The California Department of Fish and Game released forecasts that the North Coast may have a salmon season for the first time in three years, but it could be so limited that few fishermen would find it financially worthwhile to go out. The department also said that the number of chinook salmon that it expects to return this fall to the Central Valley, a key component in whether commercial fishing will be allowed this year.
It is told that the prediction is for more fish, 65,000, over the threshold set by the state before it allows a commercial fishing season. However, for the 300 California trawlers plus the out-of-state boats, that may be too few to pay the costs of even venturing out. Dave Bitts, a Eureka fisherman who advises the Pacific Fishery Management Council, opined that every fisherman is ready to do what they can to offer a season with what’s available.
Fisherman Dave Tettleton of Anchor Bay said he would fish and supports any season at all. The state’s meeting was a chance for fishermen to influence the decision that the Pacific Fishery Management Council will make in April. In 2009, 39,530 natural and hatchery-raised chinook returned to the Central Valley, the lowest number on record and just a third of the 122,196 that state biologists predicted a year ago.
Fishermen blame the low returns of the past several years on environmental factors in the Central Valley river system that include pumping fresh water for domestic use and pollution from farming operations. The fishing season gets curtailed by the council when the fish population in the Sacramento River is low, even though fisherman contend fishing is not driving the population decline.
