232 



The Columbia was once the most productive salmon river in the world Restoration of the 

 Columbia Basin salmon stocks is a major key to the recovery of the whole salmon fishing industry 

 Major fishing closures which have already occurred cannot be reversed (and further closures in 

 Alaska cannot be avoided), unless and until the salmon stocks in the Columbia River system have 

 been fully recovered 



Yes, there will be a cost required to fix the problems in the Columbia However, the cost of doing 

 nothing would be much higher — that price would be the ultimate destruction of the largest remaining 

 Chinook salmon fishery in the world, and the only one under US control The economic impact of 

 such a disaster on the US economy would include the loss of nearly 100,000 jobs and billions of 

 dollars in annual income Salmon mean jobs and dollars Without the salmon, those jobs and dollars 

 are gone forever 



The annual cost of doing nothing to fix the Columbia River hydropower system is already 

 extremely high According to estimates by the Northwest Power Planning Council, the hydropower 

 system as cuirently constructed and operated accounts for the destruction of between S million and 

 1 1 million salmon adult equivalents every year ' Since adult salmon can generate up to SlOO/each 

 in personal income impacts as they travel through the stream of commerce, this means that the 

 "externalized costs" of the hydropower system to the fishing industry as currently managed are 

 between S500 million and $1.1 billion doDars annually. This is the "cost of doing nothing" - a 

 price that coastal and many inland communities must pay year after year for the foreseeable fijture 

 until major changes in the system are made However, if even a fi^action of this economic value can 

 be recaptured by recovery of these stocks up to harvestable levels, the total "economic dividend" 

 returned to the region would be more than enough to Justify the one-time costs of major system 

 reconstruction. Furthermore, this economic dividend would continue to come into the region year 

 after year - while the costs of retrofitting the hydropower system must be paid out only once. 

 Hydropower reform is therefore not a "cost" so much as it is a capital investment in the economic 

 fiiture of our industry which will generate more regional jobs and income and increase the economic 

 stability of our coastal communities The Colimibia River gillnetters have long been advocates of 



1 Northwest Power Planning Council Puhbcitixm Strategy for Salmon. Vol. 2. pg. 17 



2 



