By KATY
HILLENMEYER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Federal regulators, as expected, have suspended commercial salmon fishing in
the Fort Bragg area and Oregon coast through the end o"It's a done
deal," Brian Gorman, a West Coast spokesman for the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, said Tuesday. "It will affect ocean fisheries
up and down the coast."
Biologists advising federal regulators through the Portland-based Pacific
Fishery Management Council recommended banning March and April commercial
fishing of Chinook, or king salmon, because spawners expected to return to the
Klamath this year fall short of conservation mandates.
Although wild salmon that spawn in Central Valley rivers are plentiful, they
mingle in the ocean with Klamath spawners that regulators seek to protect after
low flows, warm waters, parasites and agricultural diversions depleted Klamath
stocks in 2002.
"If these fish in the Klamath were somehow distinguishable from their
cousins, the issue would not be so intractable," Gorman said.
Recreational fishing continues off Fort Bragg. It is being allowed because sport
fishermen catch relatively few salmon, fish and game experts said. But that
could change May 1.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council, which advises federal regulators about
offshore fishing seasons in California, Oregon and Washington, is due to issue
salmon-fishing recommendations spanning May 1 to April 2007 at its meeting next
month in Sacramento.
A 7 p.m. public hearing on the issue takes place March 28 at the Flamingo Hotel
in Santa Rosa.
From Oregon's Cape Falcon south to Monterey, regulators continue to contemplate
post-May 1 options ranging from an outright ban on catching ocean salmon to
shortened seasons that exceed last year's restrictions.
"I don't see any of them I think we can live with and still be able to
survive," said Fort Bragg salmon fisherman Sonny Maahscq, a 78-year-old
veteran who fishes with his grandson, Cyrus Maahs. "I don't think we can
make the expenses of our boat and all the fees."
Allen Grover, a senior biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game
in Santa Rosa, acknowledged Tuesday the restrictions' potential harmful impact
on fishermen's livelihoods and other industries that benefit from their harvest.
But he said the fleets may have to suffer short-term hardship to keep Klamath
Chinook sustainable.
"The conservation objective is to make sure that we don't drive the stock
down so that it can never sustain fisheries," Grover said.
Source: http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060315