Salmon Runs Poor This Year, Officials Say

Don’t expect to go fishing for salmon much this year.

That’s the message from state Department of Fish and Wildlife managers, who forecast most salmon runs returning to state waters this year will be in poor shape and provide only limited fisheries.

They blamed warming ocean conditions caused by El Nino and continuing degradation of rivers and streams on which salmon depend to start and end their lives.

“We’ve been reducing salmon harvest for years but it hasn’t been enough,” Bruce Crawford, head of the department’s Fish Management Program, said Friday.

Crawford said he expected the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which sets ocean fishing seasons, to propose options ranging from no fishing to limited opportunities for hatchery fish at coastal areas such as Ilwaco and Westport.