[env-trinity] Salmon run plunged again in ‘19

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.trinityjournal.com/news/local/article_87fece30-5db3-11ea-a0c1-fb2972f2de74.html

Salmon run plunged again in ‘19
   
   - By AMY GITTELSOHN The Trinity Journal
    
   - 57 min ago
    
   -  0
   
   - Facebook
   - Twitter
   - Email
   - Print
   - Save


| 
| 
| 
|  |  |

 |

 |
| 
|  | 
Salmon run plunged again in ‘19

AMY GITTELSOHN The Trinity Journal

The 2019 fall chinook salmon run on the Klamath River system fell well below projections, reducing both the catc...
 |

 |

 |




The 2019 fall chinook salmon run on the Klamath River system fell well below projections, reducing both the catch and the prospects for the next generation of fish.

The Klamath system includes the Trinity River, its largest tributary.

The forecast had been for 97,912 adult fall chinook salmon to enter the mouth of the Klamath in 2019, which would have been an average run. But it’s estimated that only 37,270 entered the river system.

“Pretty disappointing, obviously,” said Wade Sinnen, DFW senior environmental scientist.

Why so low? “That’s always the big question,” Sinnen responded.

Ocean conditions were at least one of the factors, he said. “The fish came back really small for their age this year, which indicates that the ocean conditions were poor in the last year or maybe two.”

The chinook salmon hatch and rear in the Klamath River system and hatcheries before making their way to the ocean. There, the food they eat ranges from tiny zooplankton to shrimp, squid, juvenile rock fish, anchovies and herring. Sinnen said he doesn’t know exactly where the chain broke down, but the lack of prey that made for smaller fish may also have contributed to poor survival.

Returning to the river system, many 3-year-old chinook measured at the size you’d expect of a “jack” that returns at two years, he noted.

In the river, neither recreational anglers nor the tribes met their allocations which had been assigned based on the higher fish forecast. Likewise, neither the Iron Gate nor the Trinity River fish hatcheries were able to meet their egg take targets needed to produce the targeted number of fish for release next year. And the estimated number of adult chinook spawning naturally in the river was about half of the 40,700 target.

For fishing in the ocean, the Sacramento area salmon fishing was about as projected, a pretty good season, Sinnen said. But for the Klamath area, “it was just bad all around.”

“It was not stellar,” he said. “I can attest to it because I was out there trying for them.”

“Certainly, there were different ocean productivity patterns out there,” he said. “For whatever reason it affected our area more.”

Ken Lindke, DFW environmental scientist with the Trinity River Restoration Program, noted that “a couple years ago we had the combination of the drought inland and poor ocean conditions, but it’s not clear if what we see now is a legacy effect of that.”

For fishing in the river in 2019, no one made their allocations.

Due to the forecast of almost 100,000 adults entering the river system, the allocation to be divided between the Yurok and Hoopa Valley tribes was 32,401 and they reported falling well short of that at 5,974 adult fish (Yurok: 3,909; Hoopa Valley: 2,065).

An estimated 5,365 fall chinook adults were harvested in the Klamath Basin river recreational fishery, also below the quota.

    

2020 fishery

Although spawn of the 2019 salmon run won’t re-enter the river for a couple more years, the poor run does affect the forecast for the 2020 season.

Sinnen noted that the fish that came back in 2019 “are brothers and sisters to fish that will return next year at one year older.”

However, he also noted that for the future, “These populations are cyclical so it could bounce back quickly.”

For the coming season, the ocean abundance of the Klamath system adult chinook is estimated to be only 186,700, which will mean low allocations. The Pacific Fisheries Management Council will determine how many fish can be taken while still meeting spawning goals.

That number will be low, probably less than 1,000 fish for the recreational fishery, Sinnen said, “but could be zero.”

“The outlook for Sacramento River fall chinook is better than last year, but this season’s fisheries will be tempered by protections needed to conserve low numbers of Klamath River fall chinook,” said Jennifer Simon, an environmental scientist with DFW’s Ocean Salmon Project.

At a recent meeting, recreational anglers and commercial salmon trollers provided comments and voiced concerns to a panel of fishery managers, scientists and industry representatives. Stakeholder input will be taken into consideration when developing three alternatives for this season during the Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting, which will be held March 3-9 in Rohnert Park. Final regulations will be adopted at the April 4-10 PFMC meeting in Vancouver, Wash.
   
   - 


| 
| 
|  | 
Error


 |

 |

 |



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20200304/776b254a/attachment.html>