El Nino Is Spawning Trouble For Salmon Fish Struggle In Warmer Ocean; Fishermen Have Shorter Season

Between El Nino, the Endangered Species Act and dwindling numbers of wild fish, regulators are having a tough time coming up with ocean salmon sport and commercial fishing seasons.

Washington state expects so few fish that a zero option is a real possibility for sport and commercial fleets. Wild Oregon coho continue to decline, making for another year of no coho fishing south of Cape Falcon. Dwindling numbers of Klamath River fall chinook will again make a thin patchwork of Northern California and Oregon seasons.

The one bright spot - an anticipated 1.1 million hatchery chinook out of California’s Sacramento Valley - again will be dimmed by the need to continue protecting wild winter run fish that were the first of the Pacific salmon to go on the endangered species list.

The balancing act has proved so difficult that the Pacific Fisheries Management Council was unable to come up with a set of three options during its meeting last week in Milbrae, Calif. They are coming out this week. The council gets back together April 6-10 in Portland to set the final seasons.

“The big issue is how much access we can provide for those stocks and still provide the protections needed for the other fish,” said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Federation of Fishermen’s Associations in San Francisco.

El Nino, the ocean warming condition that has spawned vicious storms in California, has made it even more difficult than usual to balance the ability of fishermen to make a living against the need to leave enough fish to spawn a new generation.

“Right now, the ocean is playing with our heads,” said John Coon, salmon management coordinator for the council. “Until that baby turns around, we don’t know what is going to happen.

“The council needs to be conscious things may turn out worse than our projections.”

Warmer waters and changing ocean currents mean less food for all kinds of fish. With fewer fish in the ocean, seals and sea lions and some birds have been starving.

The last El Nino in 1982-83 produced a severe drop in salmon numbers, though populations rebounded in later years, apparently from a reduction in predators. It is uncertain how things will unfold this time, because this El Nino is more severe.

Scientists have predicted just 127,000 fall chinook from the Klamath River, compared to 455,000 in 1996. Low numbers in the Klamath mean short seasons in southern Oregon and Northern California as regulators try to assure enough fish for Indian tribes and spawning a new generation.

Wild coastal coho from Oregon are now forecast at 47,000. While that is up from last year’s count of 24,000, it is still too low to allow direct fishing. Biologists expect 13 percent of those fish to die as a result of fishing for chinook.

Commercial salmon troller fleets have been steadily declining as more salmon runs are added to the endangered species list and the council has cut back seasons. California is down to about 800 active boats, Oregon 600 and Washington 250. Skippers who can leave their home ports in Oregon and Washington will be heading for California, where the fish are.

As the ocean catch has dwindled, farmed fish have moved into the marketplace, keeping prices low and consumers happy.

“I feel we’re getting to the point where it’s going to be uneconomical to harvest the fish,” said Auburn, Wash., troller Jim Olson, who sits on the council’s Salmon Advisory Subpanel. “We’ll keep doing it as long as we can afford to do it. It’s kind of like a farmer. There’s next year, and the year after.”

Grader said fishermen have been encouraged by evidence that Sacramento River winter chinook have been rebounding thanks to fishing restrictions and freshwater habitat improvements, but remain discouraged over the government’s failure to resolve problems with dams on the Columbia River system in Oregon and Washington.

“We are joking that you will see more winter run chinook in the Sacramento River than all the species of salmon in the Columbia, the way things are going,” Grader said.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: What’s next The Pacific Fisheries Management Council will meet April 6-10 in Portland to set the final fishing seasons.