[env-trinity] SF Chronicle March 15 Chinook

[Byron]

 <http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/> San Francisco Chronicle

1-year ban on chinook salmon fishing proposed

Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer <mailto:pfimrite at sfchronicle.com> 

Saturday, March 15, 2008

 

(3-15) 04:00 PDT Sacramento -- Commercial and recreational fishing for
chinook salmon will be banned this year under two of the three options
outlined Friday by the Pacific Fishery Management Council to handle the
catastrophic disappearance of California's fabled run of the pink fish
popularly known as king salmon.

Even if some fish are taken for scientific purposes - a possibility under
one of the scenarios - the overriding message that came out of the weeklong
series of federal hearings in Sacramento is that the West Coast salmon
fishery is in the midst of complete disaster.

The council did propose one option that would allow limited fishing, but the
likelihood of any significant commercial or sport fishing this year is
minimal, fisheries experts said.

"This will be the first total closure since commercial fishing started in
the San Francisco Bay Area in 1848," said Zeke Grader, the executive
director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman's Associations, who,
like most anglers, acknowledges that closing the season is necessary if the
chinook are to be saved.

"Right now we're looking at trying to keep the industry alive for the next
two years," he said.

So few fall-run chinook came back to spawn in the Sacramento River and its
tributaries last fall that the fishery council is required under its
management plan to halt fishing throughout the salmon habitat, which is all
along the California and Oregon coasts.

Only an emergency ruling by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez could change
the requirement, and that, according to fisheries experts, is unlikely
except to allow limited fishing for scientific purposes. 

Recreational fishing is scheduled to kick off in April. Commercial fishing
would start the following month and run through mid-November. If the ban
holds, it would mean the loss of $20.7 million that commercial and
recreational salmon fishing brings into the California economy each year.
The 400 or so commercial fishermen and women in the state stand to lose 70
to 80 percent of their annual incomes.

Losses in Oregon would top $9 million. At least 1,000 fishermen troll the
waters for king salmon between Santa Barbara to Washington State.

"It is clearly an absolute crisis," said Dick Pool, president of Pro-Troll,
a company based in Concord that manufactures fishing equipment.

The management council, a federal agency created 32 years ago to manage the
Pacific Coast fishery, winnowed the options down to three Fridays following
a week of testimony and the digestion of mounds of documents and studies.

One of the proposals by the 14-member council - which is made up of
commercial and sportfishing representatives, conservationists, biologists,
and wildlife agency representatives - would close the entire salmon fishing
season this year. 

The second option would allow fish to be caught between May 1 and Aug. 31
only for scientific research. 

A third option would allow limited commercial fishing in three areas.
Fishing would be permitted in Oregon between April 15 and May 31, but the
catch would be restricted to 28-inch chinook and larger. In August only,
limited fishing would be permitted in fishing zones from San Francisco to
Eureka. Recreational fishing would be permitted from May 18 to May 26 in the
Monterey area and from April 15 to June 15 in Oregon.

All three options will now go through a monthlong public comment period,
during which scientists and number crunchers will change the calculations
and tweak the proposals until one stands out as the most viable. The
National Marine Fisheries Service is expected to approve the final decision
on the salmon fishing season the second week of April.

The Sacramento fall spawning season was the last great salmon run along the
giant Central Valley river system, including the San Joaquin River, where
leaping, wriggling chinook were once so plentiful that old-timers recalled
reaching in and simply plucking fish right out of the water.

Dams, water diversions for farming, silt from logging and pollution from
industry and agriculture long ago combined to diminish the late fall, winter
and spring runs. The fall run, which numbered more than 800,000 spawning
fish just six years ago, has been reduced to a small fraction of that.
Experts are predicting that a little more than 50,000 fish will be in the
river this coming fall. 

No change next year

Most fishing industry representatives and anglers have already written off
next year based on the projections.

Pool said that this year and 2009 "are toast as far as we are concerned.
We're targeting 2010 and 2011."

Fisheries managers have already canceled early-season ocean fishing for
chinook off Oregon, where commercial trolling had been set to open today up
to the Oregon-California border. 

Another ocean salmon fishing season that was set last year began Feb. 17 in
the Shelter Cove area off Garberville (Humboldt County). The state is
expected to follow the lead of the feds and close that season during a
meeting in April, said spokesman Harry Morse, of the California Department
of Fish and Game, which controls fishing within three miles of the coast.
Morse said a ruling is also expected during the meeting on whether to allow
a freshwater salmon catch, which he said is unlikely if the ocean season is
shut down. One option presented by the council Friday recommended that a
1,000-fish limit be enacted for anglers on the Central Valley river system,
including the Sacramento, San Joaquin and Feather rivers. 

Nobody knows for sure what has caused the recent precipitous decline of the
chinook salmon, but the National Marine Fisheries Service pointed to a
sudden lack of nutrient-rich deep ocean upwellings caused by ocean
temperature changes as a possible cause. 

Most biologists believe it is a combination of factors, including
agricultural pollution and damaged habitat. Grader and Pool are members of a
coalition of anglers, Indian tribes and environmentalists who claimed Friday
that the collapse corresponded with increases in exports from the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta between 2001 and 2007. 

The coalition members called for reductions in water exports to agricultural
interests in the Central Valley, tighter controls on pollution and more
enforcement of environmental laws.

Fight for survival

"This is a battle for the whole coast," Grader said, "and I think it is time
that we began taking action." 

One certainty is that consumers can kiss fresh West Coast wild salmon
goodbye for now and expect to pay astronomical prices for the Alaska
equivalent. 

Paul Johnson, president of the Monterey Fish Market, a high-end seafood
wholesaler at San Francisco's Pier 33, said this week that people can expect
to see salmon in fancy restaurants for around $40 a portion, about twice the
normal price. 

The price fishermen get for their catch has gone up from about $1.75 a pound
three years ago to about $5.50 a pound, but to most anglers, the situation
isn't about money anymore. It's about survival of a species. 

"I, for one, am more interested in making sure my grandchildren will be able
to experience these wonderful natural resources than I am in making a living
at it," said Duncan MacLean, who has represented commercial fishermen before
the council this past week. "It's the responsibility of our government to
ensure the future of those resources and they are falling flat on their
faces."

"There's no smoking gun here," he said, "but there are a lot of empty
weapons and spent shell casings."

Online resource 

For the recommended chinook fishing restrictions:

www.pcouncil.org/whatsnew.html

 

 

Byron Leydecker

Friends of Trinity River, Chair

PO Box 2327

Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327

415 383 4810

415 519 4810 cell

415 383 9562 fax

bwl3 at comcast.net

bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary)

http://www.fotr.org

 

 

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