Klamath River Tribes Will Kick Off SalmonAid With Traditional Salmon Bake

Klamath River Tribes Will Kick Off SalmonAid With Traditional Salmon Bake

by Dan Bacher

As the kickoff to the 2009 SalmonAid Festival in Oakland June 20 and 21, the public is invited to a traditional salmon bake hosted by Klamath River Indian Tribes. This is the same type of salmon bake that was brought to the "Calling Back the Salmon Ceremony" on the Yuba River in 2007 and to Ocean Beach during the SalmonAid Festival in 2008, according to Jessie Raeder of the Source to Sea Collective.

The event will take place at Ocean Beach, San Francisco on Friday, June 19. The fire starts at 4:30 p.m.; fish will be ready to serve around 6:30 p.m. Look for the fire pit one block south of the intersection of Fulton Street and the Great Highway.

Participants will include fishermen, cooks, singers, and drummers from the Karuk, Yurok, and Hoopa Tribes. Tribal members are traveling from the Klamath River and invite Native community members from throughout the area, as well as the general public, to come down and share fish.

Although Klamath salmon runs are dwindling, tribal fishermen still harvest salmon for ceremonial and commercial use. By joining forces with commercial fishermen, recreational anglers, conservation groups and others concerned about native salmon stocks, Tribal members are building support for the removal of the lower four Klamath River dams.

"Members of Klamath Basin Tribes will be an integral part of the 2009 SalmonAid Festival, hosting a traditional salmon bake on the eve of the festival as well as demonstrating cultural activities throughout the SalmonAid weekend," said Raeder.

The SalmonAid Festival will continue Saturday and Sunday, June 20th and 21st at Oakland's Jack London Square. It runs noon - 7 pm both days, and features great bands, delicious sustainable sea food, kids activities, films and more!

"Sustainable seafood requires a renewable source of fish, yet for the second year in a row you won’t find local wild salmon on restaurant menus or in the supermarket," said Mike Hudson, executive director of the SalmonAid Foundation and the president of the Small Boat Commercial Fisherman's Association. "SalmonAid 2009 is a festival of food, music, and culture in which people from throughout the West Coast will gather to celebrate the iconic wild Pacific salmon and raise awareness and energy for solutions to this unprecedented salmon crisis."

The two-day event features an impressive line-up of musicians, delicious sustainable seafood, demonstrations from First Nation tribes, children’s activities, films, speakers, and more. Musical acts include Albino!, Zydeco Flames, Mitch Woods and Big Easy Boogie among many others. Fine sustainable seafood will be prepared by an array of the West Coast’s best chefs. Admission to all events is free!

The festival will also feature commercial salmon fishing boats and a 90 ft Coast Guard Cutter; demonstrations and displays of salmon culture from native tribes including a Yurok ceremonial brush dance; a traditional fishing canoe, tribal dress and salmon regalia; and a demonstration of the making of tribal fishing nets. The event will also include a tribal blessing ceremony and a giant inflated salmon on display.

The SalmonAid Festival takes place as California fish populations are in their greatest crisis ever. Sacramento River Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, green sturgeon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt and other species have declined to record low population levels, largely due to record water exports out of the California Delta and the mismanagement of Central Valley dam operations in recent years.

Commercial and recreational salmon fishing in ocean waters off California and Oregon was closed for the first time in 150 years in 2008, due to the collapse of the Sacramento River fall Chinook population. Fishing has been closed again this year off California and southern Oregon, with the exception of a 10 day recreational fishing season off the northern California coast in late August and early September.

In 2006, commercial salmon fishing off the California coast was severely restricted, due to low returns of Klamath River fall Chinook spurred by the adult salmon kill, where over 68,000 fish perished, in September 2002 and the juvenile salmon kills on the river every year after that.

Salmon runs of the Columbia River system and other Pacific Northwest rivers have also witnessed big declines in recent years, due to the impact of dams, logging and water diversions.

It is clear that the salmon and steelhead runs of the Sacramento-San Joaquin, Klamath-Trinity and Columbia River systems, along with coastal river coho and steelhead runs decimated by decades of logging and bad land use practices, must be restored! SalmonAid will feature speakers and booths from organizations and Indian Tribes that are working to restore our imperiled rivers and Bay-Delta Estuary.

Commercial and recreational fishermen, tribal leaders, conservation advocates, biologists, and chefs from the slow food movement will be on hand for interviews to talk about the unprecedented collapse of wild salmon runs and how it impacts the economy, ecosystem, and culture of California and the entire Pacific Northwest. Contact Jessie Raeder at 323-823-5377 to set up interviews with experts and the people most directly affected by the salmon crisis.

For more information, go to http://www.salmonaid.org or contact Captain Mike Hudson, executive Director, SalmonAid Foundation, 510-407-2000.