BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2684
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 2684 (Stone)
As Amended May 27, 2014
Majority vote
WATER, PARKS & WILDLIFE 10-5
APPROPRIATIONS 12-5
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|Ayes:|Rendon, Bocanegra, Fong, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bocanegra, |
| |Frazier, Gatto, Gomez, | |Bradford, |
| |Gonzalez, Gray, | |Ian Calderon, Campos, |
| |Rodriguez, Yamada | |Eggman, Gomez, Holden, |
| | | |Pan, Quirk, |
| | | |Ridley-Thomas, Weber |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Bigelow, Allen, Dahle, |Nays:|Bigelow, Donnelly, Jones, |
| |Beth Gaines, Patterson | |Linder, Wagner |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) to
implement specified policies and practices for hatchery chinook
salmon reared and released in California waters, including a
requirement that hatchery chinook salmon be tagged, in a
percentage to be determined by DFW, with coded-wire tags before
being released. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the DFW to implement policies and practices for
hatchery chinook salmon reared and released in California
waters by adopting all of the following:
a) Hatchery practices that improve the survival and fitness
of the hatchery population;
b) Hatchery practices that reduce the genetic and
ecological risks posed by hatchery juveniles and adults to
wild and native populations;
c) A requirement that hatchery chinook salmon released in
California waters be externally marked on the top fin and
coded-wire tagged in percentages to be determined by DFW
prior to their release.
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1)Requires that any contract between DFW and an entity
responsible for funding a mitigation hatchery operated by DFW
shall require the responsible party to pay the costs incurred
for external marking and coded-wire tagging in the percentages
determined by DFW to the extent the payment is consistent with
the federal license requiring the responsible party to fund
the operation of the mitigation hatchery.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires the Fish and Game Commission to establish fish
hatcheries for stocking the waters of the state with fish, and
requires DFW to maintain and operate the hatcheries.
2)Authorizes DFW to enter into agreements with counties,
nonprofit groups, and private entities for the management and
operation of rearing facilities for salmon and steelhead, for
the purpose of providing additional fishing resources and to
augment natural runs.
3)Requires mitigation of significant environmental impacts to
salmonid species listed under the state or federal endangered
species acts from approved projects. In some cases, salmon
hatcheries have been approved as one method of mitigating
environmental impacts of projects such as dams and other water
infrastructure that impact fish passage and habitat.
4)Establishes the Salmon, Steelhead Trout, and Anadromous
Fisheries Program Act, which states findings regarding the
need to increase natural production of salmon and steelhead
trout, and establishes a state policy to significantly
increase natural production. Requires DFW to prepare and
maintain a comprehensive program for protection and increase
of salmon, steelhead trout and anadromous fisheries.
Anadromous fish are fish that are born in freshwater, migrate
to sea and live most of their lives in salt water, and migrate
back to the fresh water stream of their birth to spawn.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, increased costs to DFW to administer the program in
the $500,000 range.
COMMENTS : This bill would implement some of the recommendations
from a scientific California Hatchery Review Report published in
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2012. Specifically, this bill would require further external
fin marking and coded-wire tagging, at percentage levels to be
determined by DFW, of chinook salmon released from California
hatcheries in order to allow for collection of better scientific
data aimed at revitalizing salmon populations and fisheries, and
to better protect wild and native fish. Coded wire tags contain
microscopic data that can be detected with an electronic device,
allowing real time identification of hatchery-origin fish, plus
additional information such as hatchery of origin and run-type.
The author notes that wild salmon in California have declined
from being some of the largest salmon runs in North America to
the point that some of the runs are now listed on the endangered
species list. Most losses in population numbers have been
attributed to habitat loss through the building of dams and
other operations to divert water. Seven salmon hatcheries built
as mitigation for these projects have been a key tool in
attempts to revitalize stocks, but there is insufficient data to
further address and restore salmon populations. Research to
evaluate the effect of hatchery operations on wild runs, funded
by the federal government and conducted by the California
Hatchery Scientific Review Group (HSRG), identified the need to
control for undesirable impacts of hatchery salmon on natural
salmon, including displacement, genetic and ecological risks
posed by reduced diversity, and inaccurate counts of natural
populations. The author of this bill asserts that the dual
goals of conservation and abundant commercial harvest have yet
to be achieved due to a lack of data and the inability to
distinguish wild fish from hatchery fish. Current hatchery
tagging operations make use of coded-wire tagging for a small
subset of hatchery-origin salmon, but the usefulness of the data
is limited. In general, hatchery operations have only been able
to attain a 25% rate of coded-wire tagging of hatchery fish.
The HSRG completed a comprehensive scientific review of reforms
needed to improve California's salmon hatcheries and released a
report with recommendations in June 2012. The members of the
HSRG include representatives from federal and state fishery
agencies, including the United States Fish and Wildlife Service,
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Fisheries, California DFW, and the Pacific States Marine
Fisheries Commission, as well as scientists affiliated with
academic institutions, including the University of California,
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Davis and Humboldt State University. The report includes
detailed technical recommendations on management specific to
each of the 19 hatcheries currently operating in the
Klamath-Trinity Basin and the Central Valley of California, as
well as proposed statewide hatchery standards and guidelines.
The report includes a number of detailed recommendations
regarding marking and tagging. Currently, tagging programs for
most California chinook salmon hatcheries consist of a "constant
fractional marking" program, in which 25% of hatchery fish are
externally marked by an adipose fin clip and internally tagged
with a coded-wire tag. The coded-wire tags identify the fish as
belonging to a particular brood year and release location group,
as well as the hatchery of origin. These programs allow
reasonably accurate estimates of proportion of hatchery fish on
natural spawning grounds and in hatchery returns, but do not
allow real-time identification of all hatchery fish as being of
hatchery origin.
With the advent of 100% marking of hatchery fish in other
northwest states, mark-selective fisheries have been instituted
in some areas off the coasts of Oregon and Washington, whereby
fish harvest is restricted to hatchery fish with marked fins.
Mark-selective salmon fisheries have not been introduced in
California and remain a controversial subject. The HSRG did not
reach a consensus on that issue, and therefore did not recommend
100% external marking in California, but did recommend 100%
coded-wire tagging of hatchery produced chinook salmon, with 25%
adipose fin clip marking.
The report also includes recommendations on other statewide
hatchery standards beyond the scope of this bill, including:
standards for brood stock management; program size and release
strategies; incubation, rearing and fish health management; and
monitoring and evaluation.
Supporters assert this bill will provide needed scientific data
that will benefit both the salmon fishery and conservation of
wild and native fish. Supporters note this bill supports the
science established by the California Hatchery Review Report,
which built upon the Pacific Northwest Hatchery Reform process.
In both the California review and the Pacific Northwest review,
one of the key recommendations was identification of hatchery
fish so they can be easily distinguished in real time from wild
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salmon.
There is no opposition on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Diane Colborn / W., P. & W. / (916)
319-2096
FN: 0003846