Salmon season disaster

The season for Pacific salmon fishing might be over before it could begin, leaving sport and commercial fishermen to cope with the loss — and preserve the business and the tourism it drives.

At its meeting Thursday in SeaTac, Wash., the Pacific Fishery Management Council recommended canceling this year's entire ocean-fishing season for chinook, known as king salmon.

"This is a disaster for West Coast salmon fisheries, under any standard," council chairman Don Hansen said in a statement. "There will be a huge impact on the people who fish for a living, those who eat wild-caught king salmon, those who enjoy recreational fishing, and the businesses and coastal communities dependent on these fisheries."

The decision virtually guarantees the elimination of this year's salmon angling in the Sacramento River delta, including the three Mid-Valley rivers, the head of the California Fish and Game Department announced after the meeting.

In response the fishery council's recommendation, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency. The proclamation stated in part: "California's salmon runs are a vital component of our great state's resources and contribute significant environmental, recreational, commercial, and economic benefits to the people."

Within an hour of the fishery council's vote, local fishing suppliers were resigned to a year of lower profits and a choked-off tap of summer visitors the salmon run usually attracts to the region.

"It's gonna hurt tourism tremendously," said Bob Boucke, owner of Johnson's Bait & Tackle in Yuba City. "It'll hurt the guides, hotels, and the bait shops like mine. All of us will be hurting pretty bad."

The National Marine Fisheries Service has until May 1 to confirm the fishing ban, which covers the Pacific coast from the Mexican border to Cape Falcon in northwest Oregon.

The long-awaited decision is expected to lead not only to lost jobs and higher fish prices but also cuts in tourism driven by the North State rivers, where state fishing seasons were to open starting in mid-July.

John McCamman, acting director of the state Department of Fish and Game, said the agency will cut off commercial fishing this year and will recommend that the Fish and Game Commission also bar recreational fishing. The commission will meet at 10 a.m. Tuesday by conference call.

After the council announced the possible fishing ban in March, DFG officials warned that step could lead to blocking salmon angling in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the fish's chief spawning ground. The season was to start July 16 in the Sacramento and Feather rivers, and in the Yuba River on Aug. 1.

The scale of the salmon crisis became clear when the fishery council announced in January it had counted fewer than 90,000 salmon returned last year to the delta from the ocean to spawn. That figure was the second-lowest on record and just one-ninth of the 804,000 fish tallied in 2002.

Even with a blanket ban on ocean and river fishing, state Fish and Game officials have given a bleak prediction of the chinook's numbers this year — no more than 59,000 fish in the Sacramento system, less than half the department's goal of 120,000.

While researchers at the fishery council have identified more than 45 possible causes for the chinook's plight, McCamman said the attention at this week's meetings has turned to ocean conditions in 2005 — when the mysterious loss of plankton, the microscopic food supply of many ocean fish, may have starved a generation of young salmon before they could return to the rivers.

Despite the long odds against avoiding a fishing ban, a Linda supplier urged authorities to research the salmon problem more before cutting off the season.

Mike Searcy, who owns Star Bait and Tackle, said large water diversions from the Sacramento delta to Southern California — which could disrupt fish migrations to their breeding grounds — could be the chief threat. He also wondered whether DFG could be convinced to allow at least a shortened river season, or curb catches to one per day.

"I agree they have to do something, but more information needs to be gathered," said Searcy, who estimated salmon drives nearly 30 percent of his revenue. "My question is, lets say the fall season comes and 400,000 or 500,000 fish come back. What's gonna be the reaction? Will these guesstimates they've been making over the years matter at all?"

In Colusa, Pat Kittle has witnessed previous booms and busts in the Sacramento chinook run that courses mere yards from his fishing and hunting supply store, Kittle's Outdoor & Sport Co. A self-described optimist about salmon's future in the region, he nonetheless discussed how he might have to cope if the fish's numbers don't bounce back: whether to lay off an employee, find new things to sell in summer, or perhaps unload his supply of salmon lures and other equipment.

For now, though, Kittle called the fish supply salvageable — if humans manage the Sacramento delta more wisely.

"It can be gained back if they return the very next year," he said of the fish's future in the region, adding: "I'm 98 percent certain it will go on."

Consumers can expect to have a hard time finding chinook at stores later this year, but they will still be able to buy farm-raised salmon, as well as wild sockeye from Alaska.

Know and Go

• WHO: California Fish and Game Commission

• WHAT: Commissioners will decide whether to cancel this year's ocean fishing and river angling season for chinook salmon.

• WHEN: Tuesday, 10 a.m.

• WHERE: Resources Building, 1320 Ninth St. (Room 1320), Sacramento

• CONTACT: 916-653-4899

• ONLINE: www.fgc.ca.gov

Contact reporter Howard Yune at 458-2121, 749-4708 or hyune@appealdemocrat.com

The Associated Press contributed to this report.