Chefs, restaurateurs speak out for protecting wild salmon

Nearly 200 chefs and restaurant owners from across the nation urged Congress on Tuesday to protect wild salmon in the Northwest.

WASHINGTON -- Nearly 200 chefs and restaurant owners from across the nation urged Congress on Tuesday to protect wild salmon in the Northwest.

The chefs were in Washington -- along with fishermen, fish buyers and conservationists -- to support a bill aimed at restoring salmon fisheries in the Columbia, Snake and Klamath rivers.

"Wild salmon is one of the unique, authentic heritage foods of the Pacific Northwest," the chefs wrote to members of Congress. "It represents perhaps our country's last great wild meal. We call upon your leadership to ensure the future of healthy, abundant, self-sustaining . . . populations of wild salmon" in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho and Alaska.

"Eating wild salmon can connect you in a beautiful way to the sea," said Alice Waters, chef at Berkeley's famed Chez Panisse restaurant in the Bay Area. "But only a long-term commitment to protecting and restoring salmon habitat will ensure that Pacific wild salmon remains a natural resource."

The letter comes as Congress seeks approval of an emergency spending bill that would provide $60 million in disaster assistance to West Coast fishermen hurt by last year's closure of salmon fishing along 700 miles of the Pacific coast.