Oregon commercial fishermen are looking for decent season with the expectation of strong returns of chinook salmon. But the falling numbers of coho run from Columbia River hatcheries and worries over wild coastal fish mean charter boats and sports anglers can expect another mediocre year. Newport commercial fisherman Mark Newell said that fishermen are pretty excited and happy that we will have increased opportunities this year.
He also said that as salmon fishermen they know how it works on the unemployment lineThey will be glad to have the opportunity to go back to work. The Pacific Fishery Management Council is meeting in Vancouver, Wash., next week to draw up
three sets of options for West Coast ocean salmon fishing seasons.
The establishment of ocean seasons was promising in 2007, but the catch was poor. In 2008, the seasons were practically shut down coastwide for fear of wiping out the Sacramento chinook run after it took a sudden and unexpected drop. Both years, Congress voted disaster assistance to salmon fishermen. Last year, commercial seasons were again poor.
After that season the government has made efforts to assure that young salmon make it through the gantlet of irrigation pumps and canals in the Sacramento Delta to the ocean. And conditions in the ocean have been improving since 2010, offering more food to the fish as they grow to adulthood before returning to their native rivers to spawn. Since the 1990s, the bulk of the chinook catch has been allocated for the commercial fleet and sports fisherman have primarily targeted coho.
