Big Dog
08-22-2002, 03:35 PM
NEWS RELEASE: 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 August 24, 2002.
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.
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.