and News Letter to the Editor by Dr. Richard Gierak, Yreka, March 18, 2012
I find it interesting the DVD handed out at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration meeting regarding the NOAA Coho Recovery Plan included a picture of a yellow perch.
 
Perhaps it is difficult to understand that both Iron Gate and Copco reservoirs were evaluated in 2010 and said to contain biomass quantities of yellow perch and yellow crappie by California Fish and Game.
 
Should these species be allowed access to present salmon spawning grounds, they would consume all of the salmon eggs. The viability of sustaining salmon runs likely would be terminated within five years.
 
The entire premise of removing dams to allow salmon to return to “historic” spawning grounds was based on pre-1918 conditions. At that time, there were no perch or crappie to feed on the salmon eggs.
 
Yellow perch are a real nemesis to salmon of any type by consuming their eggs and fingerlings. Should the dams be breached, yellow perch will decimate salmon eggs and fingerlings to feed their ravenous appetites. This sounds like a great plan to recover salmon populations in the Klamath Basin. Thank you, National Marine Fisheries Service.
 
Are we to assume the NMFS “experts” do not realize what they have done? Or is it a slap in the face assuming the public is ignorant or stupid?
 
Midst the multiple scientific reasons to not remove dams on the Klamath, this one is not even considered in their reports. The primary reason for not considering the Coho Recovery Plan is there are no documents or historical reference to coho being indigenous to the Klamath Basin prior to plantings in 1895.
 
Under the federal Endangered Species Act, there is no provision to list a nonindigenous species. NMFS and NOAA should abandon any more expenditure of our money on a species that legally cannot be listed in the Klamath Basin.
 
Dr. Richard Gierak
 
Yreka

 

 

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