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Ocean, Fall Salmon Seasons Will Be Down

Posted on: Thursday, 20 March 2008, 15:00 CDT

There are many details still to work out, but the shape of salmon fishing in the ocean this summer, and the Columbia River this fall, incrementally is getting more clear.

First, the ocean picture, and it's dismal. A season that's only about 15 percent of the 2007 fishery off the Washington and northern Oregon coast looks likely.

Coho returns to the Columbia River this year are forecast to be the worst since the early 1990s. The prediction is for 196,700 coho, compared to an actual return in 2007 of 462,000. A good Columbia coho run is 800,000 to 1 million.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council spent last week in California drafting options for sport and commercial seasons off the coast. We'll focus on the sport fishery between Cape Falcon (near Manzanita, Ore.) and Leadbetter Point at the northern tip of Long Beach Peninsula.

This area off the mouth of the Columbia River is fished by boats launching at Ilwaco, Chinook, Astoria, Warrenton and Hammond.

A year ago, the coho quota was 58,800. This year, the PFMC draft options call for a coho quota of between 6,300 and 10,500. Opening day is expected to be some time between June 29 and July 13. Fishing will be Sundays through Thursdays, not daily as in the past couple of summers.

Butch Smith, president of the Ilwaco Charter Association, said he figures the quota will be caught by the end of July.

Fall chinook fishing in the lower Columbia likely will look similar to 2007.

Washington and Oregon fishery officials, plus representatives of sport and commercial fishing groups, met in Vancouver on Monday to discuss this fall's fisheries.

The big issue this year is protecting wild-spawning fall chinook destined for the North Fork of the Lewis River.

This run often ranges around 15,000. The spawning goal is 5,700 in the North Fork of the Lewis. Even if there is no fishing this summer and fall in the lower Columbia, only 3,800 would make it back, according to state forecasts.

"The need to protect these fish is really what's driving the whole thing this year,'' said Steve Williams of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Fishing at Buoy 10 just inside the Columbia River mouth is expected to be open for chinook about Aug. 15-31.

State officials have modeled fisheries that allocate 4,640 fall chinook for Buoy 10 and 11,440 for the Columbia between Tongue Point, Ore.-Rocky Point, Wash., (just east of Astoria) and Bonneville Dam.

Smith said keeping Buoy 10 open through Labor Day is not as important as it once was.

"Everybody has left (vacationing at the coast) by the Wednesday before Labor Day to get ready for school'' he said. "Ilwaco's a ghost town.''

Smith said shifting some of the catch that used to happen on Labor Day to mid-August might help the coastal economy more.

He also has some angst on how fall chinook are split between Buoy 10 and the area between Tongue Point and Bonneville Dam.

"Buoy 10 used to get more chinook,'' Smith said. "The sport season in the ocean won't be open all summer and more people at the coast will want to participate in Buoy 10 again.''

Between Tongue Point and Bonneville Dam, chinook fishing is expected to open on Aug. 1, then close downstream of the mouth of the Lewis River some time in early to mid-September, much like 2007.

A no-fishing sanctuary is anticipated at the mouth of the Lewis for the entire August-December time frame to protect chinook. There was a sanctuary in 1999 off the mouth of the Lewis during a similar shortage.

Also under consideration is a much larger sanctuary, stretching perhaps from Warrior Rock on Sauvie Island downstream to the navigation light on Deer Island, a distance of eight miles.

Dan Grogan, president of Fishermen's Marine and Outdoor, a Portland retailer, said the states need to design seasons that keep fishing open August through December from the mouth of the Lewis to Bonneville Dam, then add as much additional fishing downstream of the Lewis as possible without exceeding catch guidelines.

Restrictions on coho fishing in the North Fork of the Lewis River also are under consideration this fall. Those changes would be to minimize the handle of fall chinook.

The gillnet fleet is taking some big hits in 2007, too.

Tenative plans give the netters five days near the mouth of the Columbia in early August to catch chinook and two days in mid-August. The netters would get no time downstream of the Lewis in September.

In October, the commercials would get to catch 3,000 to 4,000 coho, which is almost nothing compared to what they've historically landed in the month. Cindy

LeFleur of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said the October fishery is so meager it basically serves as test fishing so the state can update the run.

The weak coho returns to the Columbia, coupled with the bad forecast for wild-spawning Lewis River chinook, make the outlook bleak this fall, said Bill Tweit of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

"This is really painful,'' Tweit said. "It's flat-out bad.''

Source: The Columbian

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