Waiting on the salmon: Feds mulling the options for a North Coast fishing season
John Driscoll
The Times-Standard
04/13/2010
Fishermen are waiting anxiously to find out what this year's salmon season will look like, as federal fisheries managers meeting in Portland, Ore., this week weigh potential effects of fishing on depleted Sacramento River salmon stocks.
The fishing season of the last few years has been so constrained that almost any of the options the Pacific Fishery Management Council is considering don't look so bad.
Ocean sport fishermen have the best shot at a decent season -- the worst case is just over two months of fishing in the Eureka and Trinidad area. Commercial fishermen still face closures along the California coast, though other options include some time on the water. The PFMC can also choose to blend options presented to it in March, but the aim will remain to ease the impacts on the most critical population of salmon in the Sacramento River system.
Eureka charter boat operator Phil Glenn said he believes there is a good chance the sport salmon season could stretch between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Last year, Glenn fished almost exclusively for halibut and rockfish on his boat the Shellback, as there was only one week open for salmon in the area. He made about 60 percent of what he would have if there had been a stronger salmon season, and expenses like fuel were higher.
”We're just looking forward to salmon,” Glenn said. “I will be ready to go.”
A critical issue being discussed this week is how much wiggle room Sacramento River salmon need. The PFMC estimated that slightly more than 122,000 salmon would return to the Sacramento in 2009, allowing only a small sport fishery off Eureka and Crescent City in the fall. However, only 39,500 chinook actually returned -- far fewer than the number believed needed to sustain the fishery.
The PFMC could try to make sure as many as 180,000 salmon are projected to return to the river, though commercial fishermen are pushing for an option that is believed would allow at least 165,000 fish to return to spawn. They're asking for areas from Horse Mountain -- just north of Shelter Cove -- to the south to be open between July 5 and Aug. 29 to tap areas farther away from the Sacramento.
”We feel it is essential to have greater fishing opportunity in the northern region so that more plentiful stocks to the north are accessed while shifting effort away from Sacramento stocks,” wrote Humboldt Fishermen's Marketing Association President Aaron Newman to the PFMC recently.
Discussion is expected to focus on the contribution to ocean salmon stocks by other rivers in Northern California, like the Klamath. Since many of those rivers had stronger years, that may dilute the effects of any poor prediction made for the Sacramento, as had happened in 2009.
