Saboteurs Cut Nets and Release 40,000 Fish In California
Anonymous saboteurs use wire cutters to release thousands of fish from nets
In what may be the largest liberation of animals in U.S. history, nets were cut at a holding pen in the San Francisco bay this week, releasing 40,000 fish into the wild.
There has not yet been a claim of responsibility by the Animal Liberation Front or other group.
The police describes how the fish were released:
“(one or more people) came along with essentially what are wire cutters to do this. It was purposeful. Someone knew what they were doing.”
An employee at the institute where the salmon were held says he speculates this may be the act of an animal rights group.
The pens were part of a program run by the Tiburon Salmon Institute, in partnership with a pro-fishing student group at nearby Casa Grande High School. According to Tiburon, the fish were being tended to by the students, who intended to release them into the wild themselves later in the month.
The website for the Tiburon Salmon Institute would seem to corroborate this story, where they take credit for “releasing over a million salmon into our San Francisco Bay” over the last 30 years.
Were the fish going to be released into the wild anyway? There could be a couple of things at work here. The claims that the fish were to be released anyway could be a public relations-oriented lie. Those who cut the nets may not have known the fish were slated to be released in the coming weeks. Or, they could have chosen to risk themselves anyway to give the fish a few extra weeks of freedom, sparing them the psychological suffering of being kept in intense confinement with approximately 40,000 others in a small net.
If this was the act of animal liberators, it would be the largest recorded animal liberation ever in the U.S. The largest previous liberation was the Animal Liberation Front raid of the Drewelow and Sons fur farm in New Hampton, Iowa in 2000; where 14,000 mink were released.
The Tiburon Salmon Institute is now soliciting funds to purchase security cameras.
– Peter Young
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Iv’e been a volunteer with the Tyee Club, non-profit, for 30 + years and we have been raising and releasing salmon into the bay to promote the welfare of the species since they crashed in the late 1960’s. The group of malformed mutants who did this are complete idiots with a alpa moron in charge. Those poor kids at Casa Grande High school worked all year to raise and release their fish. Why hurt them? Say good-bye to your credibility dipshit. Post this in your dirt bag rag.
David, how did the salmon `crash` in the first place? Because they were overfished by malformed mutants with alpa moron parents. Rock on ALF.
Perhaps these kids should focus on raising plants, vegetables and flowers. Stop using living beings as science projects. So let me get this straight. They were being “raised” to be “released” and then fished for food again? Wow…what a brilliant and compassionate way of life.
what joe said. ANIMAL LIBERATION NOW!
Overfishing was NOT the cause. Natural cycles in the ocean and low rain fall combined with high pumping. You might want to study the issue. And they are damn tasty too. I think I’ll have some tonight. Yum.
Joe, you are also a dipshit. The salmon populations in CA crashed not from over-fishing but by the water diversions from the Sacramento River Delta sending water south to support greedy corporate agriculture and to slake the thirst of way too many peopple living in So Cal.
Oh Joe….repeating more fabricated talking points. The salmon “crash” didn’t come from overfishing, but rather lack of habitat. You know…like where your house is built, where your water comes from, where your electricity comes from, where the water goes to feed you, where your sewage goes…..
The High school (and Tyee Club) has been releasing these fish for 30 years. These folks have done more for wildlife than you or ALF will ever accomplish. Any “reporter” worth their salt would actually pull up annual articles and school records to this effect. Maybe you could attend the Native American fish prayer at Tiburon for the celebratory release (oops…guess that won’t happen now eh?). The fish would’ve had a lot better chance at survival if done according to plan.
Just a thank you to the nice people whom released that quick meal for the predator fish that have been ahnging out around the pen (the kids were going to release the fish AWAY from the pens and predators)..the survival rate of those smolts dropped dramaticaly (sp) when they were released in the pen area…great way to give them their “freedom”..probably for all of an hour or two..and salmon were NOT overfished..any person who has studied the issue knows it’s the WATER..THE WATER THE WATER…thank your friends in LA for that..
“Releasing” the imature fish might seem like a good thing to the people who did the act…but in reality the chances of the small fish will have an much more difficult time surviving in the wild. The point of the pens is for rearing the fish and aclimating to the waters to increase the survival rate. A lot of good people have spent their money and time doing the right thing (attempting to rescue a down species) and your selfish misinformed act has set back the species we are attempting to save. If you want to make a real point why don’t you attack The Packard Fish Prison in Monterey….they have a lot of fish in lockdown there. Oh golly you might actually have to face people and not sneak around in the night doing harm to the specied you were attempting to “FREE”…im just saying.
Mike Starr
The crash occured you dumb FU$% becuase of all the water being pumped out of the delta in low water years to water lawns in SOCAL. Fishing had little to nothing to do with the crash…..look at the number of fish chewed up in the pumps…this is water going to socal to water lawns and water fields used to grow almonds to be shipped overseas……..who ever did this just killed the majority of these fish……they basically turned them into live bait in the bay. Nice protection! A few more weeks and they would have grown to a size where they had a good chance to grow into adults in the wild……
Joe, the “crash” of salmon that you refer to wasn’t from fishing, that is what malformed mutants with apa moron parents were lead to believe. The real answer to the “crash” is simply due to the beginning of dams being constructed on our rivers. Over 90% of the original spawning habitat that salmon once had is now gone forever due to rivers being plugged up……since that time, “hatcheries” is what has made salmon the population return in any real numbers. Raising salmon in pens has been happening for a very long time, and it has to continue if we want to continue to see salmon in California. The Tyee Club is a fantastic organization trying to assist with these efforts. People who are uneducated on subjects are generally the ones raising their voices the loudest….do some real research on the subject, not just read blabber from animal rights folks that is very highly slanted/tainted/etc….
Joe: If you knew anything about the history of the salmon in San Francisco Bay system you would have never made that statement. You
are for sure clueless!
Joe, the Salmon crashed because of habitat degradation, a direct result of sending all of our water south (instead of down the river where nature intended it to go) so that we could grow water intensive crops where there is no rain. They were not over fished. And like the mentally defective people that cut the pen nets, you clearly have absolutely no idea what’s going on.
Joe, In case you have not heard the salmon population crashed because large agricultural water users have been over-drafting the Sacramento river for many years to grow water intensive crops in a desert environment. This continued over-drafting has reduced, and in some instance reversed, the natural flows that transport salmon smolts to the sea. The reduced flows have also caused the water temperatures to increase and impact the young of the year smolts. The tremendous suction from the Delta pumps also consume a great many of the smolts on their way to the sea.
What the Tyee Club has done for many years, was provide safety for smolts and raise the smolts so their survival chances were increased a hundred fold.
For someone to cut the nets and release them in such a manner with total ignorance of the intended purpose is really a shame and really throws a bad light on people who really are responsible animal activists. I can only hope this kind of irresponsible and impulsive activity will not become the norm.
You tree hugging POS should feel ashamed you shattered innocent, giving students work and dedication for the past months to do something good for the environment and salmon populations. Releasing prematurely only translates to lower survival rates…brainless act
What morons! Releasing those fish before they were ready certainly decreased their liklihood of survival. Is that what this group stands for??? Increased mortality rates??? They contradict themselves at every turn.
Joe,
The salmon stocks crashed because the California Delta is being drained by the Central Valley farmers growing water hungry crops in the desert and a water hungry Southern California. Please, do a little science based research before making absurd comments like that.
“Were the fish going to be released into the wild anyway? There could be a couple of things at work here. The claims that the fish were to be released anyway could be a public relations-oriented lie.”
Why didn’t you do a little research before publishing something so absurd? These fish were raised from eggs, and put in protective pens to give them the best possible chance at survival upon release in to the wild. California’s wild salmon are almost extinct, the vast majority of the salmon we do have come from hatcheries and program like the Tyee club. If the people who cut the pens open really wanted to help these fish they would have let them be so they could be released at the proper time. Way to go wack jobs, you did the exact opposite of helping these fish.
Salmon crash when dams go up and block most spawners from going up river, and then later Ca sends too much water to the pumps where they are mangled.
Add to this a crazy bunch of politicians bought by huge rich agri. corps that sends sends too much water south to water wasting farms, where they grow cotton, rice, almonds, and other crops in the desert to the salmon’s demise.
Salmon fishing is meant to be sustainable, and is in many places.
Don’t lose faith Tyee club! You do good work
I also am a volunteer with the Tyee Club, and the FACT that the mortality rate on the salmon smolts is virtally ZERO as they are being raised in the pens, thus estabishing your claim Of the smolts “Suffering” to be completely without reason or merit. You are approaching the problem from the “tail” and not the “head”…the real culprit in the decline of California’s various fish populations is WATER DIVERSION. We at the Tyee Club are trying to make a concentrated & valiant effort to promote the quality and quanity of the California salmon population. By the act of sabotaging our joint efforts with the students of Casa Grande the people/s who are responsible for the early release are themselves NOT LIBERATORS of the salmon, but in fact are MUDERERS of the salmon. Their misplaced actions are akin to the massive pumps that kill MILLIONS of fish every year…..The criminals who commited this act should hang their collective heads in SHAME!!!!!…..Mark
Come on you censorists.
Salmon didn’t “crash” from fishing. The salmon “crashed” from lack of habitat. Their habitat has been grossly manipulated to accommodate people. That includes you Joe. Animals used to feed where your home is. Fish need the same water you drink, provides electricity, provides for growth of food, carries away your sewage, etc.
The author of this poor excuse for an article didn’t take 5 minutes to Google up 30 years of records for the Casa Grande High School and Tyee Club salmon rearing projects (which buy excess eggs from the hatcheries). If he had, it would’ve been beyond obvious that these salmon were being reared TO BE RELEASED into the wilds…in the next few weeks no less. I guess he’s never attended the Native American prayer ceremony dedicated to celebrating the release of these fish and their eventual return. I gather that ceremony can’t take place now either. Good going guys.
And please spare me the psychological damage of these fingerling salmon in netted structures. I’m sure it will be great for their self-esteem when they become sea lion, or striper, or even salmon food a few weeks earlier in their life cycle.
Joe, are you kidding me??!!?? The comments that you made are just an example of the total and complete misinformed information out there. The fish crashed because of the water conditions in the CA delta river system from things such as hot water temperatures do to low water releases from upstream dams, pumps in the delta that ship out tens of billions of gallons, to Southern CA for farming in the dessert and for drinking water, and dams not allowing salmon to get up river to their original spawning beds. The unusual ocean conditions over a few years also contributed to the crash. The pens were in place to assist in the health recovery of the species!!!!!! Hatcheries are in place to assist with the reproduction of the salmon due to lost upstream habitat. But, even with hatcheries and the pen program with Casa Grande, Salmon are still turned away at the hatcheris and die without getting a chance to spawn. The attack on these nets did nothing but put those salmon in further risk of being preyed upon or killed in currents and water that they are not yet acclimated to.
In response to Joe: While overfishing has played a role in the crash of some salmon populations, the crash in San Francisco Bay salmon populations was primarily due to changes in land use, including urbanization, changes in farming practices, and the remnants of the gold mining days. I do not really understand how interference with a salmon restoration and reintroduction program is an intelligent response to overfishing anyway. While I know damaging a grass roots effort to improve out region’s ecological health is making some ALF trust funder feel really proud right now, I am astounded by the degree of ignorance displayed in this action. I would assume that someone willing to undertake such an action would have read a bit beforehand and would understand that releasing salmon before they have reached a larger size will decrease their survival and that salmon fry, far from being psychologically damaged by being in a group, tend to congregate in large groups to reduce predation, but apparently I assume too much. If you can’t find anything constructive to do with your time, please don’t interfere with those of us who are trying to build a better world.
Exaclty why the “animal rights” crowd has so little cred. No knowledge of the project, no knowledge of how Corp Ag is responsible for causing the salmon crash and how much environmental damage growing water thirsty crops in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys has done to Native Species, like salmon, steelhead, crab, sturgeon as well as species no one harvests like Delta Smelt. Get some background before you go vandalizing something you do not understyand even the first think about. If you want to liberate penned salmon you have to go BC, Chile or Norway where they farm raise salmon to adult size for the markets, not what is done in California. Get it right at least.
Joe,
Seems to look like you are talking out of your ass.
Instead of helping animals your kind hurt many more…not just the fish that weren’t released at the right time but young, immature animals…the kids of Casa Grande. But in the end, they might have learned a mighty lesson. There are people that help animals, like them, and the phonies like yourself that try to follow an idealism without the education. Maybe, in the end, you did a good thing. Never again will these kids give a rats ass about the \animal liberation\ movement.
Let me remind everyone that no animal rights group has claimed responsibility for this act. So all this finger pointing at the ALF and the animal rights movement is all really based upon conjecture and loaded assumptions. It seems to me (from my limited knowledge the institution) that the Tiburon Salmon Institute would be a weird target for the ALF to go after, and based on past ALF targets, I have serious doubts that this was the work of animal liberationists.
But then again most the hot headed speciesists posting on this thread probably don’t care about that…
Red,
It is a very odd target for an animal rights group. I believe this is the point that many of us are attempting to make…however, the original article and many of the people who have posted on this thread seem to indicate that there is substantial support for such an action. Also, I am very familiar with the salmon pens in question and the manner in which they would have been approached would have been very deliberate and planned. It is extremely unlikely that this would have been the action of a random mischief maker. There was no spraypaint or smashed stuff that one would expect from a random vandal. The facility is somewhat remote and housed on a small university environmental research station that is not generally open to the public at large. The burglar’s access was most likely by boat or by sneaking in at night and beaming in on a remote part of the facility. Someone had the very specific goal of sabotaging this project. The only people one can realistically imagine being motivated to do this are animal rights activists. There is a long history of violence, bullying and threats by animal rights activists directed toward both environmentalists and academic researchers, so I think it is highly likely that this was the work of animal rights activists….
I agree that it would be an odd target….but it is an odd target for anyone. But given the verbage of the editorial at the top of this page one would get the feeling that even if the ALF or similar groups are not behinds it that the author wishes that they were. It might be an assumption on my part.
As for hot headed…yeah…I think most would be rightfully pissed. So few things are out there for kids to be involved in that give them a sense of accomplishment…and this is one and some buttholes ruined it for them. How many years do you get to be a kid? They worked hard all year to have a release day at the end of the month…now gone.
Hey, I understand the use of the extreme groups and their tactics….it makes the more moderate groups, who used to be the extreme, seem mainstream and accepted. It is an age-old tactic. I too am for good treatment of animals…but I will tell you that I absolutely love veal. And a nice saute, with olive oil and some mushrooms, is pretty damn good treatment.
Joe go eat some shrooms for christ sake
“There is a long history of violence, bullying and threats by animal rights activists directed toward both environmentalists and academic researchers, so I think it is highly likely that this was the work of animal rights activists….”
Putting all the hysterical rhetoric you used aside. It is true that the ALF has vandalized the homes and personal property of researchers in the past, but only researchers who were directly involved in painful experiments or deaths of animals. This particular project would not fall under either of those categories, and would not be in-line historically with an ALF target. It’s fine If you want to criticize the ALF, but base your criticisms on things they have actually claimed to have done. All the comments on this site attacking the ALF are relying on vague assumptions and hearsay, not on facts.
“I too am for good treatment of animals…but I will tell you that I absolutely love veal. And a nice saute, with olive oil and some mushrooms, is pretty damn good treatment.”
Your fine with calves being ripped from their mothers at birth only to spend the rest of their short lives in individual crates that are no more than 30 inches wide and 72 inches long. After enduring these conditions for anywhere from 3 to 6 months they are loaded onto trucks to be brutally slaughtered. Your justification for this overt brutality and barbarism is that they taste good. And you want to come onto this site and moralize to us about extremism? Do you not realize how morally and intellectually bankrupt that is?
I can`t se the point of keeping any creature in a cage,or in a pen. They are either kept there for food or amusement or to be tested on. Salmon do not belong in a pen. They are open sea creatures and that is where they should be. As for all the rubbish about the water being directed somewhere else, the salmon were not responsible for that, unless some prawn out there thinks that they were. All you corpse eaters should get a life and think about what happens to animals in slaughterhouses. Watch a video of what happens and then see if you would eat meat. Your meat doesn`t just volunteer to be clubbed over the head a couple of times and then jump into the oven. I am proud to be part of the animal rights movement. No amount of criticisim or name calling from eaters of dead bodies will make me change my mind, not one bit. Please notice i haven`t singled anyone out for a bollocking, but some of you have had a go at me. It shows that i hit the point, bang on the nose, and the meat eaters didn`t like it. ALF save animal lives. Full stop.
The primary reason, in addition to the aforementioned circumstances that make random vandalism unlikely, for believing that this was an ALF action is the ALF having posted an article cheering and encouraging it and several ALF associates having subsequently chimed their support in. The ALF and sister group ELF often mistarget people or make very odd choices of target. To take two of the more prominent examples, there was the attempted murder of an elderly LA man by the ALF using explosives; the would-be killers thought they were targeting a medical researcher but turned out to have the wrong address, the accidental target was saved only by ALF’s incompetence at building explosives. The ELF set fire to the University of Washington’s Center for Urban Horticulture, causing 7 million dollars damage and only by sheer luck not killing anyone. This was apparently done because they had conjectured that this was a genetic engineering facility and only after the attack realized that they had forgotten to look into what research was actually being done there (none of which involved genetic engineering).
While I realize that you are highly decentralized and have a variety of opinions, when you place yourself under an umbrella organization, you will be associated with everyone who falls under that umbrella unless you publicly condemn their actions. I have not heard anyone affiliated with the ALF publicly condemn this action, so must assume that the general sentiment is that ALF believes this was the work of one of their own and supports it.
If you can find a better way to make them so tender I’d like to know. Man, it is making me hungry. Thing I’ll make saltimbocca tonight.
You are all fucking idiots. My mind is actually boggled at the fucking stupidity you exhibit. This was a project to try and help bring back dwindling salmon stocks to the bay, these were juvinile fish set to be released in a few weeks, not farmed or tested on. RELEASED. Maybe you should take a look at what the hell your are vanadlizing for your “cause” because all this shows to me is a bunch of fucking hippy dumbfucks who deserve to be blown off the face of this planet if because they have no idea what the fuck they are doing in life.
I would like to bring attention to the fact that the high school students whose project was sabotaged are showing a degree of maturity far beyond that of most ALF sympathizers and have publicly requested that Peter Young come meet with them to have a rational discussion of the issues involved. Should Peter Young be unavailable, I am sure they would be happy with another member of the ALF if any of them are brave enough to meet with a group of high school students to discuss ethics.
Let’s also not forget that the few extra weeks of being together in the pen would aid the fish in shoaling upon release — millions-of-years-in-the-making herd protection that allows more of the individuals to survive attacks from predators, better allows them to forage for food, and further aids in mating and reproduction. Releasing them early did nothing to extend their freedom for a few more weeks. It dramatically lowered their chance at extended survival.
David,,,
You have a grammatical error in your sentence, it should be an alpha moron, not a alpha moron. You always use “an” when it precedes another word beginning with an A.
All these comments about the salmon being released too early. At least they are going to be in their normal environment until they are plucked from their natural home by the salmon killers. They were going to be released anyway just so they could be fished. It`s all bollocks about restocking, it`s all about money.
I don`t think i will bother replying again. It is difficult to get through to animal rights haters. All they see is their beautiful make believe world where nothing cruel is ever done against animals. They are very happy to have money in the bank, food and beer in their bellies, and a contented prick. They just close their eyes and ears and pretend that nothing is happening. Wake up people, there is a very cruel wicked world out there.
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/5939/
Derrick Jensen:
“so last year I brought some egg masses inside to see if I could help. I might have lost one or two, but nearly a hundred tadpoles survived, and I fed them on lettuce and fish food till they were big enough to be released back into the pond. My efforts this spring were curtailed by ankle surgery, but as soon as I could walk without a cast or cane, in I went. I collected probably eighty tree frog eggs and ten red-legged frog eggs. I’ll collect more red-legged frog eggs tomorrow.
Next year my plan is to go in once a week from December through May and collect eighty eggs per species per week, then raise them with the same near-100-percent success rate. Let’s call it twenty weeks: that would be sixteen hundred large tadpoles released into the pond. If they have even a 5 percent success rate from that point on, that would still be an increase of eighty frogs per year into this fairly small pond.
Now, normally I wouldn’t want to interfere, for at least two reasons. The first is that, in contradistinction to many people in this culture, and the culture itself, I trust natural wisdom and think nature generally knows best, so I’m loath to intervene in predator/prey relationships. The second is that, if I did leave the egg sacs alone, in time those frogs emerging with a greater resistance to saprolegnia would survive and those without would not, so that in the long run frogs and mold would find a new balance. But since mortality at present is nearly total, in the short run the frogs would be dead.”
The people who cut the pens open and released the salmon are uneducated, terrorists. The whole point of the Tyee Salmon program is to raise awareness to children about the sensitive habitat that salmon live in. Rather than save the salmon or save the planet, these idiots are teaching children that no matter how hard THEY work to help little salmon grow up and accilmate to the Bay, one of your idiots with a wire cutter can ruin the educational program for them in one anonymous moment. If you had a brain and really cared about the environment, you would HELP the Tyee Club in their programs – not ruin it for others – especially children. I hope you all feel good about what you did here. You’re nothing but weak and thoughtless eco-terrorists.
To David, Dave, Dunndeal, Steve, Mark, Mike, Mark A., Stan, BD, Sean, W, Frank, Jasper, Galen, Joe’s Bud, Tyee, Gary, Ed, Mike 2, Mysealium, Clayton, O, and Jack: Crashed populations and their origins are outside the issue. The issue is INDIVIDUALS not ending up on your lousy banquet plate. With all due respect to the kiddies at CTC, whose fish project probably included less than no encouragement toward veganism, this fish liberation incident was one of the MOST SIGNIFICANT acts since the beginning of the ethical revolution. After sad years of being ignored by animal protectionists, fish life is finally being championed and liberated. Liberation equates with being given the chance to leave the unholy bounds of human interest–not at their keepers’ convenience, but NOW. This fish liberation signifies the end for idiots being able asking vegans “But do you eat fish?” No, dpsht, fish don’t grow on trees and now, thanks to some terrific person or persons in San Francisco environs, they are not going to have to grow in our TANKS anymore, either.
If you don’t want to fish or eat fish, that is your choice. But to think that these idiots that did this is good…..it is illegal and immoral. It wasn’t theirs to release. Simple as that.
Now, I could talk until I was blue in the face and you’ll never come around – I know that. And the same here. However, if the people that did this get caught or their names come to light I would hope that they are ready to accept the consequences – be it legal or otherwise. I’m fine with you making your own choices on what you do for recreation or for food. And I believe that you are free to voice your rationale for those choices. But you don’t have the right to break in and ruin someone else’s legal work just because you don’t agree. If you cared about the fish you’d take this energy and help stop the big water exports and enhance river habitat.
I don’t know how you can morally pick an apple off the tree, or dig a potato out of the ground, essentially ripping it from it’s home. Or that poor broccoli crown. It has been proven that plants feel things and feel shock during harvest. And unlike fish, the apple tree can not hide or run from your cruelty. Shame on you. If you wish to hold your moral high ground you may need to changing to synthetic foods, or better yet, starve yourself. I prefer the last one for you. Only then can you truly prove your superiority over us mere cavemen.
And, yes, we do have money in the bank and beer in the belly because we were not English majors at a liberal arts college. We majored in productive degrees and then went out and did them, becoming productive members of the HUMAN community.
Releasing these salmon isn’t going to change anything-tons of fish are harvested throughout the world. This isn’t even a drop in the bucket. NOT EVEN A DROP. The only thing the ALF contributes to is getting law makers to pass legislation making it harder for animal welfarists to do expose cruelty to the public. Several States have proposed “farm bills” which a person can go to prison for 5 years for making a video on farm factory cruelty. The Animal Liberation front is very harmful and destructive to animal welfare, and makes things worse for them in the end.
Do you have the right to eat apples? I think yes. Do I have the right to eat fish? I think yes. But let’s ust say I do not have the right to eat fish – why not terrorize the people who catch over 90% of the fish in the ocean? Namely the Commercial fisherman. Yeah that’s it – go and sink or vandalize all the fishing boats out there. And I hope you get caught in your unlawful acts. Better yet, I hope you get caught by the boat owner. That will fix YOU once and for all. But no – you’re too afraid of that because you aren’t man enough to fight your battles fairly. You have to be sneaky about it. Terrorist that’s what you are.