Fort Bragg Advocate-News
Reports of the death of the Fort Bragg salmon fishing industry may have been greatly exaggerated. Federal biologists are predicting that a good old days crowd of millions of king salmon will return to the Sacramento and Klamath River systems this year.
Recreational salmon season started Saturday and is expected to last until Oct. 7; the longest commercial seasons in a decade have been scheduled. Fish as small as 20 inches can be taken this year in many areas, down from 24 inches last year.
The 1.65 million adult Chinook in the ocean this year from the Klamath River is more than triple any other predicted return since 1985. The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC), which oversees the salmon fisheries in Washington, Oregon and California also says salmon headed home to the Sacramento River are estimated at 819,400, which would be the highest total since 2005. That number is actually a low estimate the PFMC revised its methodology after overshooting in the last two years. Using the methods of past years, the prediction would have been for 2 million Chinook in the Sacramento River system. The PFMC has recommended the longer seasons and smaller fish. Their effort must be approved by the federal agency that manages the ocean on May 1- which is generally a rubber stamp process.
It could all mean a truly lucrative season for commercial salmon fishermen, the kind many in Fort Bragg had given up on ever happening again. “If the return turns out to be half as good as they are predicting, this is going to be a great year,” said Fort Bragg commercial fisherman Dan Platt, who was preparing his boat on Monday, the Zhivago, for the May 1 commercial salmon season opener (in the Point Arena to San Francisco area.) Platt said 2011 was actually a decent year, thanks to solid prices and one good patch of great fishing.
How”s the early fishing in 2012? “I haven”t been out. I don”t even have a sport license,” said Platt. Even late in the afternoon on Monday, this reporter found four boatloads of recreational anglers in the South Noyo Harbor marina, who had been out, had landed no kings, and yet were enthused to try again.
“We had a couple of very solid bites, but we didn”t catch any today,” said Lake County auto dealer Paul Breunig. He escaped with his wife for a full day on the ocean ahead of a 50th anniversary celebration for their business next week.
“We come to Fort Bragg any chance we get. It was a beautiful day on the ocean,” said Barbara Breunig.
Opening weekend packed South Noyo Harbor with boat traffic and pickup trucks along the road as the season started and the predicted rainstorm politely waited offshore. North Harbor Party boats were busier than usual for April.
In previous years, April fishing has netted few, if any fish, even for party boats. This year, some fish were caught on opening day by party and private boats, according to reports from the harbor.
John Gebers, president of the North Coast Fishing Association, runs a bait, tackle and supply store in North Noyo Harbor and is more hopeful than ever. “More people that I heard about and saw came in without fish this weekend than with, Gebers said. “But we are off to a pretty good start for April,” Gebers said. Fishing usually gets better as the summer goes on off Fort Bragg. Online fishing blogs also report the thrill catching any fish at all in April off Fort Bragg, Bodega Bay and Point Arena.
The decline and fall and rising again of king salmon numbers has been every bit as baffling as it has been dramatic. In 2006-2007, Fort Bragg commercial fishermen were shut down by terrible returns to the Klamath River, despite decent numbers of Sacramento salmon in the ocean. In 2008 and 2009, poor Sacramento returns led to the largest ocean salmon fishery closure in history, effectively shutting down the commercial industry in California for both years. The total return for one year to the massive Sacramento River system was just 72,000 kings. Many experts said the great fall run Chinook salmon, like the old growth and most valuable trees, were gone for good. Some biologists published papers that said salmon could be headed for extinction.
Regulators and biologists came up with a long list of reasons as to why the population crashed. One symposium of university scientists from all over California actually had a big session titled “What the Heck Happened to the Sacramento River Salmon?”
Now the opposite question is being asked.
The list of reasons for the dramatic rebound is also long. The PFMC gives most of the credit to ideal ocean conditions since 2010. Other reasons include regulatory responses to the crisis, such as cutting off farm and even wildlife refuge water flows to keep rivers and streams flowing colder and deeper.
Gebers credits a hatchery trucking program championed by fishermen. Many young salmon were being killed in the Sacramento and Feather rivers by agricultural pumps, water pollution, invasive species and low and warm water conditions. Fishermen helped restart a lapsed Department of Fish and Game trucking program which transported baby salmon from the hatchery into the Delta, bypassing the river. Fishermen can match the upswing in numbers to the revival of the Sacramento Chinook (king salmon) returns to the trucking program. The numbers match. Everybody agrees many fish were being killed in the rivers.
But none of that explains the even more impressive recovery of the Klamath River Chinook. Nor does it explain the revival in coho (silver salmon) numbers in many areas, such as Pudding Creek and the Navarro River. Coho is a protected species and fishing is illegal in California. A comprehensive program centered on improving water flows was employed in the Klamath River system, where Chinook numbers have improved most dramatically.
The PFMC admits causes are not entirely known and concedes that some past predictions have “fallen flat” despite using the best science available.
Gebers points out that even if all the fish predicted do come, that doesn”t mean they will be there for the fishermen to catch. Last year water temperature patterns took salmon to unexpected depths and distances from shore.
” A lot of factors have to come together for the fishing to be right,” said Gebers.
The rosy predictions for salmon season follows on one of the best recent crab seasons in the harbor. Even without loads of landings of the big pink fish, the visiting fishers themselves should provide a kind of stimulus program to the Fort Bragg area.
Don Lanzone was fixing boats for fishermen on Monday in the harbor and is hopeful for more work for him and others as the season goes on.
“They say it”s really coming,” Lanzone said.
Recreational fisheries in southern Oregon and California run from April 7 to at least Oct. 7 and could be longer, depending on mid-season studies. The minimum size for kings will be 24 inches in the San Francisco and Monterey areas from April 7 to July 5, but otherwise 20 inches in California.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council is one of eight public-private regional fishery management councils established by the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976 for the purpose of managing fisheries miles offshore of the United States of America coastline. The Pacific Council recommends management measures for fisheries off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington.
On the web
? Pacific Fishery Management Council: www.pcouncil.org
? Geographical points used in salmon management: http://www.pcouncil.org/wp_content/uploads/geosalmon.pdf
? Glossary of terms used in salmon management: http://www.pcouncil.org/wp_content/uploads/com_terms_salmon.pdf
