SECTIONS 16500 - California Statutes

FISH AND GAME CODE

SECTION 16500

16500. The Legislature finds:
(a) Jurisdiction over the protection and development of natural
resources, especially the fish resource, is of great importance to
both the State of California and California Indian tribes.
(b) To California Indian tribes, control over their minerals,
lands, water, wildlife, and other resources within Indian country is
crucial to their economic self-sufficiency and the preservation of
their heritage. On the other hand, the State of California is
concerned about protecting and developing its resources; protecting,
restoring, and developing its commercial and recreational salmon
fisheries; ensuring public access to its waterways; and protecting
the environment within its borders.
(c) More than any other issue confronting the State of California
and California Indian tribes, the regulation of natural resources,
especially fish, transcends political boundaries.
(d) In many cases, the State of California and California Indian
tribes have differed in their respective views of the nature and
extent of state versus tribal jurisdiction in areas where Indians
have historically fished. Despite these frequent and often bitter
disputes, both the state and the tribes seek, as their mutual goal,
the protection and preservation of the fish resource. This division
is an attempt to provide a legal mechanism, other than protracted and
expensive litigation over unresolved legal issues, for achieving
that mutual goal on the Klamath River.
(e) That the Department of Fish and Game has exercised
jurisdiction over the Klamath River from the mouth of the river
through the Yurok Reservation and the Hoopa Valley Reservation, but
that the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian tribes thereon have
also asserted jurisdiction over that river. The river itself lies
within a disputed area and proper management of the resource
presents, therefore, unique and difficult problems in the exercise of
fishing practices by all users groups.
(f) Although commercial fishing may not be a traditional practice
of the tribes existing along the Klamath River within the boundaries
of the land of the Yurok Reservation and the Hoopa Valley
Reservation, nevertheless, the Department of Fish and Game has
historically supported the concept of tribal fishing, including a
tribal commercial fishing industry where the industry is consistent
with the need to preserve the species, sound management, and where
such usage would not adversely effect other user groups, including
sportfishing and the ocean commercial fishery.
(g) That a commercial fishery existed on the Klamath River in the
late 19th century and early 20th century, in which the Indian tribes
existing along the river participated, but that the commercial
fishing was abolished in 1933 with the passage of the predecessor to
Section 8434, and, further, that salmon resources have declined
historically due to past water developmental policies and timber
harvesting practices. With a reduced number of fish available,
special laws are needed to protect those resources and allocate them
fairly among the various user groups.
(h) This division is not only enacted to provide the legal
mechanism described above, but is also intended to encourage
cooperative agreements to allow protection of the resource among all
of the user groups. In so doing, the Legislature recognizes the
unique status of the Klamath River and the fishing therein.