There’ll Be Some Fishing For Salmon Off The Coast
Faced with a slight increase in ocean salmon over last year’s record lows, a federal panel Friday squeezed out some short seasons for commercial and recreational fishermen.
“Coming off a year when they had record closures, the council wanted to try to give as much economic relief to coastal communities and fishermen as they could,” said John Coon, salmon staff officer for the Pacific Fishery Management Council.
Responding to the prospect of more salmon runs going extinct, the council also voted to create a special technical group to get a better idea of the minimum number of fish needed to spawn in their native streams to assure a new generation.
Last year, the council banned nearly all commercial and recreational fishing off Washington and northern Oregon, and severely reduced fishing off the rest of Oregon and California.
There was virtually no fishing at all last year for coho, also known as silver salmon, whose numbers crashed as a result of poor ocean conditions that disrupted the food chain, loss of freshwater habitat, and past overfishing.
Three runs of salmon from the Snake River in Oregon and Idaho have already been declared endangered species, and the National Marine Fisheries Service is considering protection for various runs of coho from coastal streams up and down the coast.
As salmon seasons have tightened over the years, coastal communities have been hurt. The loss of fishing jobs came on top of jobs lost to logging cutbacks, and the new seasons won’t do much to restore those jobs.
This year, the council will allow limited sport fishing for coho off Washington and northern Oregon, but no coho fishing along the rest of the coast. Chinook (king salmon) can be taken during short seasons off central and southern Oregon, as well as California.
The council rejected a request from the Environmental Defense Fund and the Audubon Society to continue the coastwide ban on coho fishing.
“It’s nowhere near what you would call a traditional season,” said Mark Cedergreen, owner of Westport Charters. “But after having no season, even without chinook, I think people are going to want to go fishing. And it’s at a time of year when the coho are starting to get to decent size.”
“Even though things will probably get better, a lot of people will probably be out of business,” said Eileen Wirkkala, president of the Columbia River Sport Fishing Association and owner of the Ilwaco Charter Service.
Tony Floor of the Washington Fish and Wildlife Department said they were relieved more cutbacks weren’t needed to protect chinook.
“From all the doom and gloom we were looking at a couple of months ago, and the possibility of a repeat of 1994, these seasons look pretty good,” he said.
Traditionally, ocean salmon seasons have run from May through October, but as numbers have dropped in recent years, the council has had to get more intricate, trying to allow fishermen to catch fish from abundant stocks while protecting stocks that were in trouble.
Salmon hatch from eggs laid in freshwater and migrate to the ocean, where they grow to full size in three to five years before returning to their native streams to spawn. Many rivers have lost their wild salmon runs, and managers are trying to stop any more runs from dying out.
xxxx CHANGING SEASONS Recreational fishing seasons set Friday by the Pacific Fishery Management Council: Canadian border to Cape Alava, Wash. - Sport fishermen start Aug. 1 and go seven days a week until Sept. 28 or 5,850 coho are caught. Limit two fish per day. Closed within 3 miles of shore south of Skagway Rock. Cape Alava to Queets River, Wash. - Sport fishermen start Aug. 1 and can fish Sundays through Thursdays with a two-fish limit until Sept. 28 or 1,460 coho are caught. Closed within state waters 3 miles from shore. Queets River to Leadbetter Point, Wash. - Sport anglers start July 24 and fish Sunday through Thursday with a two-fish limit until Sept. 28 or 20,800 coho are caught. Four fish only in seven consecutive days. Closed within 3 miles of shore. Leadbetter Point to Cape Falcon, Ore. - From May 1 through June 30, sport fishermen can take two chinook a day, with no more than six fish in seven days. A season may resume in the fall in state waters. - Associated Press