Oregon troll
fishermen oppose 'zero option'
By Joel Gallob Of The News Times
March 8, 2006
Don Stevens, an Oregon representative on the Pacific
Fisheries Management Council's Salmon Advisory Subpanel, came to the Ocean
Salmon Commission meeting in Newport last Thursday with three options for
the 2006 salmon season that - if approved by the meeting - he would take
back to the advisory group. He left the commission meeting (which followed
the earlier Ocean Salmon Industry Group meeting, also held at the Hallmark
Resort) with just two of those options.
The option that was discarded, by virtually unanimous comment from the
audience and members of the Oregon Salmon Commission, was the zero-catch
season.
Stevens' first option was to open the season on May 1 and go through Aug.
29, taking two weeks off in July and August. The goal of having an on and
off sequence, he said, was to avoid glutting the market and driving down
fish prices. Then, he said, this option would close the federal waters in
September and October and move fishing closer towards the beach, inside the
state's three-mile limit.
His second option was to duplicate on the complex
on-again, off-again structure of the 2005 season, with some changes.
His third option was the zero-catch option.
With the three, Stevens said, he could give the advisory subpanel "a
starting point" for discussion. But he remained pessimistic, saying he
did not think it likely there would be any season at all.
Barry Nelson, one of the members of the Oregon Salmon Commission, was
adamant that he would not accept the zero option.
But, Stevens warned, "If we have a season based on emergency rule, will
we pay for it for next five or six years. Is it worth it?"
Curt Melcher, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's program manager
for fisheries management, thought the answer was "no."
But, asked one fisherman, if there was no season, would that prevent the
Klamath salmon from being subjected to a rebuilding plan. Melcher's answer
to that was also no. "We're already below the floor," he added.
When a show of hands was taken, only one of the fishermen present supported
a zero season.
"I've got my instructions," said Stevens.
Various fishermen suggested various open and closed periods. Last year, the
closed July and August portion of the season led to the September and
October opening - which proved far stronger than expected and led to the
catch of 4,000 "credit card fish" above the 2005 quota. Those fish
are to be deducted from this year's quota, if there is a fishery. Some
suggested shifting back to a summer fishery to avoid that; others preferred
a late fishery.
There will, however, be some of what Melcher called "terminal
fisheries," as they were in 2005. These are small-area fisheries, in
state waters just outside certain river mouths, where Klamath fish are not
caught. Last year there was a terminal fishery off Tillamook, Cape Blanco,
and Brookings (although for different time periods). This year, he said,
ODFW is committed to providing some such fisheries - at, possibly among
others, the Elk River, the Chetco River, and Tillamook Bay, "if we have
healthy returns and the federal fisheries are closed."
Melcher said he would "advocate for an option with a range of
fisheries" at the PFMC process. That group of options will then go
through a public comment and review process. But no decision is likely to
occur until the April meeting of the PFMC, which would mean that any option
other than a season closure (absent an emergency rule from the PFMC) would
not begin until late April or May. Ordinarily, the season starts in March.
The economic effects of a zero-catch season would be huge across the Oregon
and north-central California coasts. Economic impacts, said Melcher,
"are an important part of the Magnuson Stevens Act" that governs
America's fisheries. It would be, to no small extent, because of a concern
for those impacts that any option other than a closed season would be based.
Such impacts, said Melcher, would be "an important consideration in
doing an emergency rule."
Don Stevens gave out a one-page sheet entitled "Preliminary Economic
Outlook for the 2006 Salmon Fishery" that assessed the possible
economic damage. The salmon fishery peaked in 1979, he wrote, when
non-tribal commercial and recreational fisheries brought $317 million (in
inflation-adjusted dollars) in personal income to Oregon. For the area south
of Cape Falcon, he continued, from 1979 through 2005, the average was $133
million in inflation-adjusted dollars. From 2001 through 2005, the average
state level income from the salmon fisheries has been $64 million (again
inflation adjusted) and the state-level income from the 2005 salmon fishery
was $57 million, he wrote.
But there has been no official economic analysis by the Pacific Fishery
Management Council, said Yachats-based economist Hans Radtke.
"This season, it's important to do it. The different communities will
be differently affected," said Radtke.
