SEASON NEARLY CANCELED OVER KLAMATH RIVER FISH

By Ken McLaughlin

Mercury News

SACRAMENTO - A powerful federal fishing advisory panel Thursday recommended imposing severe restrictions on the commercial salmon season but stopped short of calling for canceling it altogether.

The decision, which members of the Pacific Fishery Management Council called ``brutal'' and ``gut-wrenching,'' followed a fiery four-hour public hearing at which salmon fishermen, American Indians and even environmentalists pleaded with the panel to consider alternatives to canceling this year's salmon season.

``The fish and the fishery are part of our culture and cuisine . . . providing jobs, recreation, food production and exports, sustaining our bodies and souls,'' said Zeke Grader of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations in San Francisco. ``We cannot let this all be lost due to failed government policies, inaction and indifference.''

The recommendations are aimed at protecting a strain of salmon that breeds in the Klamath River. Grader, who was gratified that the panel saved the season, nonetheless described the restrictions as the harshest in the history of West Coast fishing. The new rules -- which would sharply cut the length of the season and the size of each boat's weekly haul -- affect waters from northern Oregon to just south of Monterey.

The council's action still has to be approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service, but no one expects the agency to overrule the council. If approved, the restrictions will cancel much of the season above Pigeon Point, south of Half Moon Bay. The season south of Pigeon Point will be less drastically cut, but fishermen will still be limited to catching 75 king salmon a week per boat.

Commercial fisherman Larry Miyamura, based at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, said most commercial fishermen catch 75 salmon a day. He predicted the famous wharf would become ``a ghost town'' for much of the summer and that the price of wild salmon caught locally will rise 20 percent to 25 percent.

``Thank God we kept the season open, but we didn't keep much of it open,'' Grader said.

Recreational fishermen got off a bit easier. For the month of April, they'll be limited to fishing in state waters, no more than three miles from shore. Then they'll lose several more days during the season, which will begin May 1 in federal waters.

``We don't have the impact that the commercial guys have because we're catching two fish a day with rods and reels,'' said Darrell Ticehurst of Hillsborough, a member of the management council.

The fishermen came to Thursday's meeting with a clear strategy: convince council members that they were willing to share some of the pain but unwilling to shoulder the entire burden for a problem that isn't their fault.

More than 100 commercial salmon fishermen spoke poignantly about their love for their industry and its history. Several ended up in tears.

The fishermen said it would be ``unconscionable'' and ``grossly irresponsible'' to cancel the fishing season without first putting a plan in place to fix the Klamath's problems.

In recent years, the water in the Klamath has become too warm, too shallow and clogged with toxic algae. A parasite is killing about 80 percent of the juvenile salmon.

Fishermen and environmentalists blame then-Interior Secretary Gale Norton's 2002 decision to release millions of gallons of water to southern Oregon farmers for drought relief -- a decision that ended in the deaths of as many as 70,000 adult salmon in September of that year.

The fishermen are particularly angry because they allege it was a decision based on politics, not science.

Many fishermen accuse the White House of pushing the change in policy behind closed doors to shore up Republican support among farmers.

Since 2002, federal and state agencies have done little to solve the Klamath problem, fishermen -- and environmentalists -- say.

Federal regulators have argued that they have little choice but to take drastic steps to protect the Klamath fish by severely limiting salmon fishing. King salmon -- whether they are from the sick Klamath or healthy Sacramento River -- mingle once they reach the ocean, where they spend most of their lives before returning to their river birthplaces to spawn and die.

Regulators say this will be the third year that the number of Klamath salmon dips below a previously set ``floor'' of 35,000 spawners -- and the council's management plan calls for drastic measures if that happens.

Canceling the entire salmon season would have represented a $150 million hit for California's commercial salmon fishing industry. No one has yet calculated the costs of having a severely reduced season.

Still, many owners of bait-and-tackle shops, restaurants, motels and other businesses that depend on recreational salmon fishermen will be breathing a sign of relief today. The American Sportfishing Association estimated that a cancellation would have cost California businesses at least $170 million in the recreational sector alone.

Kenney Stagnaro, co-owner of Original Stagnaro Fishing Trips/Bay Cruises in Santa Cruz, said Northern California charter-boat companies such as his ``rely on salmon for 90 percent of their business.''

If the season was shut down, Stagnaro said, he would have to eke out a living offering summertime cod fishing and perhaps more whale-watching trips.