NORTH COAST, Calif. – State Sen. Mike McGuire, chairman of the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture, will convene the 45th annual Zeke Grader Fisheries Forum Thursday, March 8, at the State Capitol in Sacramento.

This year’s forum takes on special importance with President Trump’s looming proposal to open up nearly the entire California coastline to new offshore oil and gas drilling.

For the first time in history at the forum, there will be a panel dedicated to this pending threat and a conversation about how California’s $7 billion commercial fishing industry will be organizing to oppose the Department of Interior’s dangerous new proposal.

UC Davis fisheries biologists will also be on hand – under the California Salmon Fisheries Panel – presenting recent findings from their study that concluded under present population trends, 45 percent of California’s native salmon are likely to be extinct in the next 50 years due to changed climate conditions and warmer water temperatures.

John Laird, California’s Natural Resources secretary; Charlton Bonham, director of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife; and Anthony Williams, vice president of the state Fish and Game Commission will kick off this year’s list of speakers and presenters.

The forum will include presentations and discussion focusing on crab, salmon, sardine, sea urchins, aquaculture and the president’s proposed damaging plans to open up our coast to offshore oil drilling.

The agenda features presentations by state agency leaders, commercial and recreational fishing representatives, and aquaculture producers.

“We have to protect and preserve California’s fisheries and we’re deeply concerned about what the future holds based on threats from the Trump administration’s dangerous plan to reopen the California coast to offshore oil drilling,” McGuire said. “This Thursday’s forum will be focused on the current state of the Fleet, presenting the UC Davis Study on climate change and the decline of California’s salmon population along with a status update from the aquaculture industry.”

Thousands of hard working men and women who are the backbone of California’s fishing and aquaculture industry have been suffering from disastrous seasons for crab, salmon, urchins and sardines, which are the result of poor ocean conditions the last few years.

The hearing begins at 1 p.m. this Thursday and will be held in Room 2040 of the Capitol. The public is welcome to attend the hearing. There is no cost to entry.

The hearing will be livestreamed via the Senate Web site: http://senate.ca.gov/.

For more information about the Fisheries Forum visit the Committee Web site at: http://fisheries.legislature.ca.gov/.