Hook and Fur: Poor fish returns prompt tough choices for coastal fisheries

This year’s projected poor returns of coho and chinook salmon is not good news and has fish managers between the rock and the hard place on how to protect the low numbers of returning wild coho and chinook while still providing fishing opportunities acceptable to the recreational community, commercial industry and tribal co- managers. To that end, the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) recently approved three coastal salmon fishery alternatives during their ROHNERT PARK, California, meeting. The PFMC establishes fishing seasons in ocean waters three to two hundred miles off the Pacific coast.

Listed below are those PFMC alternatives (including quotas) which are open to public comment and review through the WDFW website.

1* Alternative One: 32,500 chinook and 42,000 coho. All four Marine areas 1 (Ilwaco), 3 (La Push) and 4 (Neah Bay) would open June 23, while Marine Area 2 (Westport) would open July 1. All four areas would be open daily through September 3. This option would also have a fishery scheduled from September 29-October 14 in the La Push late-season area.

2* Alternative Two: 27,500 chinook and 29,400 coho. Marine areas 1,3, and 4 would open daily June 30-September 3, while Marine Area 2 would open be open five days a week (Sunday through Thursday) June 24-September 3. This option would also have a fishery scheduled from September 29-October 14 in the La Push late-season area.

3* Alternative Three: 22,500 chinook and 16,400 coho. All four marine areas would be open July 1- September 3. Marine Area 2 would be open Sundays through Thursdays while the other areas would be open daily. This option does not include a late fishery in the La Push area.
Chinook and coho quotas approved by the PFMC will be part of a comprehensive 2018 salmon -fishing package, which includes marine and freshwater fisheries throughout Puget Sound, the Columbia River and Washington coastal area.
Kyle Adicks, salmon fisheries policy lead for the WDFW said “We’ll use those range of options to work with stakeholders to develop a final fishing package for 2018 that meet our conservation objectives for wild salmon. We know ocean salmon quotas for chinook will be the lowest in several years and coho quotas will be limited again this year due to weak forecast returns to several rivers.” State and tribal co-managers are currently developing those fisheries.

About 112,500 hatchery chinook are expected to return to the lower Columbia this year. That’s down about 50 percent from the ten-year average. Those fish, known as “tules” are the backbone of the recreational ocean chinook fishery.”

Meanwhile, fishery managers expect 286,200 Columbia River hatchery coho to return to the Washington coast, down about 100,000 fish from last year’s forecast. Only 279,300 coho actually returned to the Columbia last year, where some coho stocks were listed as protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. State and tribal co-managers will complete the final 2018 salmon fisheries package in conjunction with PFMC during its April meeting in Portland, Oregon.

Bob Brown can be contacted at “robertb1285@centurylink.net.”