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  • Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136

Gov. Chris Gregoire�s statement on economic assistance for impacted fishing communities

For Immediate Release: April 22, 2008

Govs. Gregoire, Kulongoski and Schwarzenegger issue joint letter to U.S. House Speaker Pelosi

OLYMPIA � Gov. Chris Gregoire today issued the following statement on the West coast governors� request on economic assistance for impacted fishing communities:

�On Monday, I joined my colleagues from the states of California and Oregon in issuing a letter to Speaker Pelosi on economic assistance for distressed fishing communities. Nearly two weeks ago, the Pacific Fisheries Management Council made an historic recommendation to close Chinook salmon fishing in the Sacramento River in California, and significantly reduced fishing of Chinook and Coho salmon in Oregon and Washington state. The economic impacts to our states will total nearly $300 million and result in the loss of over 4,000 jobs.

�Economic assistance to commercial and recreation fishermen and women and the affected communities will be essential to deal with these closures and restrictions to our salmon fisheries. In mid-March, we sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Gutierrez imploring him to declare a federal fishery resource disaster. Now we are turning to Speaker Pelosi to ask for her assistance in this critical time. We cannot sustain the affected families, businesses or communities without federal support.

�Today, as we celebrate the 38th anniversary of Earth Day, I ask my fellow Washingtonians that we take a minute to think of our beautiful surroundings. I ask they also recognize the need to recover, restore and manage our fisheries to ensure their long-term health and sustainability.�

A copy of the letter is available at http://www.governor.wa.gov/news/2008-04-22_pelosi.pdf.