Full Forecaste

Past Month's Most Commented Stories

Home > This Day

Columbia River spring chinook plan will be presented at Dec. 11 forum

Thursday, December 4, 2008 11:45 PM PST

By Allen Thomas
The Columbian

Font Size:
 
 

A new plan for splitting the Columbia River spring chinook salmon catch between sport and commercial fishermen will be presented Dec. 11 to the Washington and Oregon fish and wildlife commissions.

The two panels will meet beginning at 12:30 p.m. at the Embassy Suites Portland Airport, 7900 N.E. 82nd Ave.

The Columbia River Fish Working Group has developed a complicated, multi-year plan for dividing the harvest, which is among the most bitterly contentious issues in Northwest fish management.

The working group included three commission members from each state. The six met monthly in September, October and November to develop a recommendation to the full commissions.

These are the four principles for spring chinook allocation, in this order:

• The highest priority is a 45-day sport fishery in March and April.

• Next priority is protecting the off-channel commercial fishery in places like Youngs Bay and Blind Slough in Oregon and Deep River in Washington.

• Allowing at least a little gillnetting in March or April in the lower Columbia is desirable if the run is large enough. (Next year, there’s a good chance no commercial or sport spring chinook fishing will be allowed in the Columbia downstream of Vancouver because of a weak return to the Willamette.)

• The split among sports fishing is 75 percent downstream of Bonneville Dam and 25 percent upstream.

The principles are paired with an allocation matrix which factors the strength of the upper Columbia and Willamette spring chinook runs when determining percentages. The sports share can range from 55 percent to 85 percent, depending on the forecasts for the two watersheds.

The base allocation is 65 percent sport and 35 percent commercial. Sport allocation was targeted to be 57 percent in 2007 and 61 percent in 2008.

Also part of the agreement is a 35 percent buffer early in the season.

Biologists predict the spring chinook run each December, but the forecast is often off as much as 20 percent to 60 percent, with 35 percent the average.

Under the recommendation, the sport and commercial fisheries would be permitted harvest to no more 65 percent of the projected allowable catch, leaving the buffer until the run can be updated by Bonneville Dam counts in early May.

The buffer is to prevent exceeding federal Endangered Species Act limits on wild chinook harvest and catch-sharing agreements with the Columbia River treaty tribes.

But many details of the plan remain to be determined.

For example, the 45 days of sport fishing might be all of March and the first 14 days of April, or could be all of March plus Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in April.

There will be no public comment accepted on Dec. 11 in Portland.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission will meet Dec. 12 at the same location in Portland to take public comment and make a decision on its spring chinook allocation policy.

Washington’s Fish and Wildlife Commission will meet beginning at 8:30 a.m. Dec. 13 at the Natural Resources Building, 1111 Washington St. S.E., Olympia to take public comment and adopt its policy.

The actual details of the 2009 spring chinook fishery will be adopted when state officials meet Jan. 29 in Oregon City.

Previous Next

TDN Bad Boy wrote on Dec 5, 2008 8:41 AM:

" The only plan that will work is for all salmon fishing, commercial, sport, and tribal, to be halted on the river and all of its tributaries for 4-8 years to give the fish a chance to recover for years to come. Keep on the current strategy and the wild stocks are bound to disappear. "

mole wrote on Dec 5, 2008 9:31 AM:

" this is the only thing,tdnbb has said,that is short and the truth."SALMON FOR ALL" "

CRfisherman wrote on Dec 5, 2008 10:49 AM:

" Mole: You agree with Bad Boy about shutting down all fishing and then you say "SALMON FOR ALL." Just like in the other article post that you left, your statement makes no sense. Please engage brain before typing...it's painful for everyone that accidentally reads your gibberish. "

Atrucker wrote on Dec 5, 2008 1:36 PM:

" 4-8 yrs that comes to 2 to live cycles for a salmon . They stay out to sea from 4-6 years , except jacks come back sooner. So 20 years might work , by your plan bad boy.
Mean while Oregon will be hammering them , just like they did last year . We can do pretty much nothing about the tribes , unless a federal law is passed.
We shall see what the new director has to say about all of this and more. "

mole wrote on Dec 5, 2008 2:20 PM:

" crfisherman,it makes no sense to "YOU"because you want salmon for "YOU" THE TRUTH IS ALLWAYS PAINFULL!! YOU NEVER THINK THE FISH YOU CATCH,HARMS THE SALMON!!!A hook caught salmon is just as dead !!!your words,say the nets catch more,when "sports allocations" usually range from 65% to 85% of the harvestable run,depending on return size!!!! the total catch, is way,way more for the total number of sports.But your individual catch is!!! {this might be jiberish to people who accidently reads this} .2 fish apiece,which means,there is really to many sportsfishermen,to share "your" allocation!!!! "SALMON FOR ALL" should be self explanitory!!!! but for you it would be "SALMON FOR ME" UNDERSTAND !!! "

mole wrote on Dec 5, 2008 2:44 PM:

" atrucker: GOOD IDEA!!I hope not 20 years for an improvement.The seasons,and allocations are decided by 4 states, one country, and the INDIAN NATIONS,{the Indians have 50% say}Oregon will fish the willamete,"thier" fish,they say. It would be disaster for the bussinesses[sp]and towns supported by, sports fishing!!! the old director,mainly was concerned about the puget sound not saying,he failed,but the INDIAN NATIONS,want those fish!!! not those sore back salmon,that make it over the dam!!! THE NEW DIRECTOR WILL NEVER GET THE BOLT DECISION REVERSED!! crfisherman: do not think the BOLT DECISION!! as jiberish, by the way,it is only jiberish when you don't understand!!!!! "

mole wrote on Dec 5, 2008 2:48 PM:

" it is not 2 fish a piece it is "point" 2 fish, apiece!!!! "

TDN Bad Boy wrote on Dec 5, 2008 4:03 PM:

" Atrucker, I said ALL tributaries, that would mean Oregon too. Sooner or later either this is going to happen or the same stocks will all become hatchery born. The wild stocks have little to no chance under the current system. If we stopped fishing on the CR and ALL it tributaries and that means Washington, Oregon, and Idaho and commercial, sport, and tribal we would give the wild stocks a chance for survival. Other than that, the salmon are doomed. And fishermen shouldn't complain. Do you think the Loggers would be complaining now if someone had stopped the clearcutting 30 or 40 years again and developed a plan to keep the forests vibrant for all? Salmon are going the way of the old-growth trees if the plan doesn't happen so. STOP ALL THE SALMON fishing on the CR and all the tributaries. Bring the fish back, down kill them out. "

mole wrote on Dec 5, 2008 5:44 PM:

" say the 4 states{ak,wash,ore,Id] make a law,that stops all fishing on the columbia and tributaries,for a specified time,493 gillnetters stop, sports next,and they agree.The INDIAN does not have to listen to state or federal laws.THEY HAVE THIER OWN POLICE,GAME WARDENS AND THIER OWN LAWS,REGARDING FISH AND GAME!!!! Now CANADA comes in and says if you don't catch those fish,we will.RIGHT UP IN CANADIAN WATERS,columbia salmon feed off canada,most of thier life.WHAT YOU WILL HAVE IS CANADIANS CATCHING THE SALMON UP THERE AND THE indian nation will take the rest! SAD STATE OF AFFAIRS FOR THE SALMON AIN'T IT !!! "

Atrucker wrote on Dec 5, 2008 6:24 PM:

" Mole is right the tribes fished off the coast in Feb . for chinook and got a pretty good haul to the point , The Columbia river got screwed by the tribes before they ever got here.
Jeff did plenty of work down here to Mole , not just puget sound . Istill do not agree with some things he did , but that is water under the bridge .
Mole if you can not admit the commercials have depleted the runs then your as dum as a rock to.
There is no one good answer to any of this . The sping chinook was closed for years , til just recent times . We used to catch big fish in the 60's, they are gone . Salmon for all is also B. S. "

mole wrote on Dec 5, 2008 9:16 PM:

" the 493 gillnets now, no! prior fish harvesting practices, by commercial fishing, "YOU BET",never said I was smarter than a rock!!!! SALMON FOR ALL "means" to me fish for sports also!!!I "said" in a previous blog,that I would say what I,felt, even if it put gillnetters in bad light!! "FISH WHEELS"the literal desimation of the salmon,steelhead of that era.{a book called fishwheels of the columbia,by Ivan J.Donaldson/Frederick K.Cramer]these fishwheels were,MASSIVE,and to expensive,so canneries built them.HORSE SEINS,is there any pileing left below the ASTORIA bridge,there was a giant barn built on DESDEMONA SANDS,to house the horses at high tide,low tide the seins were hauled in,so many fish,were caught, they rotted,because the canneries could not keep up.When those were outlawed,the canneries hired men to fish sailboats and so on,yes the commercialization of salmon killed them!!! Now the tide has turned ,the damage continues,And, at as rapidly a pace,as before!! because there is to many people.493 gillnets, is the least of the problems the salmon face!!"THERE IS NO GOOD ANSWER",IF I DRANK, I WOULD HAVE A DOUBLE,DOUBLE TO THAT!!!! "

Atrucker wrote on Dec 6, 2008 1:07 PM:

" I know all about the fish wheels, horse seins, sail boats , and the huge waste of fish that would spoil before being canned . You could smell these places for quite some distance away .
The smelt are over fished too, sense the big white containers came in to play. There was a time if you had a load of female smelt , the buyers would not buy them , or give you a very low price , so you avoided them . Now it is take all you can get and who cares what they are . This is the problem .
I do not know how many nets the tribes put out , I lost count at around 200,
way to many I know that. "

Top Jobs
More Top Jobs
Top Garage Sales
More Top Garage Sales
Top Rentals
More Top Rentals