3/24/13
All signs are pointing to a great salmon ocean fishing year, a good follow-up to last year’s record salmon run.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council is seeking public input on its preseason report, which lays out several options for the length of the season and other restrictions for fishing areas along the West Coast.
Council deputy director Chuck Tracy said, “It should be a good year, the forecasts are strong for both the Klamath and Sacramento rivers, which fuel fisheries in Humboldt County.” Both sport and commercial fishing seasons could begin as soon as May, according to Reel Steel Fishing Charters owner Tim Klassen. The council will meet in April to decide which option for commercial, sport and tribal fishing it will recommend to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which will finalize the season dates.
“It sounds like there’s not quite the record run like there was last year,” Klassen said, though he thinks sport fishing season will see an early May opening because fish populations are still relatively high.
Humboldt Fishermen’s Marketing Association President Aaron Newman said the fishery council alternatives indicate a potentially long commercial fishing season.
“If you look at Horse Mountain south, which is where the guys who do it for a living go, there’s between 110 and 140 days, which is really good,” Newman said.
Newman is also an advisor to the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, and says he looks beyond Humboldt County waters for what helps the entire industry.
“That was our goal — to find the best salmon fishing opportunity for everyone at large,”he said.“There’s one big pie, and it’s divided up between tribes, commercial and recreational — and between the oceans and river.”
Predicted dry conditions on land could be concerning for tribes and river fishermen — though the effects of drought won’t be felt for several years on ocean fishing, Klassen said.
National Weather Service meteorologist Kathleen Lewis said rainfall is already behind normal.
“It’s expected to be below normal for precipitation, for much of the Northwest,” Lewis said. “It was a drier start to the wintertime.”
Since January, the Eureka area has seen nearly 7 inches of rain, less than half the normal value for the same period of time.
Last year’s banner salmon run coincided with higher than average rainfall — 22 inches from January through March, Lewis said.
“Last year was dry too, but it seemed like we had some good storms that caught us up to normal by the end of wintertime,” she said.
The NWS Climate Prediction Center website shows a probability of below-normal rainfall in its three-month outlook, but the weather service isn’t concerned yet.
“As far as rivers, there isn’t any alarm as far as them being too low on our end,” Lewis said.
Rainfall isn’t the only factor in river levels, and the Hoopa Tribe has already raised concerns about the Bureau of Reclamation’s release of dammed water into the Klamath River.
In a press release, the Hoopa Tribe said the bureau is seeking approval “for a controversial water plan that reduces water for salmon, even though flows had to be supplemented with Trinity River flows last year to keep salmon alive.”
The tribe seeks to avoid a repeat of low releases in the early 2000s, which they say led to the death of 60,000 salmon.
“After the fish kill, millions were invested in the Klamath and Trinity Rivers to restore salmon,” tribal chairman Leonard Masten said in the release. “These efforts made last year’s record run of salmon possible.”
Newman recommended that people with a stake in the ocean fishing season voice their opinion at a public hearing Tuesday with the Pacific Fishery Management Council.
“That’s where fishermen can go and basically tell the council how they’d like the options changed or what option they favor,” he said. “Often times, whatever is accepted by the council is a combination of alternatives.”
Whatever is chosen, ocean fishing looks to thrive for the second year in a row.
“We’re all excited after a couple of bad years five years ago,” Klassen said. “It’s nice to see things rebounded so quickly and so strongly. It gives us hope for the future.”
