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Testimony of Glen Spain (PCFFA) 



— Inaction and resistance to habitat protection by NMFS : The 

 record to date of NMFS on habitat protection has been abysmal. NMFS 

 only seems to react to crisis situations (such as a listing petition) 

 when it should have been proactive on these issues. This has been an 

 endemic problem throughout NMFS, but is particularly acute in this 

 region. Once a listing becomes necessary most options have already 

 been lost and recovery is extremely difficult or impossible. 



NMFS is also chronically underfunded for the type of work it has 

 to do. Its research budget for the Pacific Northwest is virtually 

 zero. What research it does has to be done for other agencies on 

 their budgets — thus the NMFS research agenda is always being jerked 

 around by other agencies' priorities and not its own. 



NMFS' authority is also only consultative ( unless there is a 

 listing under the ESA) . NMFS should have actual review and sign-off 

 authority under the Magnuson Act by which it could veto inland 

 projects which would adversely affect fisheries. NMFS should have 

 authority similar to the system in Canada, in which its equivalent 

 agency does have to review and must sign off on inland projects which 

 might impact water quality and fish habitat. Commensurate with that 

 authority, however, must come the funding and staff to make use of 

 that tool to really protect habitat. 



In its earlier testimony to the Merchant Marine and Fisheries 

 Committee at its July 7th field hearing in Woodland, California, 

 regarding the Endangered Species Act reauthorization, PCFFA reflected 

 on the problems it encountered with the Southwest Region of NMFS in 

 the effort to protect and recover the Sacramento winter-run chinook 

 salmon. The horror stories of dealing with NMFS and the incompetence 

 and unwillingness of NMFS to really deal with habitat problems extends 

 to the Northwest Region as well. NMFS Northwest Region's continued 

 failures to confront the flow issues on the Columbia that have to be 

 addressed if the Snake River salmon are to be saved, much less the 

 other salmon species of concern in that basin, have been abysmal. It 

 is as if the BPA, and not the fish or fishing resources, are the main 

 concerns of the agency in this region. 



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