Council weighs salmon struggle against fishing

John Driscoll

The Times-Standard

March 13, 2008

Eureka fisherman Dave Bitts went into this week's salmon hearing in Sacramento with a glimmer of hope that there might be a smidgen of a season.

But Bitts said Wednesday that the hope was based on an error. The Pacific Fishery Management Council corrected the snafu, which made the outlook for salmon season this year even bleaker, Bitts reported from Sacramento .

The predicted number of salmon from the Sacramento River -- even including the late fall and winter runs -- is now less than 80,000 fish, Bitts said. The minimum number of salmon needed to be allowed to spawn is 122,000.

”That does not bode well for ocean fisheries for salmon off California and Oregon ,” Bitts said.

The council also acted to close fisheries opened in February, and won't consider reopening them until mid-April if at all. The council is looking to have three options for commercial and sport salmon fishing -- if there is any at all -- drafted by the end of the week.

Any possible fishing is likely to be more carefully scrutinized than in years of even reasonable abundance. The National Marine Fisheries Service has to approve any option presented, and even the most limited fishing would have to be strongly justified, said fisheries service natural resource management specialist Eric Chavez.

”In a case like this we're going to have to take a real close look at what comes out of this,” Chavez said.

More typically, it has been weak Klamath River stocks that fisheries managers have had to protect against overfishing. This year it's the generally much more bountiful Central Valley and Sacramento River fish that are experiencing a collapse. Fisheries experts have pointed to poor ocean conditions as the likely culprit for poor runs up and down the coast, but many draw attention to water diversions, pollution and other factors on land being too poor to keep salmon numbers from crashing when there's limited food in the ocean.

The Klamath may again come into play next year. A low run of 2-year-old, or jack, salmon last fall suggests there aren't many 3-year-old salmon in the ocean, according to the fisheries service, although there are lots of 4-year-old fish. The number of 4-year-old fish are a key indicator, especially for commercial fisheries, but they won't factor in much this year.

In 2009, however, there are likely to be few 4-year-old salmon in the ocean. That could again severely limit an ocean fishery, especially if Sacramento River runs again pale.

John Driscoll can be reached at 441-0504 or jdriscoll@times-standard.com.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_8556766