Hoopa tribe calls for federal action to prevent fish kill

August 04, 2015

HOOPA, Calif. -

The Hoopa Valley Tribe is calling on the federal government to work with them to prevent a fish kill on the Klamath and Trinity rivers.

It comes after the tribe said that their proposal to the Bureau of Reclamation of the U.S. Department of Interior (BOR) was rejected after the agency outlined their own proposal.

The tribe feels that the BOR proposal is inadequate to protect the salmon and want the federal government to work with them after a period of low water levels and the statewide drought in the rivers have caused concern of a fish kill.

The last fish kill to affect the tribe occurred in 2002, when 68,000 salmon died in Blue Creek after being infected with a parasite called ich.

The salmon are a source of food for the tribe and is integral to the tribe’s culture.

Ryan Jackson, the chairman to the Hoopa Valley Tribe, said that the conditions of the rivers are unacceptable and action needed to be taken.

“If you go over to the Klamath River, you can see it, you can smell it,” Jackson said. “The water over there is so polluted, you can't swim in it, you can't ingest it, and animals are at risk. That's really where things need to change.”

U.S. Representative Jared Huffman also joined the call for federal action to prevent the fish kill.

“The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation must preserve cold water in the Trinity River to prevent a repeat of the tragic 2002 salmon run,” Huffman said in a statement.

The tribe will be protesting on Wednesday when the BOR meets in Arcata.

 

 


Source: By Jeremy Chen