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Salmon fishing banned for second season (updated)

Posted by: Maven on April 9, 2009 at 7:33 am

From the Fresno Bee:

California’s commercial chinook salmon fishing season will be called off again after a record low number of the fish returned to the Sacramento River to spawn last year, federal fisheries managers announced Wednesday. The decision by the Pacific Fishery Management Council will almost completely curtail commercial fishing in Oregon as well, but allows the sport and commercial seasons in Washington to proceed at an almost normal level.

The halt to California’s salmon fishing season marks the second year in a row that the council has completely halted commercial angling for natural and hatchery chinook or “king” salmon. Last year’s cancellation was the first ever.

A 10-day sport season in California will be allowed from Eureka to the Oregon border from Aug. 29 to Sept. 7, said Chuck Tracy, salmon staff officer for the council.

In Oregon, regulators will allow 11,000 coho salmon to be fished in September. But chinook salmon can only be caught off the northernmost area of the Oregon coast near Washington.

The council will now forward its decision to the National Marine Fisheries Service for approval before May 1.

Read more from the Fresno Bee by clicking here.

From the Santa Rosa Press Democrat:

The commercial fishing grounds have been greatly reduced along the North Coast in the past 15 years since the federal government decided that half the Klamath River’s salmon must be set aside for Indian tribes there.

Tweny years ago the annual fishery council meetings often featured scores of sport and commercial fishermen railing against the council for its proposed fishing restrictions. Outside one meeing in 1990, fishermen demonstrated in the streets of Eureka, even carrying a casket to lament the downfall of the region’s fishery.

The numbers of angry fishermen seemed to grow whenever the restrictions grew especially strict.

But Wednesday only a few commercial fishermen watched the proceedings and no one spoke against the ban.

“We’re lucky to get three or four trollers here now,” explained Dave Bitts, a Eureka commercial fishermen and president of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. Moreover, he said, a lot of fishermen probably would conclude that the council made “the right decision” because the few available salmon should be spared to protect the fishery.

More from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat by clicking here.

From Dan Bacher at the Sacramento News & Review:

“The collapse of salmonid fisheries has led to a corresponding depression in the recreational fishing industry,” said California Sportfishing Protection Alliance executive director Bill Jennings. “It makes no sense to sacrifice California’s historic fishing industry in order to supply subsidized water to grow subsidized nonfood crops on impaired desert lands that by design discharge toxic wastes back to Central Valley waterways.”

California’s freshwater recreational fishery generates $1.5 billion in retail sales, $2.5 billion in trip-related expenses and almost 27,000 jobs. The marine recreational fishery generates $3.7 billion in retail sales, $1.9 billion in value-added impacts and almost 23,000 jobs.

In a recent legislative hearing convened by Assemblyman Jared Huffman, scientists, fishermen and environmentalists urged the government to take immediate action.

“The fish don’t lie,” said UC Davis fisheries expert Peter Moyle, author of a January 2008 report commissioned by California Trout on the status of California’s native salmon and trout populations. “The story they tell is that California’s environment is unraveling.”

“There are a myriad of problems facing salmon, but what has to be done before anything else, and above all else, is restoring water flows in the Delta and our coastal streams,” said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations.

Read more from Dan Bacher at the Sacramento News & Review by clicking here.

April 9, 2009 · Filed Under Wildlife & Endangered Species

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