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CHARLESTON -- As the buzz of activity on the boats
waned in the evening, local salmon trollers talked about the upcoming season
that opens Thursday. Will there be fish around? With only today left to get
ice, fuel up and get the boats in order, are they ready?
"We were pretty much ready when we got shut down," fisherman Jack
Kirk, who runs the Dragonet, said Tuesday evening.
Like many salmon fishermen
in southern Oregon and northern California, Kirk is bitter about the season
closing during the prime fishing months of June, July and August. State and
federal officials chose to eliminate ocean trolling during summer to protect
returning Klamath River fish. The Klamath River fall Chinook are the fish on
which Charleston trollers primarily depend, even though fish from most West
Coast rivers mix in the Pacific during their ocean journeys.
Many salmon fishermen would have fished albacore this summer but they were
dealt a weird and wacky weather pattern that kept the migrating tuna far out
to sea and far out of range. Escalating fuel prices only made matters worse.
But the same combination of weather and economics could force similar
uncertainty in the remaining salmon season.
The Chinook could be swimming in the same deeper waters as the tuna.
"I've heard stories," Hallmark Fisheries production manager Scott
Adams said, "of (salmon) being caught further offshore than they normally
would (be) -- on tuna jigs."
He chalked it up to another indication of a strange year in the seafood
business, but at the same time he was considerably cautious about what to
expect. High fuel prices are going to make it tougher for both fishermen and
buyers to make a profit, especially if fishermen have to spend more time
searching for and less time catching their bounty. Markets also are of
concern.
Consumers still are hooked on wild salmon, but Kirk believes the industry has
lost a bit of the market niche during the summer to the cheaper farmed fish.
Retailers often sell farmed Atlantic salmon to complement the wild fish
offerings or as the primary product wild king salmon wanes. Trying to get
those consumers back may be a tough sell if the price is too high.
Some retailers are anxious to get as much salmon as they can.
Customers have been asking for king salmon all summer, said George Paynter,
owner of Seahawk Seafood in Charleston.
"We don't have any in our freezer for winter," Paynter said.
Adams said he's called several buyers and other seafood traders in major
cities on the West Coast, trying to get a handle on what buyers may want. But
he's found few answers.
Already, there is a good supply of wild Chinook available. Columbia River
gillnetters kept some of the wild markets open, but the volumes coming out of
the river could have an influence on the price local fishermen and processors
get for troll-caught fish.
"There's only so much of a market," Adams said. "If you buy a
lot of fish and the market drops, it could hurt."
Another challenge to the fleet also could rest with Nature: the bulk of the
fish already may be in the rivers or -- worse -- a dose of rain may trigger
homing instincts for Chinook schooled near the river mouths and they could
enter the rivers en masse. Kirk is hoping the runs are later in the year,
giving fishermen a chance to recoup some of the income lost over the summer.
Bernie Michalke, general manager at Oregon Brand Seafood in Charleston, also
is hoping for late runs.
"I really don't know what to expect. We have some fishermen going out and
giving it a try," Michalke said.
Or, nature could toy with the fishermen directly.
"This late in the year, the weather tends to slap us in the face,"
Kirk said, noting trollers will be lucky to get in even 15 days of good
fishing, even though the season is open for 23 days in September and again in
October.
It's during those two months that the weather is unsettled, shifting from its
summer to winter pattern. It could catch trollers off-guard.
"We have no choice. We have to fish the weather," Kirk said.
"We have a lot riding on the next couple of weeks."
Source: http://www.theworldlink.com/articles/2005/08/31/news/news01.txt
