that is excellent news blackie, especially
after reading this:
freerepublic.com
Fish managers impose sweeping salmon closure (CA, OR, WA)
The Oregonian ^ | April 10, 2008 22:00PM | Michael Milstein
Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008 8:09:49 AM by jazusamo
Any hopes salmon fishermen had for even token chinook fishing in Oregon faded Thursday when federal fisheries managers adopted the most restrictive limits on West Coast salmon fisheries in history.
The recommendation by the Pacific Fishery Management Council allows fishing for 9,000 hatchery coho salmon off Central Oregon. No other salmon fishing will be allowed south of Cape Falcon, a point between Seaside and Tillamook.
That eliminates a fishery that has typically been one of the richest on the West Coast, averaging catches of more than 800,000 chinook annually from 2000 to 2005.
Salmon fishing north of Cape Falcon and in Washington will also be severely restricted, with the coho salmon catch cut by about 80 percent compared to last year. Fishing for chinook will be limited too, so that inadvertent catches don't cut into the very low numbers of coho salmon that remain.
The shutdown of fishing north of Cape Falcon is driven by the collapse of Sacramento River fall chinook salmon, usually the strongest salmon stock on the West Coast and the source of about three of every four chinook salmon caught off Oregon. Fisheries officials did not allow fishing even for healthier salmon stocks because of the risk of accidentally hooking and killing the few Sacramento salmon remaining in the ocean.
Coho salmon numbers in Oregon and Washington have also fallen sharply.
Oregon officials lobbied for a small commercial and recreational chinook fishery off Oregon, but California fisheries officials argued that the impact on Sacramento salmon roaming off the Oregon coast was unacceptable.
"They said that one dead fish was too much, essentially," said Rod Moore, executive director of the West Coast Seafood Processors Association and a member of the council.
The fishery council recommendation will be forwarded to the National Marine Fisheries Service for adoption by May 1. |
