91 



Mr. Thomas. Well, it takes two years for a legal size sport fish 

 to be caught which is 20 inches. That is with good conditions in the 

 ocean. It takes three years for a legal commercial fish which is 26 

 inches. In yesterday's Chronicle — that is probably what you are re- 

 ferring to, plus the article that Congressman Riggs has here — ^they 

 talked about what great salmon fishing we have. 



And L.B. Boyneston from the California Department of Fish and 

 Game stated that he felt one of the major reasons was the low 

 delta exports in 1992 and 1993 allowed the hatchery fish to get 

 past some of the perils, plus good ocean recruitment which is good 

 ocean conditions which have been excellent the last couple of years. 

 There have been an awful lot of feed. 



I also think that the ESA restrictions that have been placed for 

 the winter-run have benefited the fall-run greatly; lifting of the 

 gates at Red Bluff Diversion Dam through the Central Valley Fish- 

 eries Coalition which we are a charter member. We worked very 

 close with GCID. GCID now has an interim screen that isn't killing 

 any fish in the Sacramento River because of their cooperation in 

 spending the money. So this total package, plus the fact that the 

 ocean is in extremely healthy condition this year with good feed. 



Mr. DOOLEY. Now, the California Department of Fish and 

 Game — the gentleman said that it was because of what? 



Mr. Thomas. L.B. Boyneston in the San Francisco Chronicle yes- 

 terday said that one of the factors could be that there was a low 

 delta exports in 1992 and 1993, therefore, letting some of the 

 hatchery fish get by. One thing that I didn't mention 



Mr. DoOLEY. So I guess one of the points that some of us would 

 make then is that even before the CVPIA was even implemented, 

 there were measures that were ensuring that we were providing for 

 some level of environmental enhancement at that time. 



Mr. Thomas. Well, as we heard here earlier today, I don't think 

 that there has been any great implementation of the CVPIA to this 

 date yet that has helped the fish. It is all these other things that 

 I just mentioned 



Mr. DooLEY. Which were- 



Mr. Thomas [continuing], that contributed together, plus the 

 commercial salmon stamp program where our industry and the 

 commercial people participate in a commercial stamp program 

 where we self-tax ourself, and we produce some fish, and we get 

 10 million fish a year past all the delta hazards and into the bay. 

 And we have done this program for quite some time. 



My fleet has gone from 187 boats at a high down to around 70 

 boats. The commercial fleet has gone from 8,000 permits down to 

 about 2,200. And we are still self-taxing ourselves. So all these pro- 

 grams combined have contributed I think to the success that we 

 have today. 



Mr. DoOLEY. That is great. And one other statement that you 

 made, and your statement was that there were millions of baby 

 salmon that were killed at the Federal pumps every year. Now, a 

 baby salmon is different than a smolt, or are those one and the 

 same? 



Mr. Thomas. The smolts are baby salmon. 



Mr. DooLEY. So where do you 



