The uncertainty that has surrounded the commercial salmon season for the past two months finally ended on Thursday, and there wasn't good news for fishermen.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council stopped short of canceling the entire season, but just barely.
The council imposed what fishermen called the most severe restrictions ever placed on the West Coast, keeping their boats off the water during large spans of the most productive months and limiting them to 75 fish per week when they can fish.
The decision culminated what has been a long and arduous process, beginning with the discovery that the number of chinook salmon returning to the Klamath River to spawn had dropped below the 35,000 floor.
The Klamath has been plagued by problems for years now, and in 2002 a diversion of water to supplement agriculture in Oregon led to a massive die-off. According to experts, the river's low fish count today is a result of that year's disaster.
Paradoxically, the Sacramento River has seen healthy salmon numbers in recent years, but the Klamath's problems have dictated federal policy on the matter. Because the Sacramento salmon mix with Klamath salmon offshore there is no way to lift the restrictions for the more plentiful population.
Thursday's recommendations - which now must be approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service, which most observers consider a formality - were met with frustration and anger by the local fleet.
Duncan MacLean, a Half Moon Bay fisherman who was representing California's fleet at the council meeting, said this year's council went way beyond the limits of reason.
"I feel totally violated," MacLean said. "There has been a process here that had gone pretty smoothly in years past, even if you didn't like the decisions. It's been open and transparent and then this year it's been shrouded in mystery."
MacLean said that the fishermen were blindsided by the council's decision to limit the boats to 75 fish per week. Salmon fishermen often catch that amount in less than one day. The restrictions would last until September, through the summer months that traditionally earn the fleet their lion's share of yearly income.
"The bottom line is a charter boat is allowed to catch more fish than a commercial boat," MacLean said. "These restrictions are far more stringent than what we deal with for endangered species. There's no justification for the kind of stuff we're seeing."
For consumers, the ramifications of the decision will be felt in the fish markets. Zeke Grader, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations executive director, said locally caught wild salmon will be hard to find this year, and consequently more expensive.
"This year is about a tenth of what our normal season is," Grader said. "You'll still be able to get fresh local salmon, but you'll have to look."
Grader accused the Bush administration of being interested in aquaculture, an industry that could be boosted by a scarcity of wild salmon.
As late as April 5 the council was determined to shut the entire season down, Grader said, before an eleventh-hour compromise was reached. Still, the council went farther than had been previously discussed.