In a stunning reversal of salmon season forecasts released by the state and federal governments last February, the California Department of Fish and Game predicts a record abundance of Klamath River salmon and a relatively low abundance of Sacramento River salmon in California ocean waters this year.

Recreational anglers can expect to see a season the same length as last years, while commercial fishermen will have more flexibility to craft a season this year, stated DFG officials at the Salmon Fishery Information Public Meeting in Santa Rosa on February 21.

The predictions are based on the returns of 2-year-old fish – “jacks” or “grilse” – to the Klamath and Sacramento rivers. The Klamath saw a record number of jacks, 27,073, return in 2006, while the Sacramento saw a record low number, 14,518 jacks, go back to the spawning grounds.

The 2007 Klamath River ocean abundance of age three fish, the primary component of the run, is 515,400 fish. At the same time, there is a precariously low number of 4-year-old Klamath fish, with an ocean abundance forecast of 26,065, the lowest in over 20 years.

The Central Valley (Sacramento) ocean abundance estimate is only 499.920 king salmon, less than a third of the record abundance of 1.7 million fish that was predicted (but never materialized!) in 2005.

When asked why the returns to the Sacramento River last year were far less than forecasted, Allen Grover, DFG marine biologist, said they were just as puzzled as the befuddled anglers who experienced poor fishing on the Central Valley rivers and ocean last year.

“We were surprised by the low returns to the Sacramento River and its tributaries,” said Grover, “just like we were surprised by the high jack returns to the Klamath. We just don’t know why this happened. However, the abundance of Klamath fish is so high this year that it will allow for a lot of fishing compared with last year.”

“The salmon season will be more a process of negotiation this year than last year,” confirmed Marija Vojkovich, the DFG’s representative on the PFMC. “Last year was a more a process of direction from the federal government.”

Last year commercial fishermen experienced the most severely reduced salmon season in history, due to the forecasted abundance of Klamath River stocks. In fact, the White House and Secretary Commerce wanted to completely close all recreational and commercial ocean fishing off the California and Oregon coasts last season – and it was only through rallies, letters and other political pressure by commercial fishing groups, recreational anglers and Indian Tribes that any season at all took place.

As a result, Representative Mike Thompson (D-CA) authored legislation last year to restore the Klamath River and to provide salmon fishermen with disaster relief, but the 109th Congress and the Bush administration refused to grant disaster aid.

Fortunately, Rep. Thompson on January 4, the first day of the 110th Congress, introduced legislation to provide federal disaster relief to California and Oregon’s salmon fishing industry. The bill authorizes the appropriation of $60.4 million for the fishermen, tribes and businesses that were impacted by the commercial fishery failure of 2006.  California Senator Barbara Boxer also introduced companion legislation the same day in the Senate. 

Commercial fishermen at the DFG information meeting, who were very upset at the very restricted season they had to endure last year, vented their anger at DFG staffers throughout the public comment section of the meeting.

The pre-season estimates, as illustrated over the past two seasons, are often very inaccurate, contend recreational and commercial fishing advocates. Unfortunately, the DFG and PFMC officials always come back with “that’s the best available data” that they have.

“Think of the human lives destroyed by your closures of commercial fishing in recent years!,” said an emotional Bill “Sonny” Maahs, who lost his son, Mike, a fishery biologist and commercial fishermen, at sea while they crab fished together in March of 2000. “I lost my son because when you shut my business down, I had to go on Social Security. My son felt sorry for me and tried to help me out by going out fishing to bring in some money. I’m still bitter over the total disregard that you have for people’s lives.”

In a letter to the DFG that he read at the meeting, Maahs attacked the federal government for putting commercial fishermen out of business without compensation – based on very bad “scientific” data.

“The Klamath River was used to justify the closures, yet there was no measurable change in the Klamath River run size between when Fort Bragg had a full 5 month season and when there was nearly no season,” said Maahs, citing the PFMC’s own data from 1981 to 2005.

“There is something very wrong when government agencies that control the management of the fishing industry do not care about justice for the people that they are supposed to represent,” he emphasized. “They have spent millions of taxpayers dollars just to provide misleading science that blames overfishing. They refuse to evaluate damage to the rearing capacity in rivers and abundance of the food supply in the ocean. They will not recognize that fish eat fish, how much is needed, or where in the ocean it will be available.”

Last year Maahs, at a fisherman’s rally in Santa Rosa to support the restoration of the Klamath River, accused the Bush administration of trying to destroy commercial fishing while promoting the aquaculture industry. He took up the accusation in his most recent letter.

“NOAA’s priority is to support the National Offshore Aquaculture Act,” said Maahs. “They control the science used by the PFMC and are the lead federal agency in promoting sanctuaries and marine reserves that can be used to eliminate all fishing. Hopefully, the Department of Fish and Game can work together with fishermen to restore the fishery south of the Klamath River.”

Other commercial fishermen felt that the recreational fishermen should share with the commercial fishermen a similar cutback in seasons, claiming inequality in the allocation process.

“There should be proportional cutbacks to all users,” said Duncan McLean of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. “The Magnuson-Stevens Sustainable Fisheries Action requires ‘fair and equitable’ allocation of fishery resources.”

However, the reason why the recreational anglers were able to get a relatively status quo season last year was because they have less impact upon the Klamath stocks in the ocean. The Klamath salmon, in contrast with Sacramento fish, tend to venture further offshore where the commercial fishermen target them.

Last year the commercial fleet, in spite of several cutbacks, took 85 percent of the Klamath fish caught in the Monterey area and 92 percent taken in the San Francisco region.

“The commercial fishermen absolutely got shafted last year,” said Rick Powers, captain of the New Sea Angler in Bodega Bay. “I feel real bad for those guys – but the seasons were based on the low recreational angler contact rate for Klamath fish versus the high contact rate by commercial fishermen.”

Commercial fishermen greatly outnumbered recreational anglers in the packed meeting room and the commercials dominated the public comment period. One of the few recreational fishermen to speak, Dan Wohlford of the Coastside Fishing Club, suggested that the DFG consider opening a coho salmon fishery in California.

I agree totally with his proposal – and I really don’t understand why Oregon and Washington anglers can harvest the “endangered” coho, while California anglers can’t.

Recreational anglers at the meeting had mixed reviews on the prospects for the upcoming season. “The news about the record Klamath abundance is positive news for the sportfishing fleet,” said Craig Stone, owner of Emeryville Sporfishing Center. “We have the prospect of a full fishing season this year. There will be also more opportunity for an in-river fishery in the Klamath and Trinity this year.”

At the same time, Stone and others were worried about the projected low abundance of Sacramento system stocks this year. The total ocean recreational salmon catch last year was only 89,479 fish, dramatically lower than the 143,257 caught in 2005 and the 221,114 taken in 2004.

However, last year was by no means a record low catch year, since lower catches were reported in 1991, 1992 and 1999. Central Valley stocks have traditionally been the largest component of the recreational and commercial salmon fisheries.

The commercial salmon catch of 68, 808 fish off the California coast was the lowest ever recorded, 68,808 fish, in contrast to 340,662 salmon in 2005 and 502,110 chinooks in 2004.

“This year’s salmon outlook is good news for the Klamath, but bad news for the Sacramento,” summed up Mike LaRoco of the Recreational Fishing Alliance.

The PFMC has a spawning escapement goal of 35,000 naturally spawning fall run chinooks. This goal hasn’t been met for the past three years, but this year state and federal scientists expect it to be surpassed, due to the projected ocean abundance of three-year-old chinooks that comprise the majority of fish that return to the Klamath every fall.

Although the abundance of age three Klamath River chinooks is good news, if it in fact materializes, the Klamath remains an impaired fishery impacted by annual juvenile fish kills in the parasite-infested river and toxic algae discharges from PacifCorp’s dams on the river. That’s why it is so important for every angler to join the effort by Klamath Basin Indian Tribes, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen and conservation groups to convince Warren Buffett, the current owner of PacifiCorp, to decommission its four Klamath dams.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting, where federal regulatory options will be developed and public testimony will be collected, was set for March 5 to 9 at the Doubletree Hotel Sacramento, 2001 Point West Way, Sacramento, CA. 95815.

This meeting will be followed by a special PFMC meeting to collect public testimony on March 27 at the Hilton Sonoma Wine Country, 3555 round Barn Boulevard, Santa Rosa, CA. 95403.