Shutdown on salmon a major blow to anglers

Final decisions on options will be adopted in April

Henry Miller
Statesman Journal

March 16, 2008

If the 2006 ocean chinook salmon disaster had commercial anglers reeling, the situation this year could deliver a knockout blow for many, especially on the south coast.

Friday, members of the Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting in Sacramento all but ruled out fishing seasons for the salmon known as kings in the ocean.

"The official word is that chinook is going to be closed down completely from Falcon ( Cape Falcon near Manzanita in Tillamook County ) all the way down to the Mexican border," said Don Mann, the general manager for the Port of Newport .

"There's a little hope that there could be a short supply of coho. They're throwing around the number of 10,000, which is not, you know, going to … it's hardly a drop in the bucket."

That coho figure would compare with a total allowed ocean sport catch of 50,000 hatchery coho salmon in 2007 in the ocean between Falcon and Humbug Mountain near Port Orford.

In 2006, a collapse of the Klamath River chinook salmon run in Northern California forced a closure of 700 miles of the Oregon/California coast to chinook fishing.

This year, it's a predicted meltdown of the Sacramento River run of chinook that triggered the council's list of options for minimal to zero salmon fishing south of Falcon.

The news is grim for sports anglers, but fishing for chinook and coho probably will be allowed north of Falcon, where most salmon are bound for the Columbia River and at the popular Buoy 10 fishery at the river mouth.

But an ocean shutdown for commercial salmon trollers is probably a death knell for many on the south coast, who were hardest hit in 2006.

"It is a disaster, no doubt about it," said Darus Peake of Garibaldi, the chairman of the Oregon Salmon Commission. "After two years in a row, they're not going to be able to do anything. Most of these guys who are strictly salmon fishermen are going to have a hell of a time. It's going to be really rough."

A total of $60.4 million — about $24 million for Oregon — in federal disaster assistance was approved by Congress in 2007 in the wake of the 2006 shutdown.

Commercial anglers don't seem to understand that that might not happen this time around, Peake said.

"It was kind of frustrating to watch," he said about a recent meeting. "Because some of the fishermen said, 'Well, if we have the zero option, we'll just sit back and wait for the money.' And you just sit there and look at them and say, 'There ain't going to be any.' We're going to do everything that we can to get some money out of the federal government, but are we going to be able to do that again? The odds are slim and none."

The final decisions on fishing options will be adopted during a series of council meetings April 6 to 12 in Seattle .

Sport and commercial anglers say there could be a little light leaking out from under the door.

"Luckily, there will be some coho fishing, I think, south of Falcon … which is going to be desperately needed," said Liz Hamilton, the executive director of the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association.

"And ... I also believe that there's going to be room for a full Buoy 10 fishery."

For the commercial half of the equation, Peake said:

"Right now everything is still going to be up in the air because National Marine Fisheries (Service) still has to declare an emergency. And if they declare the emergency to allow us to fish below what's called the floor level of the returning fish, and then we might have some sort of a small, spotty season. And that spotty season would be below Cape Falcon ."

Even a minimal 10,000 coho sport fishery could keep the flickering embers glowing for the iconic, salmon-driven coastal tourist industry on the central coast, said Mann, who manages South Beach Marina.

"Hopefully we'll be able to tell folks that at least there's going to be a coho season if they choose to take that option sometime during this early summer season," he said. "But if there's not, then we will see an economic effect overall with the port, and not just at the port, but the bayfront community."

The 2006 disaster could be a ripple compared to the economic tsunami that would roll down the coast with a total shutdown.

Salmon fishing closures create a massive ripple effect through coastal economies, said Peake, the owner of Tillamook Bay Boathouse, "from the guy who sells gas on the corner to the guy at the bait shop. And it just goes up and down the whole coast."

A minimal or no salmon season "also pushes fishermen who want to fish for salmon into other fisheries," he said. "There's a limit on rockfish, and a certain quota for the year. So when they hit those, it's really a done deal."

hmiller@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6725 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material  herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed  a  prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and  educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

Source:  http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?

AID=/20080316/NEWS/803160307/1001