River’s Ebbing Salmon Runs Threaten Season

By Douglas Fischer, STAFF WRITER

Imagine a summer without

a fresh-caught local salmon to toss on the barbecue.

It might be the summer of 2006.

Sharp declines in recent Klamath River salmon runs have federal officials poised to ban salmon fishing this year along a 700-mile stretch of the Pacific from Point Sur north.

It would come even as biologists say the Sacramento River this year should enjoy one of the more abundant salmon runs since 1970 — with nearly 1 million chinook alone expected to return to spawn.

But because in the ocean a fisher cannot distinguish a Klamath salmon from a Sacramento one, both runs could soon be off-limits. Today, the Pacific Fisheries Management Council meets in Seattle to find a way to salvage the season. Fishers, conservationists, regulators and scientists will spend the week taking stock of the Klamath River’s run, looking at models and predictions.

They are expected to emerge with three options for regulators to consider when setting the season later this spring.

Those who depend on the salmon season for a living are optimistic they will get some days to fish. But they could be sharply curtailed from last year’s shortened season. And scientists at the National Marine Fisheries Service, which has final say on the season, could override any decision and declare the Klamath stocks too imperiled to risk any fishing.

That has anglers and fishers scrambling to find any way to save their fishery.

“We could suffer some small closures, or tailor the closures to a fathom line or the state line or something,” said Roger Thomas, skipper of the party boat Salty Lady, based in Sausalito, and a council member. “But we’re going to try and do everything we can to continue our recreational season.”

That could be tough given the numbers.

Managers want to see at least 35,000 natural — not hatchery — fish return to the Klamath River every year. But for the past two years, the run has fallen below that benchmark. This year’s prediction calls for 29,200 returning “naturals” on the Klamath, triggering overfishing concerns under federal management rules.

In contrast, the Sacramento River last year saw 451,000 salmon return to spawn.

What is more, under the Endangered Species Act, anglers and commercial boats cannot catch more than 16 percent of the 4-year- old chinooks in the Klamath’s coastal run. For the past few years, biologists have set preseason catch limits at lower and lower thresholds, only to see the actual harvest zoom well past the 16 percent mark after tallying totals at season’s end.

Last year, trying to compensate for past errors, biologists agreed to let fishers catch what they thought would be only 8 percent of the 4-year-olds, a key spawning age. Instead, the salmon fleet and party boats caught 24 percent.

And though the 2006 season has not started, fishers caught

6,000 4-year-old chinook last fall, which counts against this year’s season. That is 6.7 percent of the projected’06 population, Grover notes, and near the estimate he and other scientists provided in’05 and missed by three times.

“The Endangered Species Act would say, ‘Your model has missed this three years in a row by a factor of three. We want you guys to give us a buffer,’” Grover added. “Those are two fairly onerous issues to overcome to have any fishing.”

And so, since fish tagged in the Klamath River have been caught as far south as Monterey, regulators say they have no choice but to clamp down along the entire coast.

Buyers last week said they were confident they could find salmon from Alaska or elsewhere to supply demand for the wild fish. But for the fishers, a closure could be disastrous.

“We’re looking at the death of a professional industry and the birth of a supplemental recreational fishery,” said Duncan MacLean, who has fished all his life out of El Granada, near Half Moon Bay.

Those holding day jobs and fishing on the side can ride out a year without salmon. But for those who depend on the sea for their full-time income, they would be, well, like fish out of water.

“I’m wondering what I’m going to do. Here I am at 56 and wondering what I’m going to do for my future.”

More information about the salmon run can be found at http:// www.pcouncil.org.