Fishermen weigh salmon options

COOS BAY — Commercial and recreational fishermen are split on several options the Pacific Fishery Management Council has laid out for the upcoming salmon season. But the general consensus is — ‘Hey! At least we have a fishing season.”

Fishermen shared their views during a public hearing Monday night at the Red Lion Hotel with the council — which included representatives from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Coast Guard and National Marine Fisheries Service. The council will make a final recommendation April 15 in Portland.

The council’s announcement earlier this year that a salmon season is likely came as a welcome relief to West Coast fishermen who have struggled without the fishery for the past two years.

‘Being allowed to fish has totally caught us off guard,” said Jeff Reeves, vice chairman of the Oregon Salmon Commission. ‘We didn’t think it was going to happen.”

In February, estimates called for 245,000 fall-run Chinook to return to the Sacramento River — enough to provide something of a fishing season.

Predictions have been off base before. Last year, the council estimated 122,000 salmon would return to the Sacramento River. It overshot its mark by 82,500.

‘Are you guys really kidding?” teased Charleston fisherman James Moore, adding seriously, ‘What happens if we go fishing and that prediction doesn’t come through?”

Council member Rod Moore (no relation to James Moore) stressed that the options are based on models of caution.

One option would give commercial fishermen a season May 1 through Sept. 30, with only a 5-day break beginning Aug. 25. It restricts coho and limits landings of Chinook to 100 per vessel per week.

A second favorable option would run May 1 through Aug. 25, with several weeks allowing only four days of fishing.

Reeves favors the first option.

‘It would allow a supply of fish to markets 30 days longer,” he told the council.

This option would allow a quota of 23,000 adult Chinook or about 24 percent of the total allowable harvest.

Option two would yield greater returns to the Sacramento River, with a small quota of 6,000 adult Chinook, allowing an escapement of 180,000 Chinook.

A third option would restrict the Sacramento River fish, but provides the most lenient quotas for Klamath River fall Chinook.

In all likelihood, when the council will combine several options to strike a compromise for commercial fishermen.

Reeves would be fine with that.

‘As I read it, you couldn’t make it too bad as a combo of all three,” he said.

Recreational fishermen commented at the hearing, too, with several speaking against a catch-and-release option for coho.

‘You bring them to their physiological limit when you bring them to the boat,” said Dan Varaoujean, a Coos Bay-based biologist and private consultant.

He said too many of those coho die from the stress. He and several others advised the council to give recreational fishermen a small daily quota of coho, marked or unmarked.