H-0032.2
HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 4000
State of Washington 68th Legislature 2023 Regular Session
By Representatives Lekanoff, Robertson, Ramel, Pollet, Reed, and
Doglio
Read first time 01/18/23. Referred to Committee on Agriculture and
Natural Resources.
1 TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF
2 REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF
3 THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, AND TO THE GOVERNOR OF
4 WASHINGTON STATE, AND TO THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF ALASKA, AND TO
5 THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF OREGON, AND TO THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE
6 OF CALIFORNIA, AND TO THE PREMIER OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, AND TO
7 THE PACIFIC SALMON COMMISSION, AND TO THE TREATY TRIBES OF
8 WASHINGTON, ALASKA, OREGON, AND CALIFORNIA AND TO THE BRITISH
9 COLUMBIA FIRST NATIONS:
10 We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of
11 the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled,
12 respectfully represent and petition as follows:
13 WHEREAS, The International Year of the Salmon is a global
14 initiative to spread information and stimulate outreach and research
15 to establish the conditions necessary to promote the resilience of
16 wild salmon and people throughout the northern hemisphere; and
17 WHEREAS, The International Year of the Salmon promotes
18 understanding of wild salmon, including the present status of wild
19 salmon and wild salmon environments; and
20 WHEREAS, The International Year of the Salmon promotes an
21 understanding of the ways in which natural environmental variability,
22 climate change, and human factors affect the distribution and
23 abundance of wild salmon; and
p. 1 HJM 4000
 1 WHEREAS, The International Year of the Salmon promotes using new
2 methods, including new technologies, ideas, and approaches in wild
3 salmon research and performing research in poorly studied regions of
4 the "salmosphere"; and
5 WHEREAS, The International Year of the Salmon promotes sharing
6 knowledge and collaborating in the development of new tools for and
7 approaches to restoring, managing, and sustaining wild salmon by
8 communities, indigenous peoples, youth, harvesters, scientists,
9 resource managers, and policymakers across the northern hemisphere;
10 and
11 WHEREAS, The International Year of the Salmon promotes making
12 available historical and current data about wild salmon and wild
13 salmon environments; and
14 WHEREAS, Wild salmon have historically been an important part of
15 the diets, economies, and cultures of people on both the east and
16 west coasts of North America; and
17 WHEREAS, Washington's seafood industry contributes more than
18 60,000 jobs to our state's thriving economy, and salmon are a
19 substantial component of this economic prosperity, providing nearly
20 one-third of these jobs and providing more than $500,000,000 in
21 annual personal income; and
22 WHEREAS, Native Americans in Washington, Alaska, Oregon, and
23 California have relied on the salmon populations to nourish their
24 communities since time immemorial, and we must ensure that salmon
25 continue to be an available resource for generations to come; and
26 WHEREAS, Washington State honors the treaties of the Washington
27 tribes and is a comanager of salmon and shares the responsibility to
28 ensure the resource has a healthy habitat, and cool and clean water
29 for survival; and
30 WHEREAS, The wild salmon commercial and sport fishing industries
31 in Southeast Alaska, Washington, and Oregon create over $3,400,000 in
32 revenue and over 26,000 jobs each year in the United States; and
33 WHEREAS, In British Columbia, Canada, the wild salmon commercial
34 and sport fishing industries generate over $1,400,000 in revenue and
35 12,400 jobs each year; and
36 WHEREAS, In 2013 and 2014, commercial and recreational salmon
37 fisheries in California had an average annual economic effect of
38 $276,000,000; and
p. 2 HJM 4000
 1 WHEREAS, In 2017, nine of the 22 chinook stocks along the west
2 coast of the United States and Canada failed to meet escapement goals
3 agreed to by the Pacific Salmon Commission; and
4 WHEREAS, The federal government has spent over $10,000,000,000
5 for wild salmon recovery in the Pacific Northwest since the 1970s;
6 and
7 WHEREAS, Twenty-eight populations of salmon and steelhead on the
8 west coast of the United States are listed as threatened or
9 endangered under the Endangered Species Act; and
10 WHEREAS, The health of the wild Atlantic salmon is an indicator
11 of the general environmental health of its surroundings; and
12 WHEREAS, In the 1970s and 1980s, as many as 900,000 Atlantic
13 salmon returned annually to the streams and rivers along the east
14 coast of North America, but in 2017, it was estimated that only
15 496,000 Atlantic salmon spawned, nearly all of which returned to
16 Canadian watersheds; and
17 WHEREAS, In the United States, where wild Atlantic salmon are
18 listed under the Endangered Species Act, only 1,041 Atlantic salmon
19 returned to rivers in the United States in 2017; and
20 WHEREAS, The federal government has spent tens of millions of
21 dollars for wild salmon recovery along the east coast of the United
22 States, and the amount of funds that would be additionally required
23 for Atlantic salmon to recover is unknown; and
24 WHEREAS, The International Year of the Salmon establishes a
25 period to celebrate and educate about the contributions of wild
26 salmon to the health and economy of the state, the United States,
27 Canada, and other nations across the world and to find ways to
28 rebuild salmon stocks that are failing to meet escapement goals; and
29 WHEREAS, The Senate and House of Representatives recognize 2019
30 as the International Year of the Salmon and support the research
31 efforts that extended through 2022 as part of the global initiative;
32 and
33 WHEREAS, The Senate and House of Representatives encourage
34 individuals and local, state, tribal, national, and international
35 governments, corporations, and other relevant organizations to work
36 together to uphold regulatory processes that apply best practices to
37 the management of wild salmon fisheries, to support and invest in
38 scientific research to better understand the wild salmon populations
39 of the northern hemisphere, and to better manage wild salmon
40 populations and the industries that wild salmon support; and
p. 3 HJM 4000
 1 WHEREAS, The Senate and House of Representatives celebrate the
2 sustainable wild salmon industry and the health and social benefits
3 the industry provides to the United States;
4 NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists affirm their support for
5 recognizing 2019 as the International Year of the Salmon and
6 continued investment in wild salmon recovery.
7 BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately
8 transmitted to Jay Inslee, The Governor of Washington State, Mike
9 Dunleavy, the Governor of the State of Alaska, Tina Kotek, the
10 Governor of the State of Oregon, Gavin Newsom, the Governor of the
11 State of California, John Horgan, the Premier of British Columbia,
12 Canada, the Pacific Salmon Commission, the appropriate
13 representatives of the Treaty Tribes of Washington, Alaska, Oregon,
14 and California and British Columbia First Nations, the President of
15 the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of
16 Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of
17 Washington.
--- END ---
p. 4 HJM 4000