By Joel Gallob Of the NewPort News-Times

Congresswoman Darlene Hooley (D-5th Dist.) on Thursday wrote to President Bush's Secretary of Commerce, Carlos Gutierrez, to urge a disaster declaration for Oregon and California salmon fisheries based on the "very poor adult salmonid returns to the Klamath River."

The Klamath chinook salmon are a key driver for the Oregon coast salmon fisheries. Their low projected numbers for this coming summer have led to major reductions in season length and catch quotas, not only for the chinook, but also for the coho salmon, since they mix together in the ocean. While non-hatchery coho are not to be caught by commercial vessels this year, any more than in previous years, there is a selective fishery for the fin-clipped hatchery coho for sport fishermen only.

All of these coastal salmon fisheries are now being constrained by events in the Klamath Basin - and it is those events that largely have led to Hooley's request for a disaster declaration. Hooley was joined in signing the letter by California's Rep. Nancy Pelosi (the Democratic Minority Leader in the House), Oregon Congressmen Peter DeFazio, Earl Blumenauer and David Wu, and numerous California Representatives. All together, 38 members of Congress signed onto the letter.

Hooley's request

"This year salmon fishermen from California and Oregon will experience unprecedented restrictions on their salmon fishing due to very poor adult salmonid returns on the Klamath River," Hooley wrote. "The low returns result from a combination of a multi-year drought, poor in-river conditions, and other factors that are not yet understood by the scientific community."

A declaration of a disaster, said Misha Isaak, a spokesman for Hooley, would open the possibility of federal emergency funds for the coast. Hooley's multi-county federal district includes Lincoln County.

"We understand that NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Fisheries is currently preparing the analysis necessary for you to make a disaster declaration," Hooley wrote. "The situation is so extreme that we are writing to urge you to direct NOAA Fisheries to expedite this process. We intend for NOAA Fisheries to have this process completed by May 31, 2005, and for you to declare a disaster at that time as provided for under the Magnuson-Stevens Act to provide financial relief for affected individuals, businesses and communities."

Mike Becker, a Newport fisherman, raised the issue with Senator Ron Wyden during a town hall meeting at the Hatfield Marine Science Center last week. He told the senator, "1,800 fishing families have lost their income due to the distribution of water to the farmers." The struggle in southern Oregon and northern California over Klamath River water has pitted Klamath farmers on both sides of the Oregon-California border against fishers, environmentalists, coastal fishing communities and some Native American tribes, all of which want river water for the salmon.

"We're trying to get them help, as soon as possible," Wyden replied to Becker's question. But, he said, "a fish disaster is different from an agricultural disaster, a fish disaster requires a supplemental appropriation."

Factors

In September, 2002, an estimated 30,000 chinook salmon (and other fish) were found dead and dying in the Klamath after the federal Bureau of Reclamation had, during the spring and summer farm growing season, diverted river water to irrigation pipes. Underlying that was a regional drought - and even with some recent wet weather, that drought has not ended.

Another factor is a drop in the number Oregon Coast Natural coho, which reached a recent peak three years ago and has declined every year since. They are projected to decline again this year.

"On April 8, 2005," wrote Hooley, "the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) recommended severe restrictions on the offshore ocean salmon fisheries of California and Oregon. As a result, in California, the fish and game commission has imposed a drastically reduced salmon fishing season for commercial ocean and in-river fishermen and for the subsistence fishery relied on by (several) tribes. This will result in catastrophic economic losses for fishing families and for fishing dependent communities. The estimated loss to the West Coast commercial fishing fleet could, by conservative estimates, be tens of millions of dollars. The situation for others, including processors, port and tribal communities, related on-shore businesses, sports fishing guides and related businesses could be just as devastating. Similar steps have been taken in Oregon with similar impacts on the local fishing industry and communities."

Seasons and quotas

Chuck Tracy, the PFMC salmon staff officer, detailed this year's Oregon ocean coho and chinook commercial and sport/charter salmon fisheries.

"The Klamath chinook are constraining the season for chinook and coho off Oregon," he said. It is, he noted, not the 30,000 dead adult Klamath chinook of September 2002, but the juveniles that were stressed and killed in the months before that, which are the chief concern now. That 2002 juvenile class is now the weak stock in the Klamath River output, and the current tightened restrictions on Oregon Coast salmon fishing is aimed at protecting them.

The Oregon coast is divided into three management regions, within which seasons and numbers are set for the commercial and sport/charter catch of various species.

To present it simply, one can look first at the commercial side, which Hooley addressed. There is no commercial coho catch; the hatchery coho catch that has been allowed in recent years is for sport fishing.

The southern third of the coast, south of Humbug Mountain, is closest to the Klamath mouth and most directly affected by that river. Sometimes called "the Klamath Management Zone," it closed April 15 and will not open again until Sept. 3, said Tracy. "So that's zero summer fishery for any commercial salmon fishing in that region."

The middle (and largest) management third goes from Humbug Mountain to Cape Falcon in Tillamook County. "There's also some substantial decrease there compared to last year," said Tracy. Here, the commercial catch of chinook will be closed July and August. There will be some openings, he added, "around Newport for all of June and then on and off, and around the Coos Bay area, which will be open all May." But this main run of the coast will be closed after June, when the Klamath fish will arrive.

The small northern coastal third, above Cape Falcon, is not impacted by the Klamath. Still, "its chinook fishery is quite a bit lower than last year," mainly due to the low numbers of Columbia River hatchery chinook observed returning upstream recently. The chinook quota there is down somewhat and the coho quota (for hatchery fish only) is about half of 2004.

Thus the remaining commercial chinook fishing, he said, is "half to a third of the opportunity in 2004."

Then there are the sport/charter fisheries.

In the southern Klamath Management Zone, the chinook fishery is open May 1 through July 4, and then closed through Aug. 13. It will reopen on Aug. 14, and remain open until Sept. 11. "That's a big closure, for most of the core of the summer," he said. This also, he added, includes a selective (fin-clipped hatchery fish) coho fishery. But because of the chinook closure after July 4, the coho fishing is closed, too. So it's a very short (sport) shot at coho down there."

From Humbug Mountain to Cape Falcon, the chinook sport catch, Tracy said, is largely as it was before in its dates - March 15 through Oct. 31.

For the northern third, above Cape Falcon, the season will start July 3 and go through Sept. 30 or until reaching the coho limit - or the chinook limit for the entire Oregon coast - again, to be protective of the chinook. "But we're likely to run out of coho first here," Tracy suggested.

"We've got a conservation objective of 35,000 naturally spawned fall chinook for the Klamath," he said, "and we need to manage to help meet it."

That involves dividing fish up with the Klamath tribes, Klamath River fishermen, and the hatcheries there. "We can fish our ocean stocks only so far down," Tracy said, "and then we need to be able to take care of all those other needs in the Klamath River too. California faces the same constraints."

The catch maximums for the chinook have been cut, in tandem with the reduced seasons.

And the catch quotas set by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and PFMC for this summer's recreational hatchery coho season are slightly above half what was allowed in 2004. For 2005, from Leadbetter Point, Washington to Cape Flacon, the maximum is set at 60,900; from Cape Falcon to Humbug Mountain, at 40,000; and from there to the California border, another 40,000. That totals 140,900 coho. In 2004, the respective numbers were 101,250, 75,000 and another 75,000, for a total of 251,250 hatchery coho, a total more than 75 percent higher than was set for this year