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The PFMC has approved seasons and quotas for the west coast chinook and coho salmon fisheries. (Photo: NOAA)
West Coast salmon fishery open for first time since 2007
UNITED STATES
Tuesday, April 20, 2010, 02:00 (GMT + 9)
Commercial and recreational fishers will be able to catch ocean salmon along the West Coast for the first time since 2007.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) on Thursday approved seasons and quotas for chinook and coho salmon off the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California after finishing establishing policy and seasons for ocean fisheries at a weeklong session. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) will have to approve the decision.
The coast off California and much of Oregon was closed to commercial fishing the past two seasons due to falling salmon runs.
“This is nothing more than a token,” opined Zeke Grader, director of the San Francisco-based Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, made up of 1,500 members.
Due to the closures, coastal communities have received USD 170 million in federal disaster relief to help deal with financial losses, Associated Press reports.
The Sacramento River Basin has done worst, with numbers diving from 769,868 returning chinook in 2002 to a record-low 39,500 fall chinook in 2009. PFMC predicts 245,000 fall-run salmon for this year.
Many say the culprit is the diversion of the Sacramento River to irrigate the San Joaquin Valley.
“California and Oregon fishing jobs are just as important as those agricultural jobs,” said Paul Johnson, president of the wholesale and retail Monterey Fish Market in San Francisco and Berkeley. “It would be criminal to lose something that is as spectacular as a wild chinook salmon to flood a cotton crop in the desert.”
Despite it all, commercial and recreational salmon fishing generated USD 17 million to the West Coast economy last year, according to PFMC.
Northern Oregon and Washington’s commercial and recreational seasons depend on Columbia River salmon stocks and tend to run from June to late September. Southern Oregon and California’s recreational season goes from April through early September.
Oregon’s commercial chinook season will run for limited days from May through late August with a quota of 3,000 chinook from 1 July-31 August in southern Oregon.
California’s commercial season opens coastwide for eight days in July and will be limited thereafter through August to the Mendocino County area with a quota of 27,000.
Related articles:
- Officials wary about West Coast salmon season
- 2010 chinook salmon forecast optimistic
By Natalia Real
[email protected]
www.seafood.media
Photo Courtesy of FIS Member  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA/NMFS
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