FM2
08-21-2002, 04:49 PM
For Immediate Release August 21, 2002
Buoy 10 Bag Limit Changes Saturday
PORTLAND - Oregon and Washington fishery managers today decided that
Buoy 10 anglers in the Columbia River estuary must limit their harvest to
one chinook within the two salmon or steelhead daily bag limit starting
Saturday.
The rule change was necessary to help avoid exceeding the pre-season
chinook harvest guideline of 21,200 adult fish. Through Tuesday, 9,500
chinook and 850 coho were harvested and the two biggest weeks of the
fishery are still to come, said Steve King, salmon fishery manager for the
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
"We've had one of the strongest starts in the history of the fishery,"
said King. "The bag limit change will help slow it down as an attempt
to keep the chinook fishery open at least through Labor Day."
The fishery is open to the harvest of chinook, adipose fin-clipped
coho, and adipose fin-clipped steelhead from Buoy 10 at the mouth of the
Columbia River upstream to Tongue Point. The daily bag limit is two fish,
of which no more than one may be a chinook, effective 12:01 a.m.
Saturday, Aug. 24. All other rules listed in the 2002 Oregon Sport Fishing
Regulations apply.
Biologists from the Oregon and Washington departments of fish and
wildlife estimate that 660,000 wild and hatchery fall chinook will enter the
Columbia. Last year, 544,000 fall chinook entered the Columbia. The
near-record runs of 1987 and 1988 were 872,000 and 783,000 respectively.
The preseason forecast estimated 158,000 coho would enter the river,
compared to 1.1 million in 2001. About 500,000 steelhead are expected to
enter the Columbia this summer and fall.
The fall salmon and steelhead runs are managed to protect wild stocks
that are listed as threatened or endangered under the state or federal
Endangered Species Act.
Buoy 10 Bag Limit Changes Saturday
PORTLAND - Oregon and Washington fishery managers today decided that
Buoy 10 anglers in the Columbia River estuary must limit their harvest to
one chinook within the two salmon or steelhead daily bag limit starting
Saturday.
The rule change was necessary to help avoid exceeding the pre-season
chinook harvest guideline of 21,200 adult fish. Through Tuesday, 9,500
chinook and 850 coho were harvested and the two biggest weeks of the
fishery are still to come, said Steve King, salmon fishery manager for the
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
"We've had one of the strongest starts in the history of the fishery,"
said King. "The bag limit change will help slow it down as an attempt
to keep the chinook fishery open at least through Labor Day."
The fishery is open to the harvest of chinook, adipose fin-clipped
coho, and adipose fin-clipped steelhead from Buoy 10 at the mouth of the
Columbia River upstream to Tongue Point. The daily bag limit is two fish,
of which no more than one may be a chinook, effective 12:01 a.m.
Saturday, Aug. 24. All other rules listed in the 2002 Oregon Sport Fishing
Regulations apply.
Biologists from the Oregon and Washington departments of fish and
wildlife estimate that 660,000 wild and hatchery fall chinook will enter the
Columbia. Last year, 544,000 fall chinook entered the Columbia. The
near-record runs of 1987 and 1988 were 872,000 and 783,000 respectively.
The preseason forecast estimated 158,000 coho would enter the river,
compared to 1.1 million in 2001. About 500,000 steelhead are expected to
enter the Columbia this summer and fall.
The fall salmon and steelhead runs are managed to protect wild stocks
that are listed as threatened or endangered under the state or federal
Endangered Species Act.