SACRAMENTO, Calif. – “Today, California’s Chinook salmon runs are threatened with extinction, and the numbers of fish returning to spawn have dropped to record lows,” State Assemblyman Jared Huffman said, introducing legislation to restore the state’s salmon population to sustainable levels.

Huffman’s bill calls for the State Fish and Game Department to work with “public and private partners” to attain that goal within a decade.

“California’s native Chinook salmon have for centuries been an integral part of California’s natural environment,” Huffman said, “supporting tribal, commercial and recreational fisheries, and serving as an economic, cultural and ecologically vital resource for the people of the state.”

The numbers of fish returning to spawn have dropped to record lows, Huffman added, prompting the unprecedented closure of the salmon season for the last two years. “The economic impact of those closures is estimated at over $2 billion, with as many as 23,000 jobs lost.”

The proposed legislation would direct Fish and Game “... to work collaboratively with other public and private partners to implement the goal of restoring Chinook salmon.”

Two other Assembly members and two state senators are co-authors of the bill, giving it a good chance to pass both houses of the State Legislature.

Also supporting the restoration effort is the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, whose executive director, Zeke Grader said, “If we wipe our salmon out we’ll also be wiping out generations of fishing families from the central California coast to northern Oregon.” He praised Huffman’s bill saying it will help renew the state’s commitment to the recovery of the Chinook salmon.

The American Sportfishing Association also stepped forward to lend its support to the legislation, saying that the ocean salmon fishing bans have deeply affected the fishing industry, which now is looking at a third idle fishing season.

“Salmon form the backbone of California ecosystems, tribal cultures, local economies, and the commercial fishing industry,” one of the bill’s co-sponsors said.

“Absolutely the Karuk Tribe supports the bill,” said Klamath Campaign Coordinator for the Karuk Tribe Craig Tucker. “I cannot speak for other tribes, but I think for the most it will be a no-brainer.”

Native Americans have been able to fish for salmon in coastal rivers during the past years’ bans that have prevented commercial and sport fishing for Chinook. Tucker previously spoke about the cooperative atmosphere that has sprung up between sports and commercial fishermen and the tribes over salmon fishing, but warned that the alliance could be weakened by yet another year of ocean and river fishing bans.

Earlier in California the Fisheries Restoration Grant Program was established in response to rapidly declining populations of wild salmon and steelhead trout and deteriorating fish habitat in California. The program has invested more than $180 million to support projects from sediment reduction to watershed education throughout coastal California.

The program’s contributing partners include the Department of Fish and Game, federal and local governments, tribes, water districts, fisheries organizations, watershed restoration groups, the California Conservation Corps, AmeriCorps, and private landowners.