Dismal returns of salmon stock may hurt Oregon fishery

By Winston Ross

The Register-Guard

January 30, 2008  

FLORENCE — For three years in a row, poor salmon returns on the Klamath River have spelled disastrous seasons for hundreds of Oregon Coast fishermen, an effect that ripples throughout the communities that rely on the money they bring into small ports.

This year, for the first time since 2005, the outlook on the Klamath has improved. That would be great news, if not for an unprecedented collapse of fish stocks on an even more important body of water: California ’s Sacramento River .

The number of chinook salmon juvenile fish, or jacks, returning to the Golden State ’s Central Valley is at a record low, according to preliminary figures released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council on Tuesday, failing to meet government goals for the first time in 15 years and only the second time in 35 years.

The return of Central Valley jacks fell to 2,000 fish — compared with a long-term average of about 40,000. The lowest level on record before this year was 10,000. Scientists have yet to pinpoint the reason for the collapse of fish stocks, calling it a coastwide phenomenon probably tied to ocean conditions. In a press release, officials said both hatchery and naturally produced fish were down.

“Obviously, two consecutive jack returns at the lowest and second-­lowest levels on record represent a severe situation,” wrote Don McIsaac, executive director of the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which will make a decision later this spring about how much West Coast-based salmon fishermen are allowed to catch, in an e-mail he sent out Monday. “This stock has consistently been the healthy ‘workhorse’ target stock for salmon fisheries off California and most of Oregon .”

Earlier this year, the Oregon Salmon Commission released figures that depict one of the worst salmon seasons on record. The fleet landed 463,500 pounds, about 20,000 pounds less than in 2006 — a more restricted season. Between 1979 and 2007, chinook landings have averaged more than 2 million pounds. In only two of those years have landings dropped below 500,000 pounds.

The fleet earned $2.6 million in 2007, slightly less than what trollers brought in the year before, despite the highest price per pound fishermen have fetched since 1981: $5.64.

“If we have a fourth disaster, like this is looking like it’s going to be, I simply don’t know how the fleet is going to survive and how the ancillary support businesses are going to survive,” said Rick Goche, a Coos Bay troller. “It’s staggering in its magnitude of potential harm.”

Last year, after the federal government declared the 2006 fishery a disaster, fishermen received assistance checks of up to $75,000 to help cover boat mortgage payments and moorage fees. The fleet is likely to seek another disaster declaration this year.

“I didn’t land a fish last year,” said Goche, who makes half his income from salmon, the other half from Albacore tuna. “My buddies kept going out and coming back with not enough fish to pay for their fuel. It never developed into something I could make money with. I couldn’t afford to go out looking. The year before that was the worst salmon season in my life, in 40 years.”

Before his check from the feds arrived, Goche nearly lost his house and had to cancel the family’s health insurance. Then his wife injured her back in a car accident.

Charleston troller Jeff Reeves said 70 percent of Oregon ’s catch originates in the Sacramento River , but he’s not sure what the poor returns will mean for the upcoming season. “We’re going to try to negotiate the best season we can,” Reeves said. “It’ll be a battle. It’s like everything we do is wrong.”

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