Halt in U.S. Pacific salmon fishing urged!!!!!!!!!!!!

managers recommended on Thursday to halt virtually all commercial and sport salmon fishing in coastal waters off California and most of Oregon to preserve collapsing Chinook salmon stocks.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council recommended what would be the strictest limits ever imposed on salmon fishing on the West Coast following a sharp decline on California's Sacramento River Chinook salmon run, typically one of the region's most abundant runs.

"This is a disaster for West Coast salmon fisheries," said Don Hansen, chairman of the Pacific Fishery Management Council, in a statement.

The recommendations for salmon fishing along the 700-mile (1,100-km) coastline included a tiny catch quota of 9,000 hatchery coho salmon in central Oregon. It will be forwarded to the National Marine Fisheries Service for approval by May 1.

Between 2000 and 2005, fishermen, on average, caught more than 800,000 Chinook salmon a year in California and Oregon fisheries during the May-to-October fishing season, according to the council.

As recently as 2002, 775,000 adult Chinook salmon returned to the Sacramento River to spawn, but the organization projects only 54,000 Chinook will return this fall even with the halt in salmon fishing.

"The reason for the sudden decline of Sacramento River fish is a mystery at this time," said Don McIsaac, the council's executive director.

"The only thing that can be done in the short term is to cut back the commercial and recreational fishing seasons to protect the remaining fish."

Fishermen will be allowed to catch coho salmon in northern Oregon and Washington state, but the council recommended that the quota be cut more than 80 percent from last year due to depleted stocks of that type of salmon.

As recently as 2002, 775,000 adult Chinook salmon returned to the Sacramento River to spawn, but the organization projects only 54,000 Chinook will return this fall even with the halt in salmon fishing.


That is a huge difference!

WOW thats a big difference. Whats there reasoning for this big plung in the numbers?

mtnman said:

WOW thats a big difference. Whats there reasoning for this big plung in the numbers?

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Big nets!

Now they realize this? This decline didnt just happen this past year, poor management perhaps? Lets just hope this closure(if any) will bring this industry back, just remember this could happen to ANY fishery if not properly managed by EVERYONE. I could go on but that would be another subject(C&R).

mtnman said:

WOW thats a big difference. Whats there reasoning for this big plung in the numbers?

Click to expand...

Poor management of the fishery and the resource.

They have diverted so much of the flow of the spawning rivers for agriculture. The low volume allows the rivers to silt up so that even the fish that do make it back to spawn have no decent water to spawn in and fewer fry make it back to the oceans. Then there's the assholes with the nets who play cowboy at the mouth of the river and scoop up everything they can in the 1 or 2 day "fishing season".

We can only hope it's not too late to save the fishery if not the entire Pacific salmon stock.

I agreed, I always catch and release and if I do take I only take what I am going to eat that day. I think everyone should do that..

X

Last season I took 54 Salmon from Lake Michigan. Is that a lot? To some it is. I guess it all depends on what gets done with all that fish. I have 9 different families/people that like salmon but don't fish for one reason or another. I know I didn't distribute the fish evenly between all 9 households but if I did that would still be only 12 per family or 1 per month per family. Certainly not over-harvesting in my eyes. Of course this is Lake Michigan where most (if not all) of the salmon are stocked. As far as C&R with salmon, I'm not sure they will survive. Most of all the Kings I've brought in seem pretty exhausted and die pretty quickly in my live well. Especially the ones that were 80-100' deep.