EUREKA -- The recent decision by the Pacific Fishery Management Council to severely restrict fishing through the heart of the commercial salmon season could push some local fishermen out of business.

That was the message from Dave Bitts of the Humboldt Fishermen's Marketing Association, contacted by cell phone while driving back from the week-long meetings in Sacramento.

”There's a couple dozen of us that still go as far as we have to go to catch the salmon,” he said Friday. “I'm sure that some of us will decide to do something else this summer.”

The council decided Thursday to close most of the 700 miles of coastline to commercial salmon fishing for much of May, June and July, the most productive months of the season, which runs from April to October. The move is meant to help preserve the decimated Klamath River salmon fishery. Federal regulators are required to ensure that at least 35,000 salmon return to the Klamath each year to keep the population stable. But the council voted to lower that threshold to 21,000 salmon this year to preserve a minimal fishing season.

It's considered to be the broadest ever imposed on the West Coast salmon fishery.

”It's basically an opportunity to maybe survive for fishermen and the shoreside businesses that depend on us, which makes it arguably better than nothing,” Bitts said.

Bitts said area fishermen will be looking for disaster relief, as they did last year with no success. North Coast Rep. Mike Thompson will work with the fishermen in seeking that aid, he said.

Thompson issued a statement after learning of the decision, which still has to go through the U.S. Department of Commerce for final approval.

”The Bush administration's incompetence and gross mismanagement of the Klamath River led to this year's shortened salmon season,” said Thompson. “The administration manipulated the Klamath for political gain and as a result the livelihoods of thousands of California and Oregon residents now hang in the balance.”

Last year's salmon season was slashed, yet the administration failed to offer any assistance to the affected fishermen.

”Last week I organized a meeting with the Departments of Commerce and Interior at which administration officials showed little if any interest in assisting the affected fishermen or working together to find a basinwide solution to the Klamath's dire state,” Thompson said.

While the commercial season has been gutted, with only bookend opportunities at either side of the heart of the season, the recreational season looks to fare slightly better.

It appears the season will run from May 15 to July 4, and it would likely be open for an additional six days in September.

”It's a very much reduced opportunity to fish,” said Humboldt County 1st District Supervisor Jimmy Smith.

But this looks like the best alternative that could be hoped for given the circumstances, Smith said.

Several sources said the fishing is being slashed while the underlying problems are not being addressed.

”It's very difficult for fishing communities to endure such draconian fishing seasons, but I do believe that the restrictions are necessary in order to make sure that the Klamath salmon endure,” said Pat Higgins, fisheries biologist. “The problem is that unless the root causes of the problems in the Klamath are addressed, such measures will have limited effectiveness.”

The river is undergoing an ecological collapse, he said, describing its condition as “dire.”

Many hailed a recent court decision to send more water down the Klamath River as a much-needed boost to the system.

But the National Marine Fisheries Service is appealing that decision, handed down last week, to send enough water down the Klamath River for threatened coho salmon even if it means crimping flows to farmers in its central California-Oregon border irrigation project.

So the federal government is attacking both the fishermen and the fish, said Bitts.

”It's outrageous,” said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, of the appeal.

Thompson quickly fired off another press release in response to the announced appeal.

”This decision is nothing short of a slap in the face to fishing families and coastal communities in California and Oregon,” Thompson said. “We are reeling from yesterday's decision to severely limit the season and today the Bush administration has shown complete disregard for the health of the Klamath and the livelihoods of thousands of people who live along our coast. We can't just turn our cheeks to the administration's incompetence and gross mismanagement.”

California Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, blamed the Bush administration's “water and energy policies, which do not respect the needs of our fishing communities.” She said if the proposal takes effect “it should include financial assistance to keep our fishing communities whole, else they face terrible losses.”

The season still has to be approved by the secretary of commerce.