Enrolled HR 8: Recognizing 2019 as the International Year of the Salmon and supporting an associated global initiative identifying the importance of wild salmon.
00Enrolled HR 8 01 Recognizing 2019 as the International Year of the Salmon and supporting an associated global 02 initiative identifying the importance of wild salmon. 03 _______________ 04 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: 05 WHEREAS the International Year of the Salmon is a global initiative to spread 06 information and stimulate outreach and research to establish the conditions necessary to 07 promote the resilience of wild salmon and people throughout the northern hemisphere; and 08 WHEREAS the International Year of the Salmon promotes understanding of wild 09 salmon, including the present status of wild salmon and wild salmon environments; and 10 WHEREAS the International Year of the Salmon promotes understanding of the ways 11 in which natural environmental variability, climate change, and human factors affect the 12 distribution and abundance of wild salmon; and 13 WHEREAS the International Year of the Salmon promotes using new methods, 14 including new technologies, ideas, and approaches in wild salmon research and performing 15 research in poorly studied regions of the "salmosphere"; and 16 WHEREAS the International Year of the Salmon promotes sharing knowledge and 17 collaborating in the development of new tools for and approaches to restoring, managing, and
01 sustaining wild salmon by communities, indigenous peoples, youth, harvesters, scientists, 02 resource managers, and policy makers across the northern hemisphere; and 03 WHEREAS the International Year of the Salmon promotes making available 04 historical and current data about wild salmon and wild salmon environments; and 05 WHEREAS wild salmon have historically been an important part of the diets, 06 economies, and cultures of people on both the east and west coasts of North America; and 07 WHEREAS Alaska Natives have relied on wild salmon for thousands of years, and 08 wild salmon continues to constitute up to 70 percent of the subsistence harvest in many 09 Alaska Native communities; and 10 WHEREAS the sustainable wild Alaska salmon commercial fishery contributes over 11 38,000 jobs and nearly $2,000,000,000 in annual labor income to the United States economy; 12 and 13 WHEREAS the state's commercial wild salmon harvest constitutes approximately 50 14 percent of wild salmon caught worldwide; and 15 WHEREAS the wild salmon commercial and sport fishing industries in Southeast 16 Alaska, Washington, and Oregon create over $3,400,000,000 in revenue and over 26,000 jobs 17 each year in the United States; and 18 WHEREAS, in British Columbia, Canada, the wild salmon commercial and sport 19 fishing industries generate over $1,400,000,000 in revenue and 12,400 jobs each year; and 20 WHEREAS, in 2013 and 2014, commercial and recreational salmon fisheries in 21 California had an average annual economic effect of $276,000,000; and 22 WHEREAS, in 2017, nine of the 22 chinook stocks along the west coast of the United 23 States and Canada failed to meet escapement goals agreed to by the Pacific Salmon 24 Commission; and 25 WHEREAS resource managers have identified watersheds across the state in which 26 the salmon stocks are "stocks of concern," and these managers recognize the need for more 27 research to better understand the measures necessary to improve the health of the salmon 28 runs; and 29 WHEREAS the federal government has spent over $10,000,000,000 for wild salmon 30 recovery in the Pacific Northwest since the 1970s; and 31 WHEREAS 28 populations of salmon and steelhead on the west coast of the United
01 States are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act; and 02 WHEREAS the health of the wild Atlantic salmon is an indicator of the general 03 environmental health of its surroundings; and 04 WHEREAS, in the 1970s and 1980s, as many as 900,000 Atlantic salmon returned 05 annually to the streams and rivers along the east coast of North America; in 2017, it was 06 estimated that only 496,000 Atlantic salmon spawned, and nearly all of those returned to 07 Canadian watersheds; and 08 WHEREAS, in the United States, where wild Atlantic salmon are listed under the 09 Endangered Species Act, only 1,041 Atlantic salmon returned to rivers in the United States in 10 2017; and 11 WHEREAS the federal government has spent tens of millions of dollars for wild 12 salmon recovery along the east coast of the United States, and the amount of funds that would 13 be additionally required for Atlantic salmon to recover is unknown; and 14 WHEREAS the International Year of the Salmon establishes a period to celebrate and 15 educate about the contributions of wild salmon to the health and economy of the state, the 16 United States, Canada, and other nations across the world and to find ways to rebuild salmon 17 stocks that are failing to meet escapement goals; 18 BE IT RESOLVED that the House of Representatives recognizes 2019 as the 19 International Year of the Salmon and supports the research efforts that will extend through 20 as part of the global initiative; and be it 21 FURTHER RESOLVED that the House of Representatives encourages individuals 22 and local, state, tribal, national, and international governments, corporations, and other 23 relevant organizations to work together to uphold regulatory processes that apply best 24 practices to the management of wild salmon fisheries, to support and invest in scientific 25 research to better understand the wild salmon populations of the northern hemisphere, and to 26 better manage wild salmon populations and the industries wild salmon support; and be it 27 FURTHER RESOLVED that the House of Representatives celebrates the sustainable 28 wild salmon industry and the health and social benefits the industry provides to the United 29 States and the international community. 30 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Michael J. Dunleavy, 31 Governor of Alaska; the Honorable Jay Inslee, Governor of Washington; the Honorable Kate
01 Brown, Governor of Oregon; and the Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable Dan 02 Sullivan, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the 03 Alaska delegation in Congress.