Salmon Outlook Still Grim

Salmon fishermen aren’t looking forward to much improvement in this year’s West Coast ocean seasons.

“Based on what we now know, the season this year is not going to be any better than last year, which means essentially zero,” said Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations in Eugene.

Biologists are gathered in Portland this week to sort out how many salmon will be available.While pre liminary estimates indicate that coho salmon will be twice as abundant as last year’s record low, there won’t be many more than the bare minimum needed to spawn another generation, said Jim Martin, chief of fisheries for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. He’s also a member of the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which sets ocean salmon seasons.Last year, the council barred any ocean fishing for coho anywhere on the West Coast. Limited fishing for chinook was allowed, mostly off California.

Biologists blamed a variety of factors, including ocean conditions that disrupted the food chain, loss of freshwater habitat, logging, agriculture, dams and urban development.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is on the verge of proposing some runs of coho for protection under the Endangered Species Act, particularly those in Northern California and coastal streams in Oregon.

Runs of chinook from the Snake River in Idaho already have been declared endangered species, as has the winter run of chinook from the Sacramento River in California.

The government is wrangling over how to change the way hydroelectric dams are operated on the Columbia and Snake rivers. The dams are blamed for killing as many as 90 percent of the young salmon migrating to the sea each year.

Fishermen and environmentalists aren’t convinced the government is making a sincere effort.

“We’re still spending a lot of money creating in-theory paper salmon, if you will,” said Bob Dopelt, executive director of the Pacific Rivers Council. “On top of that, we’re starting to see a big reaction from those in Congress and on the local level saying restoring salmon is not worth the changes we as a society or any particular landowner are going to have to make.