GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) —
Federal fisheries managers are considering
easing restrictions on catching Klamath
River salmon to prevent a repeat of this
year's near-shutdown of commercial salmon
fishing on the West Coast.
If the Pacific Fisheries
Management Council adopts a more flexible
approach at its November meeting to protect
the wild runs of fall chinook in Northern
California's Klamath River, it will not have
to conduct the last-minute emergency rule
making it did this year trying to prevent
salmon fishing from being completely shut
down off Oregon and California.
"This year was very painful,"
said Chuck Tracy, Portland-based salmon
biologist for the council. "There was a lot
of uncertainty. We didn't know if we would
have a season or not. This was just an
attempt to put some reliability into the
process."
Salmon fishing seasons are
set each year with an eye on minimizing the
harvest of Klamath River fall chinook, which
have been struggling for years due to poor
water quality and loss of habitat to
irrigation withdrawals, dams, logging and
mining. As a result, ocean fishermen are not
able to fully exploit the plentiful stocks
of salmon from elsewhere, such as the
Sacramento River, out of fear of injuring
the Klamath River population.
Under its salmon management
plan, the council faced the possibility this
year of shutting down all salmon fishing,
sport and commercial, along 700 miles of
Oregon and California coastline. Fewer than
35,000 Klamath fall chinook had returned to
spawn in the wild for the third straight
year, forcing the council to consider the
move.
Instead, the council adopted
an emergency rule that allowed sport fishing
to continue, along with drastically reduced
commercial fishing from Cape Falcon, Ore.,
to Point Sur, Calif. But the process was
difficult, Tracy said.
Later, finding that fishermen
were landing only 12 percent of their normal
harvest and lost $16 million, U.S. Commerce
Secretary Carlos Gutierrez declared the West
Coast salmon fishery a failure, opening the
way for federal aid to fishermen and related
businesses.
If the more flexible process
is adopted, fishermen will better know what
to expect in the coming year, Tracy said.
The council is considering
allowing fishermen to harvest between 5
percent and 13 percent more on four-year-old
Klamath fish, which account for the bulk of
the annual returns, as measured by a
computer model.
Scott Boley, a salmon
fisherman and seafood market owner from Gold
Beach, Ore. and a former member of the
council, said adopting the more flexible
standard would help.
"It will not have any long-term adverse
impacts on the stock," Boley said. "It does
give you some additional flexibility to keep
some fisheries going during this current
crisis in the Klamath."
The Karuk Tribe, which harvests salmon after
they swim up the Klamath River, opposes the
change, said spokesman Craig Tucker.
"We think the current escapement (minimum of
35,000 fish) was established through good
science" Tucker said. "We don't want to see
fishermen punished. Because it's not
overfishing that is the problem. But at the
same time we can't fish below the floor or
there won't be any fish in the future."
The model has been far off the mark the past
three years, and rather than relying on the
past 20 years of salmon returns, is now
relying on the past three, when returns to
the Klamath failed to meet the minimum,
Tracy acknowledged.
One glimmer of good news is that there are
signs that fewer juvenile salmon were
infected with a deadly intestinal parasite
this year during their spring migration down
the Klamath River to the ocean, said Scott
Foott, a fish pathologist with the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service. The change may be
related to more water in the river this year
due to plentiful rains and snowpack.
In Salem, a subcommittee of the legislative
Emergency Board on Thursday approved
$500,000 more in aid to Oregon salmon
fishermen, bringing the total to $1 million.
The full board is expected to approve the
appropriation Friday.
The money will provide direct cash
assistance to salmon fishermen, said Sen.
Joanne Verger, D-Coos Bay.
