Time To Give Up On 2008 Salmon Season?

ENVIRONMENT 

By Tom Banse

Winchester Bay, OR  April 1, 2008 10:38 a.m.

People who make a living from salmon fishing on the West Coast face a no-win question.  Should they fight over crumbs or just give up on the 2008 season?

Salmon returns to the big rivers of the West – the Sacramento and the Columbia – are plummeting.  Ocean salmon fishing could be shutdown from northern Oregon all the way to the Mexican border.

Correspondent Tom Banse reports from Coos Bay that fishermen are resigned to pleading for federal disaster relief once more.

Winchester Bay

Just how bad is the outlook for ocean salmon fishing?  It’s so bad fishing guide Scott Howard sat down for a family meeting.  He discussed throwing in the towel on the only career he’s ever followed.

Scott Howard: “I imagine a lot of people are thinking, well why are those people out there fishing? Why are trying to make a living fishing?  If they had any brains at all they wouldn’t be doing that.”

Howard says if it were easy to relocate and start over, he and his wife probably would’ve. But they’re going to try and stick it out.

Scott Howard: “Sentimental, sentimental reasons, yes.  We’re attached.  But financially, we’re stuck.  I mean as far as office space, moorage, boats, the vessels, nobody is going to beat a path to our door to buy anything.  Nothing is going to sell, so here you are.”

The 44-year-old leans against the biggest of his three ocean charter boats, coincidentally a 44-footer named Strike Zone.  No one else stirs in the half-empty marina at Winchester Bay, on the south Oregon Coast.

Charter operators should be gearing up at this time of year, looking for deckhands, skippers, and office help.  Not here.

Scott Howard: “The income will be cut, no matter what.  So the only course of action is to cut the overhead.  It really is mind boggling that we’re faced with a situation of no fishing.”

No salmon fishing in the ocean off Oregon and California because returns to California’s most productive river are crashing.  That would be the Sacramento River.

Salmon fishing on the Columbia River and points north will be more restricted than in years past.  Commercial troll fisherman Paul Heikkala of Coquille, Oregon is resigned to writing off the salmon season.

Paul Heikkala: “As a reasonable person, if you’re ever looking for a sustainable business, you can’t go out and catch the last fish.  It might be hard to do anyway because their numbers are so low.  You just can’t go out and push those fish below their productivity capability.”

On the Oregon coast, fishers like Heikkala and related shoreside businesses are counting on another round of federal disaster relief.

The governors of Oregon, Washington, and California have sent a joint letter to the Bush Administration.  They’re asking the feds to declare a fisheries failure and expedite cash relief.

Western congressmembers are also taking up the cry.  Here’s Oregon Democrat Darlene Hooley questioning the boss of the federal fisheries service, Conrad Lautenbacher.

Darlene Hooley: “Can you assure us that knowing ahead of time that these are going to be some of the worst salmon runs of all [time] – at least on Oregon Coast, southern Washington Coast, and northern California coast – that you can declare a disaster earlier and quicker than you have in the past so that people can be assured that they’re going to get some kind of relief?”

Conrad Lautenbacher: “We are very well aware of the situation and our goal is to try to beat the record that we established two years ago and do a much better job this year.”

Darlene Hooley: Because it took two years for the checks to get out.

Conrad Lautenbacher: “I understand.”

The final round of relief checks tied to the 2006 Klamath River salmon shutdown is going out just this week.

Conrad Lautenbacher: “We will do our best to meet the needs.”

Darlene Hooley: “Just remember their mortgages. The banks don’t wait for two years for a house payment.”

The next step is for a federal fisheries panel to make a final decision whether and where to close the high seas to salmon fishing for the year.  The panel meets next week outside Seattle.

Web extras:

Pacific Fisheries Management Council

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