By Peter Rice

Pilot staff writer

The closure bullet grazed sport fishermen and scored a direct hit on the commercial side of the ocean salmon season at the Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) meeting in Sacramento this week.

The federal advisory panel voted to allow ocean sport fishing from May 15 to July 4 and Sept. 1-6, but also voted to close commercial fishing all year from Florence south well into California.

The PFMC plan will still have to go through the U.S. Department of Commerce for approval.

"I'm happy for our recreational fishery," said Scott Boley, a Gold Beach fish merchant, commercial fisherman and former member of the PFMC who traveled to Sacramento for the meeting. But, "Our commercial fishery is going to be pretty devastated ... It's a guarantee that salmon will be more expensive this year."

Ocean salmon fishing supports several dozen commercial jobs, and represents perhaps 10 to 20 percent of the Curry County tourist economy.

The threat to close coastal ocean salmon fisheries stems from the Klamath River. Scientists with the PFMC estimate that the number of non-hatchery fish coming back to the river this fall will drop below the acceptable floor of 35,000.

The low numbers, in this case 29,000, are critical because fishing in large swaths of the ocean is regulated based on the performance of the weakest runs of fish. So in an ocean filled with relatively abundant runs from such rivers as the Sacramento and Columbia, fishing is regulated with the weaker Klamath in mind.

The recommendation approved this week is a modification of the three options the council had on the table coming into the meeting. The options had ranged from no fishing at all to a repeat of last year's relatively generous season.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, however, did an analysis of the situation and concluded that as few as 21,000 returning fish could rebound into a healthy population, Boley said.

That gave the council about 8,000 fish worth of breathing room and spurred the recommendation.

If and how long it will take the U.S. Department of Commerce to approve the recommendation is unknown.

"That can take anywhere from a little while to a long while," Boley said.

But Boley and Curry County fishing advocates were optimistic Friday that final approval of the recommendation – which will require a special emergency rule – would come through.

"I think that (the National Marine Fisheries Service) pretty well got the picture and they will implement the emergency rule," said Jim Welter, a Brookings sport fisherman who traveled to the meeting this week.

But don't expect these exceptions to become routine, said Ralph Brown, a former PFMC member who is now a Curry County commissioner. He also traveled to Sacramento this week.

"Emergency rules aren't supposed to be used for things that become the routine management," he said. "If you've got a long-term problem you're supposed to address the problem."

The tug of war for Klamath salmon and water between fishermen and upriver farmers needs to be solved, Brown added, and soon.

"Our current contentious way to dealing with these things is not working well," he said.

In a separate move this week, the PFMC called for the removal of upriver dams. Their license are set to expire soon.

Meanwhile, members of Congress are moving to extend aid to commercial fishermen hit hard by a complete closure. Rep. Peter DeFazio and Rep. Darlene Hooley are holding a rally on the Coos Bay boardwalk on Monday at 2:30 p.m. to call for federal money to help the commercial boats and fishermen get through the year.

While the PFMC action was greeted with mixed reactions this week, at least one group of people is very pleased.

"Obviously, we're ecstatic," said Jim Relaford, one of the organizers of the Slam'n Salmon Ocean Derby, the annual Labor Day weekend fishing competition. A closure might have spelled the cancellation of one of the biggest tourism-related economic boons of the summer.

Relaford said organizers are planning for even more fishermen than usual, since almost two months of no fishing – from July 5 to Aug. 31 – will lead up to the event.

He added that the PMFC has yet to determine the length and limit of salmon that anglers can keep.

"It will probably be the same as last year," he said.

Last year, fishermen could keep salmon 24 inches and longer, and catch two fish per day for a total of 20 for the year.

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Reach Peter Rice at price@currypilot.com.