If state’s real goal is to save salmon, they’ll allow us to catch more bass

I am a resident of Modesto and a farmer. The state-mandated increased river flow and reduction in water availability in my area is personal.

The State Water Resource Control Board claims to need significant river flow increases with the goal of helping the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and declining salmon populations.

With such concern for the salmon, it would seem prudent to start with the easiest, most effective and most obvious solution: Remove all limits on striped-bass fishing. Our goal should be to eradicate this invasive non-native species from the Delta.

Striped bass are an introduced species, only arriving in California in 1879; they are known to be voracious predators of juvenile salmon and Delta smelt. The current daily limit on striped bass is two fish of 18 inches or more in length. This protectionist policy toward a known salmon predator is in opposition to the goal of protecting juvenile salmon.

If the State Water Board is serious about protecting salmon, I challenge board member to immediately arrange a permanent open season on striped bass, perhaps even a bounty for each reproductive-age striped bass caught.

By reducing the population of the predatory, non-native striped bass we should see an immediate, significant and prolonged increase in Delta salmon populations.

If however, the State Water Board’s actual goal is to steal water from Northern and Central California to keep voters in Southern California happy, improving survival chances of salmon will make no difference.