ODFW News: Columbia Springer Allocation Set!!

[Pete]

For Immediate Release 1/30/04

Allocation set for Columbia River spring chinook fisheries

Following the direction of the Washington and Oregon fish and wildlife commissions, the directors of the states' fish and wildlife departments today announced that sport anglers in the Columbia River spring chinook fishery will be allowed 60 percent of the incidental impacts to upriver fish listed under the Endangered Species Act and commercial fishers will get 40 percent.

In reaching their decision, the officials noted that fisheries managers are to approach season planning with these percentages as hard targets. Both states directed the sport and commercial fisheries to be closely held to the agreed-upon percentage allocation. However, as in any fishery, a minimal amount of flexibility will be allowed to respond to unanticipated changes in run timing, river conditions or other factors, the commissions agreed.

"These fisheries are set very conservatively to protect wild fish—while allowing harvest opportunity for healthy, hatchery stocks," said Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Director Jeff Koenings, Ph.D. "As always, conservation is paramount in conducting sustainable fisheries."

The allocation figures will be used to set fishing seasons for what is expected to be the second-largest spring chinook run on record. Those seasons will be determined Thursday, Feb. 5, in a Columbia River Compact meeting in Oregon City, Ore.

In addition to setting the upriver-impact allocation, the directors reiterated the importance of avoiding conflicts between recreational and commercial fishers when setting seasons. The directors agreed pre-season planners need to emphasize commercial fishing opportunities earlier in February and March to avoid gear conflicts, as much as possible, with anglers during recreational seasons in April.

The allocation figures reflect how the allowable impact on wild fish is shared between non-tribal sport and commercial fishers. Although all fishers target hatchery-produced chinook, some wild fish are inadvertently caught and die from handling stress. Upper Columbia and Snake River wild spring chinook are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act and the allowable "impact" on wild fish is limited to 2 percent of the wild run in non-tribal fisheries.

Koenings and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) Director Lindsay Ball stressed that pre-season planning for the spring chinook fisheries also should be based on a federally-established limit of 2 percent incidental impact to wild steelhead. This figure reflects incidental catches of wild steelhead that occur as the steelhead co-mingle with spring chinook during a portion of the fishing season.

Koenings and Ball credited past efforts to develop selective fisheries for the opportunities that await anglers this season. Noting that avoiding impacts on wild steelhead will be emphasized in setting upcoming fishing seasons, the directors called on commercial spring chinook fishers to step up efforts to avoid handling wild steelhead.

"The commercial fishery has come a long way in becoming selective, but we want to continue to work with the industry to be creative in finding ways to avoid handling steelhead," Koenings said. "In doing so, we are creating the stable, sustainable fishery so necessary to develop high-value harvests."

This year's total run of Columbia River spring chinook is predicted to be the second-highest on record since counting began in 1938 at Bonneville Dam. More than 497,000 wild and hatchery spring chinook are forecast to enter the Columbia River this year.

Koenings also credited federal funding for Columbia River hatchery operations as an important factor in providing overall fishing opportunity, but noted the federal Mitchell Act funding that mitigates negative effects of the hydropower system is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain.
# # #

Information and Education Division
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
(503) 947-6002
January 30, 2004

Contact: WDFW: Cindy Le Fleur, (360) 906-6706
or Margaret Ainscough (360) 902-2408

ODFW: Steve Williams, (503) 947-6209
or Anne Pressentin, (503) 947-6020

[Pete]

Let me emphasize one sentence, "Koenings and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) Director Lindsay Ball stressed that pre-season planning for the spring chinook fisheries also should be based on a federally-established limit of 2 percent incidental impact to wild steelhead."

Thank you to everyone who got involved in this battle. Your letter, phone calls and testimony have made a difference!

[Flatfish]

Pete,

thank you for the hard work. it is nice to be sorta up to date( as up to date as I ever get). :smile:

I know some folks will grumble about these numbers, but I'm simply giddy that we get a crack at a half million springers.

Anyone remember the mid March closures with a couple days a week of fishing on the Willy before it closed? That sucked.

A half million fish and we get the big river to spread out the pressure. Life is pretty good in my world.

So does this mean the 7% number is out the window?

Thanks again Pete.

Mark and the sardine wrapped diamond plated dog.

[ 01-30-2004, 05:22 PM: Message edited by: Flatfish ]

[David Johnson]

[img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

[blacktail519]

Thanks for the report Pete

[Riverkeeper]

Yes, thanks for your hard work on this Pete!

To all of us who wrote, called, emailed, showed up, etc- a toast!

[Pete]

Flatfish, I doubt the 7% is out the window, but it looks like it's off the table for now. The message that a very small commercial fishery is more important that the Federal Endangered Species Act obviously didn't float well somewhere in the process.

We still need to see what the seasons look like, but with the big number of fish and the late profile of the run (85% or more late returning 4 year old fish) we will likely not see an early closure. We'll know for sure on the 5th.

[Full Freezer]

That is awesome news!

So if the allocation has been announced early, is it necessary to attend the Feb 5th meeting?

Do you think they will keep the season open all of April?

I can't wait!

[CATCH AND EAT]

Thanks for your hard work Pete. WE ALL appreciate your dedication to this effort. [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]


Bring on the Springers!!!!!

[Pete]

The meeting on the 5th will be about the season. Whether we could have a "days-a-week" closure for the early season or some closure upstream from I-5 to ensure the season continues through April or longer. The meeting will still be important and it would be good to show the Columbia River Compact that sportfishers are involved and that we care. No event stands alone in the ongoing saga or Columbia River Salmon Regulation.

[fish-on]

What about the Willamette?

[Pete]

From the Oregon Sport Fishing Regulations, page 50: "Willamette River, mouth to Hwy 20 bridge at Albany. Open for Adipose fin-clipped chinook salmon and adipose fin-clipped steelhead entire year."

[Gun Rod Bow]

As always Pete,

Thanks much for all you do on our behalf.

So is it still possible that they are looking at closing the Columbia above I-5? Would public comment help sway that?

I'd sure rather see days of the week closure than closing above I-5.

[Pete]

GRB, as always, there is a possibility of in-season management actions. Keep in mind that the majority of Willamette fish are hatchery, but the upriver fish, those heading up the Columbia have a higher percentage of ESA listed fish. There will be a big monitoring effort to keep track of the fish being caught and those being released. There will be an assessment of impacts on April Fifth to see how the season is going. At that point, if the the impact on ESA listed fish is ahead of projections, there are 4 options which will be considered, in order of severity: 1) reduce the fishery to days-a-week above I-5, 2) close the fishery above I-5, 3) close the lower river days-a-week and 4) very unlikely, close the fishery in all areas.

Considering that the run will be dominated by late, 4 year old fish and very few 5 year old fish and that the river will be high and cold, it seems unlikely that we will have a larger than predicted impact in March. But we'll see!

I believe it would be good to support the plan at this point. It shows sensitivity to the desire of sport fishermen to fish through the month of April. Both Washington and Oregon have been receptive to sportfishing concerns and have committed to a public process of imposing any management actions, if necessary, based on a step-wise process that minimizes negative impact on the sport fishery while providing necessary protection to listed fish stocks.

[5-Cents]

[img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

[Gun Rod Bow]

Do you think, based on marked/unmarked percentages above I-5, we would have a better chance of fishing through April with a days of the week closure...say two days off per week...from the outset to help extend that fishery until the water warms and the big fish/big numbers show and you are less likely to freeze to death?

I'd rather cut 2-3 days per week and trade for fishing through April.

Kinda like using up the ocean quota's of Coho on 3 lb fish in July and not being able to keep 12 lb Coho in September

Seems like it would be a better use of the resource. :whazzup:

[Pete]

Cutting at the front end was discussed at the CRRFAG meeting. Right now, with the run profile we expect, we should have unrestricted fishing through April. I don't think we'll run into a restriction. If we impose restrictions now, we might very well not use our allocation. If that were the case, the surplus would likely go to the gill netters. I would rather risk taking a restricted fishery at the end of the season than handing part of our allocation to the netters.

[cosmo]

It will be interesting to see how the commercial fishery is set. The earlier they catch fish, the more those fish are worth. Once the fish start going over Bonneville and Indian caught fish hit the market the value goes down. But with a limiting factor of 2% impact to steelhead, fishing early for value could shut them down extremely fast. I wouldn't be surprised by an attempt to fish commercially in April, on the backside of the steelhead run, even though fish value will not be as high. Could be some upset sprt anglers if they send the commercial fleet out in the peak of the sport season.

[freespool]

Thanks so much Pete for your tireless effort to keep us informed on these very important fish issues.

[elkman]

thanks tons pete, looks like there will be plenty of fish to go around!

[SPAZZ]

[Sturgeon Tom]

Thanks Pets for the work. [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]
Let’s get our entire quota and not let the netters get our fish.
If they get any of our fish, next time they will want more of the percentage saying the sports fisher couldn't catch all of there fish last time.
st

[Point-of-Sale Clerk]

Pete

Thank you for the great information. Lots for us Sport guys to absorb. :smile:

This whole thing has been a crash course in politics and subtleties.
Lessons well learned and best remembered if we want to continue these apparent successes.


Everyone at Ifish did a great job

[Perfect Drift]

Most of us have heard of Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Pheasants Forever, Ducks Unlimited, NRA, BASS, Quail, etc, etc. These groups support the species of choice, correct?
Think about it .........
Annual fundraisers, donations, clothing, why do folks put money where their interests are?
To preserve their interests, correct?
How about about it ????

[Pete]

Perfect, I'm not quite sure what you are getting at. The Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, Northwest Steelheaders, Recreational Fishing Alliance, Trout Unlimited and other sport based groups have been very involved in the process. On the resource side, there are also dozens of salmon and fish advocate groups that stepped up to the plate.

[NorthRiverRick]

Thanks for the hard work and information Pete, but most of all a big THANKS for the results!

[img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

Regards,
Rick

[Rubber Hooks]

Pete, thanks for all of your hard work. I have a question. Why doesn't The gill netters have a separate ESA number from the sports fishermen? If each group had thier own ESA number, Then when it was reached, that particular season would be over without impacting the rest of the fishery. I am thinking about last years folly when the gill netters had an extra period and they went over the ESA number and it shut everyone down.
Keep up the good work
Rubber Hooks

[Pete]

Rubber Hooks, the ESA impact allocation is part of the management process that grew from the US v. Oregon court case process which includes the 4 treaty tribes (Nez Perce, Umatilla, Warm Springs and Yakima), the 3 states (Idaho, Oregon, Washington) and the federal government. A multi-year agreement covering 2001-2005 allocations between all the parties. The process does not distinguish between types of fishers, leaving that allocation to the interjurisdictional Columbia River Compact. It's an incredibly complex, science-based political process. We'll get to watch it all over again as the next multi-year agreement is negotiated starting in a year or so. Pull up a chair!

[Straydog]

Thank you Pete!! [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

[Fish-n-Fever]

It is nice having quick info and some one like Pete in there swinging. One man CAN make a difference, especially if he is standing beside another man making a difference, who is next to another man who....you get my point!
Ron

[Rubber Hooks]

Pete, Thanks for the info
Rubber Hooks

[Rimshot]

[img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] Thank you Pete.

[Pete]

BnB, there's no doubt that public input helped with the decision. I think we may finally be catching a stride in bringing sportfishing interest to the table. I hope it's the first step of greater things to come.

[finnman]

Pete,
Just a simple thanks.
[img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]
Finnman

[Lured In]

This is pretty good news!

But this is what I am waiting to see....

IMHO, the kicker to the commercial impact/success rate is based on what size net they are going to use.

As you might remember, in 2002, they started experimenting with tangle nets which were essentially coho gillnets (~6" mesh). The end result was that these nets ended up being wild steelhead gillnets while tooth tangling spring chinook. That year the commercials completely blew out their wild steelhead impact.

Learning from that lesson, going into the 2003 season, a 4.25" mesh was decided as the 'ideal' mesh for tooth tangling chinook, while not overly harming the steelhead. But, fishery managers were anticipating lots of early arriving 5 year old Willamette fish in 2003. Given this, they decided to use 9" mesh (traditional chinook gillnets) to target these Willamette fish in late Feb. Additionally, the 9" mesh had minimal impact on the "average" wild steelhead. The problem came when the Willamette fish did not show in the late February commercial season and the upriver fish did.

The result was the commercials (at the direction of the CRC) gillnettting a bunch of upriver fish and chewing up most of their ESA impact guideline for chinook.

I sincerely hope that the CRC has learned over the last two years that this will be an upredictable fishery and the only way to go is with 4.25" mesh for the entire commerical fishery.

Keep in mind that if they go this route (which is good for steelhead and chinook), it will take them longer to reach their ESA impact on either chinook or steelhead. The result is the netters may actually be in the river MORE often. This is not necessarily bad, but it will mean they may have a longer season (perhaps into late March or early April) or that they will be on the river more often during the months of Feb and March.

Let's see what comes out of this on Thursdays meeting.

[Perfect Drift]

That is exactly my point Pete, I am very very pleased to see the funnel finally point to one spout. We as sportfisherpeople, have been so scattered with so much bickering and enfighting, that we could never become organized in any fashion. Having a goal that can motivate us all, that we can all stand behind 100% unwavering, is what the sportfishermen have needed for so many years. It's quite amasing and exciting to watch the support grow.
Won't it be neat when more and more politions speak openly about removing the nets, when we see this happen, we've come a long long ways to meeting the goal. They speak of what the voters want or they find another job. When it becomes " the " thing to support, then we can give the high fives.
Then if we want hatchery fish,if we want natural spawning beds, let's think about funding them with our money, look at how much land DU has tied up for duck habitat. Could we do that with big timber companies, ranchers, why not ? What if they came asking fisherpeople how it should be done, wouldn't that be a hoot.
Pete, keep on doin whatca doin !

[ 01-31-2004, 06:53 PM: Message edited by: Perfect Drift ]

[Bobby Ray]

Pete

Do you think all our letters helped with this decision?

Thanks for all the updates Pete

[RIPPLE]

thank you Pete for your efforts and your excellent, timely information.
:grin: RIPPLE :grin:

[Pete]

NSIA issued a press release this morning urging sport fishers to attend the Compact hearing on Thursday and to CONTINUE to write to your legislators and ODFW staff.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The OR and WA Commissions gave instructions to their Directors, and they have met and dicussed Commission instructions. The outcome of that discussion is a two year, sport/commercial allocation agreement listed in the joint state press release below. NSIA is sad to report that for the sportfishers, the allowable impact share between sport and commercial went down from last three year agreement. The sport share of the impacts went down from 65/35 downstream of McNary dam to 60/40. This is not fair nor is it equitable to the people who spend nearly a decade on hydro management, hatchery funding, mass marking and conservation efforts necessary to turn the Columbia River Spring Chinook fishery into a reality.

While there is scant chance of changing the 60/40 agreement there are three important points you need to make to the Departments (e-mails in press releases) and to your legislators (links at end of my message). Please also copy NSIA with your letters. Send your e-mails now, then save your Thursday morning to pile into the compact meeting where the season structure will be set.

THE COMPACT MEETING TO SET THE SEASONS FOR SPORT AND COMMERCIAL FISHERIES STARTS @ 10:00 ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5 at the Museum of the Oregon Territory located at 211 Tumwater Drive, OR City. Mapquest directions to the Museum of the Oregon Territory

Sportfishermen must pack this meeting and make the same messages that we made in our e-mails:

1) There MUST be a buffer on the commercial fleet, and they must be out of the water by March 15, or when they hit 80% of their impacts on ESA-listed fish. We cannot continue to manage the commercial fleet with the sport fleet as the insurance policy. Two out of the last three years the sportfleet was shut down due to over harvest by the commercial fleet. There must be a buffer, and the gill net fleet needs to get out of the water in time for the sport fleet to to have a quality fishery.

2) It is not fair, nor equitable to shut down thousands of angler trips and put the sportfishing community a step back because the commercial release mortlities are higher than the sport release mortalities.

3) We don't support a trippling of the wild winter steelhead mortalities to conduct the net fishery. Be sure to let your legislators and the departments know that this is unacceptable risk to triple the impacts on wild winter steelhead to conduct an experimental net fishery.

Write your legislator in Washington State

Write your legislator in Oregon State