Coos Bay: Salmon industry braces for shorter season

Salmon industry braces for shorter season

By Susan Chambers, Staff Writer

Coos Bay World

Published March 11, 2005

Commercial salmon fishermen caught a bad season this year.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council voted Wednesday to shorten the first few months of the season for Central and South Coast fishermen.

The season will open on March 15, like last year, according to an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Web site - giving first-of-the-season fishermen a leg up on fishermen in other states where seasons open later - but end several weeks earlier than last year. The Pacific Fishery Management Council, meeting in Sacramento, Calif., this week, may make more modifications to the season today.

The reason for the seasonal change goes back three years, when modifications to the Klamath River system in Northern California, fishermen and environmental groups say.

Water diverted from the river to farms in the spring of 2002 slowed the water flows from Upper Klamath Lake to the river, creating multiple problems detrimental to both young and adult salmon.

The water was too warm.

Low flows prevented young salmon from reaching the ocean.

Weakened fish were subject to disease and parasites.

Adult fish died, too, later in the year, but the numbers of young salmon that did survive the warm water in early 2002 - a single year class integral to sustaining fishable levels of Chinook stocks - are not high enough now to support a fishery at the levels fishermen have enjoyed recently.

The salmon industry's caught in a bind similar to what groundfish fishermen have been subject to: weak stock management. Stocks - species or a particular year class, for example - with lower numbers of fish must be allowed to increase their numbers. In one situation, stronger stocks caught in association with the weak ones must be curtailed to prevent further depleting the weaker stock, such as in the multispecies groundfish fishery.

The same principle applies to salmon, even though it's not considered a multispecies fishery. Fishing effort must be reduced during years in which the number of fish is low.

That's this year.

"The Klamath issue is driving the season," Oregon State University Sea Grant Extension Agent Paul Heikkila said. "Fishermen from San Francisco to Tillamook are paying the bill."

The effects could be devastating for fishermen and processors who have enjoyed better prices, sometimes as much as $5 a pound, and increased demand. At the same time, the numbers of Chinook returning to the rivers from Canada to Mexico are on an upward swing.

"There's going to be a real shortage of salmon this year," K-Lyn Fisheries owner Wayne Noyes said Wednesday. "Fishermen are going to hurt a whole lot."

But consumers who favor wild fish over farmed salmon also may notice a change in what's available in the seafood case at the supermarket or what's on the menu.

Or, they may find themselves shelling out more money for troll-caught Chinook.

"(Wild) salmon's a good mover for us," said Seahawk Seafood owner George Paynter. "It's going to wreck the market if (restaurants and retailers) can't have some sort of regular, decent supply. If the ocean salmon are priced high and the supply isn't dependable, it's not going to go on the menus."

Federal managers will set the remainder of the summer salmon season, after May 1, at the council's April meeting in Tacoma, Wash. But they warn that for fishermen on the South Coast and Northern California, the health of the Klamath stocks will rule their decisions.

"It's sad," Heikkila said. "We're looking at best market conditions in years .... and (this season) is being driven by the weaknesss of one year class."