Salmon season on the brink of lockout

A precipitous decline in the number of salmon expected to return this year to the Klamath River may force a shutdown of the commercial salmon season for about 700 miles of the Oregon and Northern California coasts, fisheries experts say.

The fall run of chinook salmon to the Klamath River is at its lowest return since a disastrous season in 1992. Such a closure, from Cape Falcon in Oregon to Point Sur in California, would be a first for the beleaguered fishing industry.

The result: the loss of tens of millions of dollars in income to fishing boats and their crews; a dramatic sacrifice to the Yurok Tribe that lives along the Klamath River; and a forecasted shortage of wild salmon available in restaurants and stores beginning next month.

"The possibilities range from no fishing for commercial or recreational or some fishing for either or both," said Chuck Tracy of the Pacific Fisheries Management Council. Biologists are expecting only 29,000 spawning salmon to return to the Klamath for the fall chinook run, 6,000 fish below the minimum for conservation.

Council members will meet in Seattle the week of March 7 to sift through the possibilities of a full or partial closure of the fishery. In a good year, the salmon trolling season would begin March 15 and run through October. Last year, only about half of that season was allowed to go forward because of declining runs.

The council regulates the harvest of fish in the Pacific Ocean to help preserve runs of fish. It uses a methodology known as "weak stock management." That means when there is danger of overfishing the weakest stock in a given area of ocean, all fishing for that kind of fish is stopped. Because the Klamath River salmon return to the river from north and south of the river's mouth, all salmon fishing must stop in the designated area because it is impossible to tell from which river a given fish may have originated.

Historically, the Klamath Basin was one of the top three most productive salmon river systems on the West Coast, behind only the Columbia and Sacramento river basins. Today the runs of salmon are beset by a host of intractable problems. From irrigation battles at its headwaters near Klamath Falls to a series of dams that prevent fish passage, to declining water quality, the river is an obstacle course to the few remaining fish that attempt to spawn.

"It's all a sign that this river is dying," said Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. "We have to do something about it as soon as possible or we will have continuing disasters on the Klamath."

Spain's group represents about 2,000 fishing boats along the Pacific coast. Last year, the partial closure cost his members tens of millions of dollars in losses, he said. This year, after a weak crabbing season, the losses could be far more, he said.

He plans to renew a call for a federal disaster declaration along the coast, after one fell on deaf ears in Washington, D.C., last year.

Along the Klamath River alone, about 5,000 members of the Yurok Tribe depend on the fall run of chinook for economic and spiritual reasons, as well as for a vital food source.

"It's a very difficult situation that the tribal council will need to ponder," said Dave Hillemeier, fisheries program manager for the tribe. "Regardless of what they decide, it is very obvious there will be little to no fishing, and it's going to be devastating."