Coos Bay World: Fishermen: Low salmon returns not our fault

Federal fishery managers started off a hearing Monday night by saying the meeting was about discussing commercial troll and recreational salmon season options for 2006, but Oregon fishermen had other comments on their minds.

“This is about the immediate needs of the ocean troll fishery,” said Charleston fisherman Jeff Reeves, the first of more than two dozen who spoke at the Red Lion Hotel. “Salmon trollers need immediate compensation for the loss of their fishing days.”

Reeves referred to Pacific Fishery Management Council's decision in March to delay the opening of the commercial season to at least May. Under normal circumstances, the season would have opened March 15 and trollers already would have had nearly two weeks of fishing in, weather permitting. The council didn't decide until March 10, five days before the scheduled opening, to delay the season.

It wasn't an easy decision, but council members, at the Seattle meeting in March, had few options, according to the approved fishery management plan.

The council also is prepared to make some tough decisions in April about the commercial and sport seasons for most of the Oregon Coast for the remainder of this year, due to lower expected fall Chinook returns to the Klamath River. This will be the third year in a row that returns will have not met the conservation objective of at least 35,000 wild fish wending their way past ocean and river obstacles to spawn in the river and its tributaries.

But, fishermen and other speakers said, it's not the fishermen's fault.

“It looks to me like this is really about agribusiness in the upper Klamath River,” said John Ward, Northwest Steelheaders South Coast Chapter President.

The low number of returning fish began in 2002, when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation ordered water be diverted from the river, resulting in warmer, shallower water and a spread of parasites that eventually took a toll on the Chinook. And though it didn't have an effect on that year's fishery, managers knew then it would be three, four, and even five years later when the fishing industry would have to deal with the consequences. However, a federal judge on Monday ordered the Bush administration to institute its management plan immediately. (See sidebar.)

“If we had that water four years ago, we wouldn't be here now,” Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations' Northwest Regional Director Glen Spain said. “There will be sacrifice. There will be pain.”

Spain, too, noted the need for the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to declare the fishery a disaster, thereby opening the channels for disaster aid. The PCFFA made a request last year, after the season also was curtailed, but there has been no decision yet, Spain said.

And that, he said, was a failure by the government.

“It's a tremendous disservice to all the people in this room,” Spain said, motioning to the more than 100 fishermen and community members gathered at the Red Lion.

Several speakers were clearly frustrated with the situation, demanding a full season from May to October, or requesting the government do something about the hundreds of sea lions that swim near the mouth of the Klamath River in the fall, waiting for a Chinook meal. The sea lions are responsible for catching much of returning fish; has the government worked that factor into the models, several speakers asked.

Yet other speakers had ideas too, such as opting for the most restrictive commercial season - no fishing at all - if it meant ensuring a March 15 opening in 2007.

Brookings fisherman Ralph Dari also suggested eliminating a fall fishery.

“Quit giving us seasons in September,” Dari said, noting that it's in the fall that commercial fishermen in Southern Oregon catch more Klamath River fish.

Several community business owners and managers also told the three hearings officers, council member Frank Warrens, National Marine Fisheries Service representative Frank Lockhart, and salmon technical team member Craig Foster, that shutting down the season altogether would have drastic effects on their businesses - and the communities. Even a shortened season will have a lasting effect, they said.

More than 90 families at Englund Marine Supply stores on the West Coast are dependent on commercial and sport fishing, Charleston manager Mark Fleck said, and there would be no choice but to lay off workers.

”It would affect fishing communities Englund has been a part of for more than 60 years,” Fleck said.

Fishermen's Wharf owner Jon Goudeau read several e-mails he and his wife, Helen, received from other companies.

The Coos County Historical and Maritime Museum always gets a number of inquiries about where visitors can buy wild seafood, Goudeau said. The Mill Casino-Hotel takes great pride in serving wild salmon and Benetti's urged managers not to curtail the fishing season, he added, before a fire alarm caused an evacuation of the meeting room.

But Curry County Commissioner Ralph Brown, formerly a council member, touched on a part of the equation that hadn't been mentioned. After the fire alarm proved to be false, Brown mentioned the fishing lifestyle.

That lifestyle - both sport and commercial - is unique, he said, and so important to many folks who enjoy Oregon's fishing opportunities, that many could decide that “if they can't go fishing, they may as well go somewhere else,” Brown said.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council will make its final recommendations during the week of April 2-7, when it meets in Sacramento.