There is hope Pacific chinook salmon will come back in enough numbers to warrant a harvest. (Photo: Stock File)

California salmon might stage a comeback

UNITED STATES
Friday, February 26, 2010, 15:30 (GMT + 9)

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) is optimistic about this coming fall’s number of chinook salmon returning to the Central Valley despite 2009’s historic collapse. Some 245,500 king salmon are expected to return to the Sacramento River basin this year.

Fishers have received the news with some scepticism, however -- even though 122,000 chinook were predicted to return to the river last year, a record-low 39,500 chinook completed the run. Back in 2002, more than 750,000 fish had been observed.

"It looks like there may be enough for a very, very small season, a little bit of fishing but not much," said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA).

"A lot of this is going to depend on how conservative the council feels it has to be. They over-predicted the last couple of years," he added, Associated Press reports.

Chuck Tracy, head of the council’s salmon section, said another good indication there could be more salmon off the California and Oregon coasts this year is the returns seen to the north in the Klamath River, where over 331,000 mature chinook are forecast to return in the fall.

Before any final decisions are made, though, the Portland, Oregon-based council will be conducting more studies, he said. A final recommendation will be announced at the council's meeting in Sacramento, California next month.

Because it supplies much of the salmon fished off the coasts of Oregon and California, the Sacramento River king salmon run is closely monitored. Commercial and recreational salmon fishing seasons in California have been cancelled in recent years due to the steep decline of fish returning to the Sacramento area.

The west coast’s premium fish — king salmon — yielded just 13,500 last year, the lowest amount on record. And with California out for the past two years, commercial salmon fishers in the west landed only USD 1.15 million worth of fish in 2009, or 91 per cent below the average for the previous five years, according to the council's website.

Commercial and recreational salmon fishing contributed a total of USD 17 million to the West Coast economy last year, the second lowest year on record.

In the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, fishers and federal regulators blame the salmon’s decline on the large pumps used to move water for use by cities and farms. The pumping allegedly precludes fish from travelling from their spawning grounds in the freshwater back to the ocean to mature.

Some also attribute the decline to changing ocean conditions due to global warming.

Related article:

- California returning chinook salmon reach new low

By Natalia Real
[email protected]
www.seafood.media

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