ByRepresentatives Lekanoff, Stokesbary, DeBolt, Irwin, Stonier, Chapman, Kilduff, Wylie, Pellicciotti, Orwall, Sullivan, Pettigrew, Peterson, Paul, Slatter, Blake, Shewmake, Tharinger, Doglio, Goodman, Cody, Ormsby, Pollet, Valdez, Callan, Ramos, Leavitt, Stanford, Sells, and Appleton

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, AND TO THE GOVERNOR OF WASHINGTON STATE, AND TO THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF ALASKA, AND TO THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF OREGON, AND TO THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, AND TO THE PREMIER OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, AND TO THE PACIFIC SALMON COMMISSION, AND TO THE TREATY TRIBES OF WASHINGTON, ALASKA, OREGON, AND CALIFORNIA AND TO THE BRITISH COLUMBIA FIRST NATIONS:

We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:

WHEREAS, The International Year of the Salmon is a global initiative to spread information and stimulate outreach and research to establish the conditions necessary to promote the resilience of wild salmon and people throughout the northern hemisphere; and

WHEREAS, The International Year of the Salmon promotes understanding of wild salmon, including the present status of wild salmon and wild salmon environments; and

WHEREAS, The International Year of the Salmon promotes an understanding of the ways in which natural environmental variability, climate change, and human factors affect the distribution and abundance of wild salmon; and

WHEREAS, The International Year of the Salmon promotes using new methods, including new technologies, ideas, and approaches in wild salmon research and performing research in poorly studied regions of the "salmosphere;" and

WHEREAS, The International Year of the Salmon promotes sharing knowledge and collaborating in the development of new tools for and approaches to restoring, managing, and sustaining wild salmon by communities, indigenous peoples, youth, harvesters, scientists, resource managers, and policymakers across the northern hemisphere; and

WHEREAS, The International Year of the Salmon promotes making available historical and current data about wild salmon and wild salmon environments; and

WHEREAS, Wild salmon have historically been an important part of the diets, economies, and cultures of people on both the east and west coasts of North America; and

WHEREAS, Washington's seafood industry contributes more than sixty thousand jobs to our state's thriving economy, and salmon are a substantial component of this economic prosperity, providing nearly one-third of these jobs and providing more than 500,000,000 dollars in annual personal income; and

WHEREAS, Native Americans in Washington, Alaska, Oregon, and California have relied on the salmon populations to nourish their communities since time immemorial, and we must ensure that salmon continue to be an available resource for generations to come; and

WHEREAS, Washington State honors the treaties of the Washington tribes and is a comanager of salmon and shares the responsibility to ensure the resource has a healthy habitat, and cool and clean water for survival; and

WHEREAS, The wild salmon commercial and sport fishing industries in Southeast Alaska, Washington, and Oregon create over 3,400,000 dollars in revenue and over 26,000 jobs each year in the United States; and

WHEREAS, In British Columbia, Canada, the wild salmon commercial and sport fishing industries generate over 1,400,000 dollars in revenue and 12,400 jobs each year; and

WHEREAS, In 2013 and 2014, commercial and recreational salmon fisheries in California had an average annual economic effect of 276,000,000 dollars; and

WHEREAS, In 2017, nine of the twenty-two chinook stocks along the west coast of the United States and Canada failed to meet escapement goals agreed to by the Pacific Salmon Commission; and

WHEREAS, The federal government has spent over ten billion dollars for wild salmon recovery in the Pacific Northwest since the 1970s; and

WHEREAS, Twenty-eight populations of salmon and steelhead on the west coast of the United States are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act; and

WHEREAS, In the 1970s and 1980s, as many as 900,000 Atlantic salmon returned annually to the streams and rivers along the east coast of North America, but in 2017, it was estimated that only 496,000 Atlantic salmon spawned, nearly all of which returned to Canadian watersheds; and

WHEREAS, In the United States, where wild Atlantic salmon are listed under the Endangered Species Act, only 1,041 Atlantic salmon returned to rivers in the United States in 2017; and

WHEREAS, The federal government has spent tens of millions of dollars for wild salmon recovery along the east coast of the United States, and the amount of funds that would be additionally required for Atlantic salmon to recover is unknown; and

WHEREAS, The International Year of the Salmon establishes a period to celebrate and educate about the contributions of wild salmon to the health and economy of the state, the United States, Canada, and other nations across the world and to find ways to rebuild salmon stocks that are failing to meet escapement goals; and

WHEREAS, The Senate and House of Representatives recognize 2019 as the International Year of the Salmon and support the research efforts that will extend through 2022 as part of the global initiative; and

WHEREAS, The Senate and House of Representatives encourage individuals and local, state, tribal, national, and international governments, corporations, and other relevant organizations to work together to uphold regulatory processes that apply best practices to the management of wild salmon fisheries, to support and invest in scientific research to better understand the wild salmon populations of the northern hemisphere, and to better manage wild salmon populations and the industries that wild salmon support; and

WHEREAS, The Senate and House of Representatives celebrate the sustainable wild salmon industry and the health and social benefits the industry provides to the United States;

NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists affirm their support for recognizing the International Year of the Salmon and continued investment in wild salmon recovery.

BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to Jay Inslee, The Governor of Washington State, Mike Dunleavy, the Governor of the State of Alaska, Kate Brown, the Governor of the State of Oregon, Gavin Newsom, the Governor of the State of California, John Horgan, the Premier of British Columbia, Canada, the Pacific Salmon Commission, the appropriate representatives of the Treaty Tribes of Washington, Alaska, Oregon, and California and British Columbia First Nations, the President of the United State Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.