A contingent of top-level federal fisheries officials touring the affected West Coast salmon fisheries disaster areas got an earful during a meeting in Eureka with fishermen and fishing-related businesses Saturday.

The meeting follows in the wake of continued pressure on the Bush administration by a growing list of top lawmakers and governors of West Coast states who aren’t satisfied by the National Marine Fisheries Service’s decision to wait until February to see if there has been a fisheries failure as a result of the near closure of 700 miles of California and Oregon coastline.

Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, who declared a fisheries resource disaster last week, directed top NMFS staff to tour the affected areas to expedite the determination process and is scheduled to visit the Klamath River area next month.

Heading the contingent of federal fisheries officials was William Hogarth, assistant administrator for fisheries for the National Marine Fisheries Service, who was joined by the northwest and southwest regional administrators for NMFS, as well as the executive director of the Pacific Fisheries Management Council.

In a meeting at the Woodley Island Marina Meeting Room Saturday morning, Hogarth met with a dozen representatives from commercial salmon fishermen, fish buyers, a marine boat supply company, as well as guide and lodging businesses that are dependent on fishing for their livelihood.

“We know there are issues in the Klamath and we know there are some long-term issues,” Hogarth said.

Echoing what Hogarth said he heard in his previous stops in Newport and Coos Bay, Ore., the previous day, the salmon-dependent entrepreneurs told Hogarth it has been a year of disappointing firsts.

Ronnie Pellegrini, a member of a fourth-generation salmon fishing family, as well as the president of the board of commissioners for the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District, said it was the first time in the family’s history the boat has stayed in the dock for the salmon season.

Although there have been bad seasons in the past that forced fishermen to seek fish in waters south of San Francisco, Pellegrini said there has always been somewhere to go.

“This is the first time people have made the decision to stay home for a variety of factors — all of them economic,” Pellegrini said.

So, too, is the situation for 40-year salmon fishing veteran Russel Miller, who operates the Sunlight vessel out of Woodley Island Marina.

Miller said he is struggling to pay the $2,600 just to keep his salmon permits current.

“Why should I renew those permits when I don’t have a future in that fishery?” Miller asked.

And the salmon season restriction is hitting every aspect of the fishery.

A fishing guide businessman on the Klamath reported his business is losing customers to Alaska, and lodges dependent on recreational fishermen are also losing customers and money fast.

Eureka’s Englund Marine Supply, whose sales are reportedly down 80 percent for its commercial gear, is still sitting on virtually all of its inventory ordered for the season.

For Caito Fisheries and Carvalho Fisheries, two of the area’s leading wholesale fish buyers, it is the first year they hadn’t purchased any salmon.

In laying out how the process could move forward to bring relief to fishermen and related businesses, Hogarth said federal relief could come through a determination through the Magnuson-Stevens or the Fisheries Act.

What Hogarth did stress is that the Department of Commerce doesn’t have any money itself to give out, and aid to fishermen following any action by NMFS would have to come from an appropriation by Congress.

A “place holder” allocation for West Coast fisheries relief has been included in appropriation bills in both houses of Congress — $2 million in the House of Representatives and $10 million in the Senate — and the final amount will be hammered out in upcoming joint committee hearings.

In the meantime, Hogarth said NMFS has asked that the states utilize their federal salmon funding to get money to much-needed areas.

If the money is allocated by Congress, Hogarth said the money would go directly to the states to be distributed so that it could get it out as quick as humanly possible to help the affected people.