West Coast Wild Chinook Salmon Season Canceled

Why are Salmon in Trouble

Apr 14, 2009 Stuart Stein

The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) canceled the 2009 troll (ocean caught) Oregon and California commercial Wild Chinook salmon season.

For the second year in a row fisherman Jeff Warner will have to apply for Federal disaster relief funds and figure out how to pay the rent. Jeff, a partner / co-founder of Fishermen Direct Seafood and a commissioner on the Oregon Salmon Commission, has been a commercial salmon fisherman since 1973. His main source of income usually has been the May through October ocean caught salmon fishery.

The Problem

The PFMC canceled the troll (ocean caught) Oregon and California commercial Wild Chinook salmon season again. The National Marine Fisheries Service, the federal agency in charge of salmon management, must still confirm the council's decision.

Why are Salmon in Trouble

Scientists have been studying the collapse of the Sacramento River Chinook salmon for years. The simple explanation is that there just no fish because too few juvenile fish survive to swim out to the Pacific Ocean. The difficult question is why. Possible factors include ocean conditions, habitat destruction, dam operations and agricultural pollution.

PFMC Executive Director Don McIsaac inexplicably said "The reason for the sudden decline of Sacramento River fish is a mystery at this time." How mysterious is it? According to the study commissioned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, destruction of river habitat, water diversions and dams... so weakened the fall run that it couldn't withstand two recent years of scanty food supply in the warming Pacific Ocean. [1]

George Torgun, Earthjustice attorney who represented conservation and fishing groups in federal litigation to protect water flows for winter and spring runs of Sacramento River Chinook salmon released a statement on April 9, 2009:

"During the Bush administration, corporate agricultural interests were able to push their way to the front of the line to demand water at the expense of others, especially our native salmon species and the fishing communities that rely on them. Far more water was promised, and delivered, to marginal farms than what the Sacramento River ecosystem could sustain. Conservation and fishing groups have been yelling from the rooftops for years that ‘fish need water,' but their cries fell on deaf ears. With the cancellation of commercial salmon fishing off the California [and Oregon]coast[s] for a second year, it's clear the salmon advocates were right."

Zeke Grader, the executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA) said "This [the fishery disaster declaration] will buy the fleet a little valuable time, but the federal and state agencies must take advantage of that time to address the real problems in the California Bay Delta that are killing the fish - massive overdraft of water, unregulated agricultural pollution problems and poor hatchery management practices - that have been the final burden on a naturally variable ocean system."

The Real Questions

Is a lush green lawn and suburbs in the dessert more important than one of our wild natural resources and one one of our most important coastal businesses? Will Pacific Chinook end up like their Atlantic salmon cousins - in farmed pens instead roaming the ocean?

[1] Fimrite, Peter. "U.S. to ban commercial salmon season." San Francisco Chronicle 9 Apr. 2009.

The copyright of the article West Coast Wild Chinook Salmon Season Canceled in Food Trends is owned by Stuart Stein. Permission to republish West Coast Wild Chinook Salmon Season Canceled in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

WIld Chinook Salmon