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Apr 10, 2008 10:06 pm US/Pacific
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California, Oregon Cancel Salmon Fishing Season
SEATTLE (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ―
West Coast fisheries managers voted Thursday to cancel all commercial salmon fishing off the California and Oregon coasts this year.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council decided to allow limited recreational coho fishing on holiday weekends off the Oregon coast, but no recreational fishing off California after several members of the panel argued that every salmon counts.
"It wasn't an unexpected decision, but it was a big disappointment," said Zeke Grader of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Association, which is based in San Francisco.
The decision came after the council considered the extremely low number of salmon reported, especially in the Sacramento River.
Scientists and government officials are expecting this year's West Coast salmon season to be one of the worst in history, because of the collapse of Sacramento River chinook, one of the West Coast's biggest wild salmon runs.
Although commercial salmon fishing off the Washington coast is scheduled to begin May 1, fisheries managers do not predict a good season off either the north or south Pacific coasts.
"For the entire West Coast, this is the worst in history," Don McIsaac, the council's executive director, said before several close votes led to the fisheries plan for 2008.
"This is a disaster for West Coast salmon fisheries, under any standard," added Don Hansen, the chairman for the council.
"There will be a huge impact on the people who fish for a living, those who eat wild-caught king salmon, those who enjoy recreational fishing, and the businesses and coastal communities dependent on these fisheries," he said.
The council's decision still must be confirmed by May 1 by NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service, the federal agency in charge of salmon management.
Even before the council's vote, however, officials were on to the next step: disaster relief for fishermen.
"We're going to be asking for federal assistance and looking for alternatives to keep our fishermen afloat for the next year or two until we get a chance to fix salmon problem," said Grader.
The governors of Washington, Oregon and California have already signed letters seeking a disaster declaration. Congress will be asked to make a fast decision on money to alleviate the suffering of fishermen and any other impacts of the cutback, said Brian Gorman, a NOAA Fisheries spokesman.
In addition, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he would sign a state bill that would appropriate approximately $5.3 million to begin coastal salmon and steelhead fishery restoration projects.
"Today's decision by the Pacific Fishery Management Council underscores our responsibility to quickly free up state and federal resources to help the fishing industry cope with the devastating economic impacts closing the season will have," Schwarzenegger said.
Scientists are studying the causes of the Sacramento River chinook collapse, with possible factors ranging from ocean conditions and habitat destruction to dam operations and agricultural pollution.
According to Earthjustice, a law firm dedicated to protecting the environment, water managers on the Sacramento River diverted and pumped an all-time record high of 6.4 million acre feet of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in 2005. Juvenile fish that year would have returned as adults in 2007 to migrate through the delta and out to sea.
The lack of fresh water inflow negatively impacted the number of fish, not only in the Sacramento River, but also in the Klamath and Columbia rivers, the firm contends.
A proposal to allow limited fishing for scientific purposes was struck down Thursday by the panel.
Grader said he was hoping the council wouldn't let the closure affect catch-and-release studies that were scheduled for this summer. He said such studies help determine the cause of fish shortages.
"These salmon are recoverable if we make smart choices and make them soon," said Todd True, an attorney for Earthjustice. "The science tells us it's not hopeless, but it is increasingly urgent to pay attention and change the way we're managing these three rivers so all people can enjoy salmon again."
In 2006, the salmon season extending from Cape Falcon, Ore., about 30 miles south of the mouth of the Columbia River, south to the Mexican border, also was severely restricted. Congress granted disaster relief totaling $62 million for fishermen in Oregon and California, Gorman said.
Although the nature of the problem is different this year, the impact will be at least as broadly felt, experts said.
In 2007, average quotas for the southern coast were allowed, while fishing was restricted north of Cape Falcon to the Canadian border.
The Sacramento River chinook run is usually one of the most productive on the coast, but counts last fall found a record low number of chinook returning to California's Central Valley.
San Francisco commercial fisherman Barbara Emley said the signs of this year's problems with the chinook run have been obvious for a few years.
"This has unmasked the issue behind the problem," said Emley, who has fished for salmon with her husband on their boat, the Autumn Gale, for more than 20 years. Too few juvenile fish survive to swim out to the Pacific Ocean, she said.
Two years ago, busloads of fisherman attended the Pacific Fishery council's meetings to protest the proposed cutbacks. This year, little opposition was voiced.
"I believe that the council is doing what it has to do," Emley said, adding that the real problem is out of the hands of the council, which can only regulate fishing, not other industries and government agencies affecting the salmon.
Emley said she saw this action coming while out on her boat last year, when she and her husband saw so few juvenile salmon.
"That's one of the reasons you may not see a lot of resistance in the building today," she said. "We know it's real."
Consumers can expect to have a hard time finding chinook at stores later this year, but they will still be able to buy farm-raised salmon, as well as wild sockeye from Alaska.
Typically, the salmon season spans from May 1 through Oct. 31 and, between California and Oregon, averaged more than 800,000 Chinook salmon caught annually between 2000 and 2005.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Associated Press and Bay City News contributed to this report.)