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Salmon fishing may be banned
Pacific Fisheries Council considers total ban along Oregon, Califonia coast

2/25/2006

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Salmon fishing could be banned outright or severely restricted this summer along 700 miles of coastline from northern Oregon through central California as the number of spawning salmon is expected to miss mandatory conservation minimums, fishing regulators said Friday.

A total ban on commercial and recreational salmon fishing from Cape Falcon in Oregon to Point Sur in California is one of several options likely to be considered at the March meeting of the Pacific Fisheries Management Council, which advises federal regulators about offshore fishing limits in the Pacific Ocean, said council officer Chuck Tracy.

The council will then present its final recommendations in April to the National Marine Fisheries Service to set limits on this season's harvest.

Biologists are concerned that fewer mature chinook salmon are spawning to replace fish that are dying off.

For the third year in a row, the number of mature chinook salmon leaving the ocean to spawn in the Klamath River is expected to fall below the required 35,000 minimum, which could lead to new regulations to combat overfishing.

Even with an outright ban, only 29,000 spawning salmon are expected to return to the Klamath this year, Tracy said.

Declining water quality and disease threaten the survival of those that do attempt to return.

"It would be devastating for the fisheries," he said. "But it's important for the industry to achieve that conservation objective. The industry relies on the Klamath River, and if we're not providing the spawners in the river, we're not going to have the same production from those fisheries."

Salmon season in the affected area typically starts in May and lasts through September, and any major restrictions could mean a shortage of wild salmon in restaurants and millions in lost revenues for commercial salmon fisheries.

About half of the fisheries along the coast were closed last season over spawning concerns, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in losses for fisheries, said Zeke Grader, executive director of The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, which represents about 2,000 fishing businesses.

The group is considering whether to ask for a call for federal disaster declaration relief along the coast or an emergency exemption allowing fishing despite conservation shortfalls.

"For most fishermen, salmon is critical for a major portion of their income," Grader said. "This is a killer. This is a fishery that's a century old and this is the first time to my knowledge that it would be totally closed."