[env-trinity] Anglers brace for restrictions in 2016 salmon season

[Dan Bacher]

  http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/3/1/1493866/-Anglers-brace-for-restrictions-in-2016-salmon-season

Anglers brace for restrictions in 2016 salmon season

by Dan Bacher

The federal government last week released its data on the projections  
for the upcoming ocean and river salmon seasons in California and  
Southern Oregon — and it’s not looking good.


Commercial and recreational anglers are bracing for further fishing  
restrictions this season, based on low abundance estimates for  
Sacramento River and Klamath River fall-run Chinook salmon, the two  
drivers of the West Coast fishery.

The Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC), a quasi-governmental  
body that crafts the seasons and regulations for salmon, groundfish  
and other fisheries, forecasts an ocean abundance of approximately  
300,000 (299,600) Sacramento River adult fall run king salmon off the  
California and Oregon coast this year.  This compares to forecasts  
above 600,000 the past several years.

“When coupled with poor 2015 Klamath salmon returns and concern for  
federally protected winter run, the forecast points to a restricted  
2016 fishing season,” said John McManus, Executive Director of the  
Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA).  “The lower than normal  
forecast is caused by drought conditions and water management  
decisions that harmed salmon the last four years in the Central  
Valley.  These have greatly decreased survival of wild salmon eggs and  
juveniles.”

The numbers were released prior to the California Department of Fish  
and Wildlife’s annual Salmon Fishery Information Meeting scheduled for  
Wednesday March 2, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Sonoma County  
Water Agency, 404 Aviation Blvd. in Santa Rosa (95403).

McManus pointed out that that relatively low forecast for 2016 salmon  
comes as two federal bills in Congress “threaten to take even more of  
the water needed to keep our salmon runs healthy.”

“The projection for 2016 salmon makes clear the damage done by water  
diversions and drought the last several years," said McManus. “The  
2016 salmon number means more protections are needed in the Delta and  
Central Valley salmon habitat, not less. Any politician proposing more  
water diversions now from the Delta needs to look at the salmon  
numbers and stop proposing more harm to salmon and our coastal  
communities.”

McManus said the PFMC forecast comes as fishery managers begin work on  
an ocean fishing season in 2016 with adequate protections for low  
numbers of Sacramento River winter run Chinook salmon, an endangered  
species under state and federal law, and Klamath salmon.

“A low projected number of adult Klamath River salmon, which is used  
as a surrogate to protect north coast stocks, could mean further  
restrictions will occur on salmon fishing north of Point Arena in  
what’s known as the Fort Bragg cell,” he stated. “This is most likely  
to affect commercial salmon fishermen who have made the bulk of their  
catch in this area the last several years.”

North Coast fishermen, like those further south, are bracing for  
further restrictions this season to allow enough Klamath River salmon  
to return to the river to spawn. The 2016 Klamath River Fall Chinook  
potential spawner abundance forecast is 41,211 natural-area adults,  
according to the PFMC Preseason Report 1. (www.pcouncil.org/...)

“This potential spawner abundance forecast applied to the KRFC control  
rule results in an allowable exploitation rate of 0.25, which  
produces, in expectation 30,909 natural-area adult spawners,”  
according to the PFMC. “Therefore, fisheries impacting KRFC must be  
crafted to achieve, in expectation, a minimum of 30,909 natural-area  
adult spawners in 2016.”

The 2016 forecast is based on the number of two-year-old Chinook  
salmon, called “jacks and jills,” that returned to spawn in 2015.   
McManus said the 2015 forecast of 652,000 salmon “didn’t come near the  
post season total of less than 300,000 prompting managers to modify  
the formula used to forecast this year’s number.”

McManus said one semi bright spot in another discouraging outlook is  
that salmon fishing in 2016 should be a “little bit better” than it  
was last year due to the extra trucking that occurred in 2014  
following a campaign by GGSA to avert drought disaster.  “Salmon  
numbers could creep up a little more in 2017 due to the 100 percent  
trucking of juvenile hatchery fish at GGSA’s urging in 2015,” he noted.

He said an additional two million hatchery fish produced after a GGSA  
campaign with state officials and support from the Commercial Salmon  
Stamp committee will be released in the next several months and are  
expected to add to the 2018 fishery.

“We’d almost certainly be looking at a fishing closure in 2016 but for  
the work of GGSA that got more hatchery fish trucked to safe release  
sites starting in 2014,” said GGSA founder and treasurer Victor  
Gonella.  “The trucking made the difference in survival for many of  
the fish now out in the ocean.  The forecast isn’t great, but it  
should allow for a responsible fishing season while leaving enough  
fish to reproduce this year.”

“Commercial salmon fishermen are coming off a very poor 2015 fishing  
season followed by a shutdown of the crab fishery, which most rely on  
to make ends meet,” added McManus. “Prospects of another poor  
commercial salmon season is causing concern in harbors and ports from  
Morro Bay all the way up into Oregon where 60 percent of the ocean  
salmon catch are Central Valley salmon.”

California’s salmon industry is currently valued at $1.4 billion in  
economic activity annually and about half that much in economic  
activity and jobs again in Oregon

For more information about the Golden Gate Salmon Association, go to: www.goldengatesalmonassociation.org

Tomorrow’s Ocean Salmon Information Meeting in Santa Rosa marks the  
beginning of a two-month long public process used to establish annual  
sport and commercial ocean salmon seasons. A list of additional  
meetings and other opportunities for public comment is available on  
CDFW’s ocean salmon webpage, www.wildlife.ca.gov/.....

The meeting comes at a critical time for salmon ,crab and other  
fisheries. Legislators, members of commercial fishing families,  
fishing group representatives and Brown administration officials  
testified about the dire situation that the salmon and crab fishery is  
in during the 43rd Annual Zeke Grader Fisheries Forum of the Joint  
Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture held at the State Capitol in  
Sacramento on February 11.

“This forum works, but the fishermen are not,” said Senator Mike  
McGuire, Chair of the Committee, in his opening comments. “The salmon  
and crab fisheries are threatened by a historic crisis. We’re facing a  
fishery disaster that will impact many families.”

As California’s salmon fisheries are hammered by poor management of  
Central Valley reservoirs and the continuing export of water from  
Delta during the drought, Governor Jerry Brown continues to promote  
his California Water Fix to build the Delta Tunnels. The construction  
of the tunnels would hasten the extinction of Sacramento winter-run  
Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt and  
green sturgeon, as well as imperil the salmon and steelhead  
populations on the Klamath and Trinity rivers.
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