<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2012/03/08/abundant-sacramento-and-klamath-salmon-drive-season-options/">http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2012/03/08/abundant-sacramento-and-klamath-salmon-drive-season-options/</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.fishsniffer.com/content/1719-abundant-sacramento-klamath-salmon-drive-season-options.html">http://www.fishsniffer.com/content/1719-abundant-sacramento-klamath-salmon-drive-season-options.html</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">In the Klamath River, biologists are forecasting four times more salmon than last year – and an astounding 15 times more than in 2006, according to the PFMC. The ocean salmon population is estimated to be 1.6 million adult Klamath River fall Chinook, compared to last year’s forecast of 371,100. </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">Photo of the Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting to develop season options courtesy of the PFMC.</font></p> <br><img src="cid:2495F85A-FAE9-45B8-B122-9876F1B62CAE@local"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 25px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 25px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial"><b>08_ma.jpg</b></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 25px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><b><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></b></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 25px; "><font style="font: 13.0px Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="6"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 24px;">Abundant Sacramento and Klamath salmon drive season option</span></font></font><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">s </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 25px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 25px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">by Dan Bacher </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 25px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 25px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) at its meeting in Sacramento on March 7, encouraged by predictions of plentiful salmon returns along the West Coast, released three alternatives for ocean salmon fisheries including those based on Sacramento and Klamath River stocks. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 25px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 25px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">In all three alternatives, the recreational ocean salmon season is slated to open on April 7 in the Fort Bragg, San Francisco and Monterey areas, from Horse Mountain to the U.S./Mexico Border. There are three opening date alternatives – May 1, May 12 and May 26 – for the Oregon and California Klamath Management Zones. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 25px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 25px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">After hearing public comment on the alternatives, the Council will make a final recommendation at their next meeting in Seattle on April 1-6. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 25px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 25px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">“It is great to see such a nice rebound for California salmon populations and the prospect of good fishing in 2012,” said Council chairman Dan Wolford. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 25px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 25px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">“Anglers should be be very happy about the salmon season alternatives released Wednesday,” said Craig Stone, owner of the Emeryville Sportfishing Center and a member of the Salmon Advisory Subpanel of the PFMC. “The salmon population is in a lot better shape than it was last year or two years ago. If the pre-season projections are close to the actual numbers of fish that return to spawn, it should be a banner year also on the Sacramento and Klamath rivers.” </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 25px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 25px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">Salmon fisheries in California and Oregon look particularly promising, due primarily to “good river conditions and excellent ocean conditions for salmon,” according to a statement from the PFMC. Sacramento, Klamath, and Rogue River Chinook returns are expected to be significantly higher than during the past several years, and Oregon Coast coho also have a strong forecast. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 25px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 25px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">However, these fishery alternatives are necessarily constrained to protect Endangered Species Act-listed Sacramento River winter Chinook, now in alarming decline, and Columbia River coho stocks. North of Cape Falcon, returns look similar to last year. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 25px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font style="font: 13.0px Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><i>Klamath River expected to see record salmon return </i></span></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">In the Klamath River, biologists are forecasting four times more salmon than last year – and an astounding 15 times more than in 2006, according to the PFMC. The ocean salmon population is estimated to be 1.6 million adult Klamath River fall Chinook, compared to last year’s forecast of 371,100. </font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">This estimate is based largely on the 85,840 two-year-old salmon (jacks) that returned to the Klamath in 2011. This is the highest number of jacks to return since at least 1978, when recordkeeping began. </font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">“Sacramento stocks are also looking better, with a conservative forecast of ocean abundance of 819,400 Sacramento River fall Chinook, up from 729,000 last year,” the PFMC said. “Adult spawners in the Sacramento system are expected to be at least 436,000. The spawning escapement objective is 122,000 – 180,000 adult spawners, and the 2012 annual catch limit is at least 245,820 spawners.” </font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">The PFMC said these returns are particularly important when seen in the context of the last several years, since Klamath and Sacramento stocks drive ocean fishing seasons off California and Oregon. </font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">In 2008 and 2009, poor Sacramento returns, spurred by a “Perfect Storm” of record water exports out of the California Delta, poor ocean conditions and bad federal and state water management, led to the largest fishery closures on record. In 2010, returns improved, allowing limited commercial fishing season off California. </font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">A total of 200,460 chinook salmon, including 114,741 adults and 85,719 jacks, returned to the Sacramento, Feather and American rivers and their tributaries in the fall of 2011. This number includes both hatchery and naturally spawning fish. </font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">The Feather River saw the largest number of fish, 84,518 fish, including 53,845 adults and 30,673 jacks. The upper Sacramento saw a total of 77,942 fish, including 39,778 adults and 38,164 jacks, while the American River reported 38,000 salmon, including 21,118 adults and 7,919 jacks. </font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font style="font: 13.0px Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><i>Winter run and spring chinooks continue to decline </i></span></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">While the fall run chinook has rebounded, the Sacramento River winter run chinook salmon, an endangered species under the state and federal Endangered Species Acts, declined to its lowest level in the past 10 years in 2011, due to record water exports out of the California Delta and declining water quality. Only 637 adults and 187 jacks, a total of 825 fish, came back to the Sacramento to spawn in 2011. </font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">This estimate is derived from a carcass survey conducted on the upper Sacramento River and includes winter Chinook captured in the Keswick trap, which provides broodstock to Livingston Stone National Fish Hatchery. </font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">“For the better part of three years during the fall run collapse, there was little or no commercial and recreational fishing for salmon,” emphasized Dick Pool, president of Water for Fish. “You have to look hard at the environmental and habitat factors for the winter run and other runs during that period of time. We know there are many problems with salmon habitat in the Delta and upper river, flows, temperatures and other factors that these fish have deal with to survival.” </font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">The spring chinook run also struggles to survive. Escapement of spring Chinook to the Sacramento River system in 2011 totaled 7,400 fish (jacks and adults), most of which (an estimated 5,431 fish) returned to upper Sacramento River tributaries; the remaining 1,969 fish returned to the Feather River Hatchery. </font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">While the fall run chinook abundance forecasts for the Sacramento and Klamath rivers look very promising, the runs of both rivers are threatened by the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build the peripheral canal. A coalition of Delta residents, fishermen, Indian Tribes, environmentalists and family farmers is opposing the peripheral canal’s construction because it would lead to the extinction of native Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, green sturgeon, striped bass and southern resident killer whales, which feed upon salmon. </font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">The peripheral canal also threatens the salmon runs of the Trinity River, the Klamath’s largest tributary, because much of the water to be delivered through the canal is expected to come from the Trinity via Whiskeytown Reservoir. </font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font style="font: 13.0px Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><i>Summary of sport and commercial seasons: </i></span></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">Ocean Chinook recreational fishing alternatives in the Brookings/Crescent City/Eureka area open in May and continue into September. </font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">California ocean sport fishing alternatives generally start April 7 and run through October or November from Fort Bragg south, but size limits vary in the San Francisco and Monterey areas to protect ESA-listed Sacramento winter-run Chinook. </font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">California commercial fishing alternatives in Crescent City/Eureka have quota fisheries in late September or are closed. In Fort Bragg, commercial alternatives open in July or August and run through September. </font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">In the San Francisco and Monterey areas, alternatives open May 1 and run through September with some closures in June. Along the south-central coast, season alternatives are open from May 1 through September 30. </font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">The Council also included alternatives to collect genetic stock identification samples from research fisheries in closed times and areas. All fish caught in research fisheries would have to be released unharmed after collection of biological samples. </font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">Public hearings to receive input on the alternatives are scheduled for March 26 in Westport, Washington and Coos Bay, Oregon; and for March 27 in Eureka, California. The Council will consult with scientists, hear public comment, and revise preliminary decisions until it chooses a final alternative at its meeting during the week of April 1 in Seattle, Washington. </font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">At its April 1-6 meeting in Seattle, the Council will narrow these options to a single season recommendation to be forwarded to National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for their final approval before May 1. </font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">All Council meetings are open to the public, and audio is streamed online (for information on how to hear the online audio, go to <a href="http://tinyurl.com/7vvxuvg"><font color="#c88500" style="color: #c88500">http://tinyurl.com/7vvxuvg</font></a>. </font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 22.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">For more information, go to: <br> · Pacific Fishery Management Council: <a href="http://www.pcouncil.org/"><font color="#c88500" style="color: #c88500">http://www.pcouncil.org</font></a> <br> · Options for 2012 salmon management will be posted on the Council website (link above) this evening. <br> · Geographical points used in salmon management: <a href="http://www.pcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/geosalmon1.pdf"><font color="#c88500" style="color: #c88500">http://www.pcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/geosalmon1.pdf</font></a> <br> · Explanation of common terms used in salmon management: <a href="http://www.pcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/com_terms_salmon.pdf"><font color="#c88500" style="color: #c88500">http://www.pcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/com_terms_salmon.pdf</font></a></font></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 25px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 25px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Georgia; min-height: 12px; "><i></i><br></div></span></font></body></html>