• Water

California Wins Battle With Trump Administration About Water and Endangered Species

• California water
• conservation
• endangered species
• environment
• Salmon
• water

A federal court on Monday put on hold President Trump’s February order that overturned agency scientists and revised federal water supply plans in California, frustrating a political promise he made to farmers in central California to lift water restrictions for the benefit of agriculture there. 

Why This Matters:  This decision is just a temporary hold on the Trump administration’s water grab.  But the time is key for both the species at risk of extinction and for the farmers who will lose out on additional water that they would get to take out of the system for agriculture now, while there is spring runoff happening — water they can’t get back later because it is already flushed through the system.

• Water

Trump Gives California Farmers More Water — Costing Salmon and Salmon Fishermen Theirs

• California water
• Central Valley
• Delta smelt
• endangered species
• Salmon
• Westlands Water District

In a blatantly political move, last Wednesday President Trump in California signed an executive order diverting water from rivers where it keeps alive endangered salmon and other fish populations, in order to give it to farmers, a move which he announced in a visit to the Central Valley thereby keeping a campaign promise from 2016.  […]

• Water

Trump Administration Loosens Protections For Endangered Fish in California

• endangered species
• Salmon
• smelt

The Departments of Interior and Commerce issued this week a new biological opinion under the Endangered Species Act that governs the division of water among, farmers, cities, and farmers in California, and the new opinion fundamentally changed the prior allocations in favor of more water for agriculture. 

Why This Matters: It appears that political leadership at both agencies pushed aside the agency scientists who were set to release a biological opinion that would continue the prior water allocation balance in order to protect the fish, and replaced them last summer with a hand-picked new group of lawyers, administrators, and biologists to “refine” and “improve” the rules, according to local NPR station KQED.  Career scientists in both agencies had been quite adamant about the water needs of the fish in my (Monica’s) past experience on these issues. 

• Water

Fish Kills in Alaska and Indiana Make Headlines

• Alaska
• climate change
• cyanide
• fish
• global warming
• Salmon

As the summer fishing season comes to a close, two recent stories of fish kills made headlines in Alaska and Michigan.  CNN reports that In Alaska, the historic heatwave there is, according to scientists, resulting in the death of at least a thousand salmon because they had to swim through water that was too warm — the die-offs include several varieties of Alaskan salmon, including sockeye, chum and pink salmon — and are an added threat to populations of these commercially valuable fish. 

• Food

Lox From A Lab on the Horizon

• fish
• food security
• lab
• meat
• overfishing
• Salmon
• sustainable

A company called Wild Type is working to create “better meat to address the most pressing challenges of our generation: climate change, food security, and health.” Overfishing is one of the most pressing risks of our generation – dwindling fishing stocks threaten the oceans ecosystems as well as our own way of life – but Wild Type is working towards finding a solution by developing sustainable alternatives.

• Land

Trump Administration Breathes New Life Into Alaska’s Pebble Mine

• Alaska
• Bristol Bay
• mining
• Pebble Mine
• Salmon

The Trump Administration in 2017 had decided to continue the Obama Administration’s decision to block the highly controversial Pebble Mine in Alaska, but yesterday they reversed themselves and are now restarting a process that could result in the EPA lifting the Clean Water Act restrictions and letting the proposed gold, copper and molybdenum mine move forward. 

• Food

Frankenfish or AquaBounty? GE Salmon To Be Raised in Indiana

• FDA
• Frankenfish
• GMO
• Salmon

For the first time, the Food and Drug Administration has determined that genetically engineered (GE) AquaAdvantage salmon are safe to eat — that their genetic modifications are safe for the fish and thus for humans too.  The FDA also found that the claims about the rapid growth of the fish are also true and also will not cause harm to humans.