Can we have a state waters salmon season?

By Joel Gallob Of the News-Times

March 31, 2006

One proposal aired at Governor Ted Kulongoski's "salmon summit" this Tuesday in Salem was the idea of opening the state's territorial waters to commercial and perhaps sport salmon fishing when the federal waters, out past the state's three-mile limit, are closed. Several speakers noted few Klamath River Chinook come in close to the Oregon coast when they are in the process of returning to their birth river to spawn. It is to protect those Klamath fish that federal regulators are expected to impose a closure on most Oregon and California commercial salmon fishing (and near-closure on sport salmon fishing) this season.

Mike Carrier, the governor's chief natural resource adviser, said he wasn't sure if opening a season only in Oregon waters is possible, but he would talk to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission and its chair, Marla Ray, about the idea. "It's got to be biologically sound, and we would have to manage the effects on other fisheries. It sounds like a simple solution, but it may be more complex than that," he told the News-Times.

During the salmon summit, Lincoln County commissioner and former commercial fishermen Terry Thompson warned the impending salmon fishery disaster would "spin off to other sectors of the industry," increasing effort for halibut and groundfish - with or without a 2006 state waters' salmon fishery.