Statesman Journal: Near-shore salmon-troll seasons approved

Near-shore salmon-troll seasons approved

Late commercial season will include 42 percent of coast

Henry Miller
Statesman Journal

August 5, 2006

Other moves

In April, Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission members approved annual commercial fisheries off Tillamook and the Elk and Chetco rivers. On Friday, the commission moved the Elk River opener from Oct. 1 to Sept. 15.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission on Friday gave commercial salmon trollers one last chance to make it through the year.

In a 5-0 vote, with two members absent for the vote in Salem, the commission approved near-shore fall-run chinook salmon-troll seasons off the mouths of nine Oregon rivers and bays.

"One thing that's been misunderstood is that these are not new fisheries," said Ron Boyce, the Ocean Salmon and Columbia River Fisheries manager for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. "All of these areas have been open to commercial fisheries for 75 to 100 years."

The big difference is that this year, those state-controlled, near-shore seasons are needed.

That is because federal officials closed or sharply curtailed the earlier commercial-salmon-troll seasons that take place farther offshore on the south coast into California.

Oregon chinook stocks are healthy, but the shutdown came because of concerns this summer about collapsed stocks of Northern California Klamath River chinook that mix with Oregon fish offshore.

The loss of the seasons brought economic devastation to salmon-dependent coastal communities and on April 26 sparked a declaration of emergency from Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who also called for stopgap fisheries such as those approved Friday.

The late commercial seasons -- most of which open in September or October and have weekly and season-ending catch limits -- are off the Nehalem/Tillamook bays and the Nestucca, Yaquina, Alsea, Siuslaw, Umpqua, Coos and Rogue rivers and encompass about 42 percent of the Oregon Coast, Boyce said.

hmiller@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-2725