ODFW News: **Columbia River Chinook Seasons**

[Pete]

NEWS RELEASE
WASHINGTON DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE
600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, Washington 98501-1091
Internet Address: http://wdfw.wa.gov
OREGON DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE
3406 Cherry Ave NE, Salem, Oregon 97303
Internet address: http://www.dfw.state.or.us

February 5, 2004
Contacts: WDFW: Cindy LeFleur, (360) 906-6708
or Margaret Ainscough (360) 902-2408
ODFW: Steve King, (503) 657-2000 ext. 246
or Anne Pressentin, (503) 947-6020


Columbia River spring chinook seasons set for sport anglers and commercial fishers

Fisheries target 500,000 salmon run * second largest on record

OREGON CITY, OR. * The states of Washington and Oregon Thursday adopted non-Indian sport and commercial spring chinook fishing seasons in the Columbia River that provide abundant opportunities for harvesting expected large returns of hatchery-bred fish while protecting wild salmon and steelhead by significantly limiting their catch and handling.

The recreational seasons adopted Thursday allow spring chinook angling every day below the Interstate 5 Bridge now until a guideline is reached in the spring. Above the I-5 Bridge to McNary Dam, the season opens March 16. The states also adopted a new rule that prohibits anglers from totally removing a wild salmon or steelhead from the water during the mainstem Columbia River fishery. The recreational angling season will close when the allowable number of "impacts" to wild fish are reached. Fishery managers hope to keep the extremely popular fishery open through April and into May.

"Because the sport fishery will be managed on impacts, the end date of the fishery is not precisely known," said Cindy LeFleur, Columbia River fish biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. "We don't have a crystal ball."

Fish biologists from the Oregon and Washington departments of fish and wildlife predict the total run of Columbia River spring chinook will be the second-highest since 1938, when counting began. About 500,000 wild and hatchery spring chinook are forecast to enter the Columbia River in 2004. Of the total run, 70-80 percent are marked by a missing adipose fin to designate them as "keepers." Biologists estimate a total mainstem harvest of about 50,000 hatchery-bred spring chinook, split between sport anglers and the commercial fishing industry.

Spring chinook provide tremendous economic benefit to both the commercial and sport-fishing industries because the meat is prized for its flavor and it is the first fresh non-farmed salmon of the season to reach barbecues and specialty markets.

The commercial seasons adopted Thursday would allow fisheries not longer than 16 hours from the mouth to Kelley Point on Tuesdays and/or Thursdays if test fishing results from Sundays and Wednesdays indicate very few wild fish present in the river. The first test fishery is scheduled for Feb. 22, with the earliest possible fleet fishery on Feb. 24. The commercial seasons were set to target spring chinook destined for Willamette River hatcheries, to reduce wild steelhead impacts, and to minimize conflicts with sport anglers.

Commercial fisheries may include a combination of tangle net and large mesh fisheries. The number of test fisheries and the required mesh size for the large mesh fisheries were increased for 2004 to decrease the number of wild steelhead handled.

For large mesh fisheries, fishers will be required to use nets not longer than 150 fathoms with mesh size between 9 and 9.75 inches and have recovery boxes on board for any wild fish caught. During the tangle net portion, fishers must use 4.25 inch maximum size mesh. In addition, on-board observers will determine the number of wild fish caught and released. Thursday's decisions established a delayed mortality rate of 40 percent for wild spring chinook and 30 percent for wild steelhead caught in large mesh commercial nets. The mortality rate for wild spring chinook and steelhead released from the tangle nets was established at 18.5 percent.

The states also adopted commercial seasons for tribal and non-tribal fishers for shad harvest, spring chinook select area fisheries, and anchovy and herring bait fisheries.

Fish managers set the Columbia River spring chinook fishery based on the number of fish expected to return from the ocean and the allowable impact to wild salmon and steelhead stocks listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. "Impacts" are the unintended mortalities associated with handling and releasing wild fish. The allowed non-Indian impacts are 2 percent of the total runs of ESA-listed Snake River spring chinook, Upper Columbia River spring chinook, and Columbia Basin winter steelhead.

Thursday's decision splits the total 2 percent allowable impact 1.2 percent to the sport fisheries and 0.8 percent to the commercial fishers for the 2004-2005 fisheries. Fishery managers will use the test fisheries, short commercial openers and early season "checkpoints" to prevent both the commercial and sport fisheries from exceeding their allowable impacts.

The directors of the Oregon and Washington fish and wildlife departments said last week that pre-season planning for the spring chinook fisheries, should be based on the federally-established limit of 2 percent allowable impacts to wild steelhead. The states' decision today complies with that direction. Adjustments may be made if NOAA Fisheries allows a higher impact rate and the fish and wildlife directors initiate a public review process before a final decision is made.

The rules adopted Thursday for sport anglers include:
* For the mainstem Columbia River from the mouth at Buoy 10 upstream to the Interstate 5 Bridge, the season for adipose fin-clipped spring chinook, adipose fin-clipped steelhead, and shad is open seven days a week now until the allowable impacts are reached or May 15, which ever occurs first. Anglers may retain two adult spring chinook or steelhead in Oregon. In Washington, anglers may retain two adult spring chinook and two steelhead. From the Rocky Point/Tongue Point line in the Columbia River estuary upstream to I-5, anglers are prohibited from totally removing from the water any salmon or steelhead required to be released from Monday, Feb. 16, through the end of the fishery.


* For the mainstem Columbia River from the Interstate 5 Bridge upstream to Bonneville Dam and from the Tower Island power lines upstream to McNary Dam and the Oregon bank between Bonneville Dam and the Tower Island power lines (about 6 miles below The Dalles Dam), the season for adipose fin-clipped spring chinook, adipose fin-clipped steelhead, and shad is open seven days a week Tuesday, March 16, until the allowable impacts are reached or May 15, which ever occurs first. Anglers may retain two adult spring chinook or steelhead in Oregon. In Washington, anglers may retain two adult spring chinook and two steelhead. Anglers are prohibited from totally removing from the water any salmon or steelhead required to be released.


* Biologists will analyze the sport harvest and the impacts to wild fish one or two days per week April 6 * May 15 to make in-season adjustments. If modifications are necessary to keep within the allowable impacts, they will be made in the following order: 1) Reduce the number of fishing days each week between the I-5 Bridge and Bonneville Dam; 2) End the fishery between the I-5 Bridge and Bonneville Dam; 3) Reduce the number of fishing days each week below the I-5 Bridge; and 4) End the fishery below the I-5 Bridge. In addition, the fishery above Bonneville Dam will be managed to provide similar fishing opportunities as those below the I-5 Bridge.
###

Anne Pressentin Young
Information Services Manager
Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife
(503) 947-6020
anne.m.pressentin@state.or.us

[ 02-05-2004, 07:50 PM: Message edited by: Pete ]

[fish_on]

Originally posted by Pete:
About 500,000 wild and hatchery spring chinook are forecast to enter the Columbia River in 2004. Of the total run, 70-80 percent are marked by a missing adipose fin to designate them as "keepers." Biologists estimate a total mainstem harvest of about 50,000 hatchery-bred spring chinook, split between sport anglers and the commercial fishing industry.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">500,000 fish and 70% marked should be 350,000 marked fish of that we get to split 14.3% or 50,000. Boy there is some imbalance here.

Originally posted by Pete:

Thursday's decision splits the total 2 percent allowable impact 1.2 percent to the sport fisheries and 0.8 percent to the commercial fishers for the 2004-2005 fisheries. Fishery managers will use the test fisheries, short commercial openers and early season "checkpoints" to prevent both the commercial and sport fisheries from exceeding their allowable impacts.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">500,000 fish and lets say 80% are marked (ya right I know) now that leaves 100,000 native fish of witch when the nasty netters reach an estimated .8% or 800 fish kill they are done and they have a mortality of 18.5%. Correct? If so then out of every 100 salmon caught 20 will be natives and 3.7 will die. So that leaves them 21,622 total fish to catch or 43.2%. How far over do you think they will go, since the only way to monitor how many natives they kill is by how many hatchery fish are kept?

[Pete]

Fish-on, I don't think there will be excessive take. There will be observers on the commercial boats, at least twice a week assessments of the status of the runs, and several other measures to prevent excessive kill. I think this is a good agreement and we should have a good fishery if the runs come in as predicted.

[Bait O' Eggs]

The states also adopted a new rule that prohibits anglers from totally removing a wild salmon or steelhead from the water during the mainstem Columbia River fishery.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">I guess we wont be seeing many of those grip and grin photos of wild fish from the Columbia. [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

[Blue Tip Spinner]

thanks pete.

[illbfish]

If I read this correctly you can keep fishing after 2 salmon tagged, in Washington, but in Oregon you have to quit. Not that I often limit on springers but with two guys in the boat & 3 fish in the box in Washington I can still have two rods out! OREGON WAKE_UP!

[El-Kabong]

Am I reading this correctly (also)

"Thursday's decisions established a delayed mortality rate of 40 percent for wild spring chinook and 30 percent for wild steelhead caught in large mesh commercial nets. The mortality rate for wild spring chinook and steelhead released from the tangle nets was established at 18.5 percent. "

commercials get to kill up to 40% of the wild fish?

[Boatdog]

Originally posted by El-Kabong:
Am I reading this correctly (also)

"Thursday's decisions established a delayed mortality rate of 40 percent for wild spring chinook and 30 percent for wild steelhead caught in large mesh commercial nets. The mortality rate for wild spring chinook and steelhead released from the tangle nets was established at 18.5 percent. "

commercials get to kill up to 40% of the wild fish?

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">I'm pretty sure thats 40% of the total 2% allowed; 1.2% for sports, 0.8% for commercial.

[fishnagain]

Thanks Bill

[Taildragger]

Many many thanks to Pete and all of you who showed up at the meeting and wrote letters! [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

[Pete]

Originally posted by El-Kabong:
Am I reading this correctly (also)

"Thursday's decisions established a delayed mortality rate of 40 percent for wild spring chinook and 30 percent for wild steelhead caught in large mesh commercial nets. The mortality rate for wild spring chinook and steelhead released from the tangle nets was established at 18.5 percent. "

commercials get to kill up to 40% of the wild fish?

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">Different nets have different impacts. The Tooth Tangle nets, when tested with PIT tags, resulted in 18.5% mortality for the fish that were handled. With the larger mesh gill nets, the mortality rate is higher, meaning the gill netters will be allowed to use a net that protects steelhead better at the cost of keeping more fish. When they use their quota, they are done for the season. The larger mesh will accellerate the end of the season for them, but avoid the problem they had two years ago with a large interception of wild winter steelhead which are thought to be able to swim through the larger mesh nets, unharmed.

[Lured In]

Pete that's true and here are a few other facts on the nets...

1. The large ~9" mesh IS a gillnet and is not considered 'selective' gear. This is primarily used to 'target' Willamette hatchery fish as the impact and presence of wild Willamette springers is relatively low. Approximately 40% of the chinook handled in these nets that are released will die from being netted. Approximately 30% of steelhead handled in these nets will die eventually. (Hence the use of 'long term mortality'.)

Here is the kicker on the steelhead though. Only the LARGEST steelhead will be impacted, as the average size steelhead will either swim through or be caught by the body instead of the gills. So it is selectively impacting the biggest of the steelhead while lowering the impact on smaller steelies.

The large nets provider a higher 'catch' rate on chinooks and sturgeon than 4.25" tangle nets. This enables the netters to reach their catch quota (not impact) faster given the presence of lots of hatchery fish (Willamette stock).

Last year (2003) the CRC was betting on the early return of Willamette fish and used 9" mesh nets. The problem was that the Willamette fish were late and the uprivers were early. The result was the gillnetting of lots of Upriver fish and the netters using the vast majority of the ESA impact guideline.

The 'test' fisheries this year are intended to prevent this, while still enabling the netters to use 9" mesh until the upriver percentage increases.

2. The result of the 2002 tangle net study was the recommendation for the use of 4.25" mesh in tooth tangle fisheries. This lowers the impact on both steelhead and chinook to ~18.5% (long term mortality). The downside (depending on your perspective) is that the nets are not quite as 'effecient' at netting the same number of chinook per drift. The potential result is that the netters take more days to meet their ESA impact or catch quota. An upside, the impact rate is assumed slower, thus allowing fishery managers to more effectively predict when the ESA Impact Guideline will be reached. This would minimize the netters going over their guideline and sportfisher's loosing part of thiers.

As I see it, they should just MANDATE that the fishery use 4.25" mesh for all days and forego the 'test' fishing. The smaller mesh protects more salmon and steelhead, while still allowing the net fishery to continue.

Doesn't that sound like the best situation for all parties involved, including the fish? [img]graemlins/idea.gif[/img]

[Pete]

I believe that last year, 8 inch nets were used, not 9 inch as will be used this year. The larger mesh will pass through significantly more steelhead unharmed. There's no doubt that more of the larger Willamette chinook will be caught, but I believe that is one of the objectives.

I don't know if using tangle nets would extend the net season. If I recall correctly, they hit their ESA quota in one day last year using tangle nets.

[Lured In]

Pete you are partially correct, last year they were permitted to use 8"-9.75" mesh (min/max). It was using these nets during the first two days that caused their impact to rise so quickly with the presence of primarily Upriver fish. Had they used 4.25" from the beginning, the impact would have been lower and the nets would have had more days to fish.

The CRC finally let the nets back into the river on March 21, with madatory 4.25" mesh maximum.

The steelhead impact from the first two days (8-9.75" mesh) was roughly 1/4 of the total steelhead impact. The impact from the March 21 fishery comprised another 2/3 of the impact. This is decptive; however, as they handled nearly 10 times as many steelhead and the impact only increased by a factor of 3.

The 4.25" mesh is the ONLY way to go.

All of this information is available on the CRC website.

[Point-of-Sale Clerk]

Lured-in

You and Pete are very well versed in the ins and outs of the gill net fisheries.

I can answer your question regarding the use of 4.25 inch nets only. Without going into details I was at a meeting last week in which the topic was the new proposal for increasing the non-Indian commercial impact on Wild Steelhead on the Columbia. From that meeting it is my understanding that if ODFW and WDFW made it a tangle tooth only fishery it would mandate release of wild Chinook, which as far as you and I are concerned is good. But that would make the harvest of wild Chinook an “incidental” take. That would nullify the Current FMEP and ODFW and WDFW would lose direct control over this fishery. Incidental takes are governed under the US v Oregon agreement. The Commission would lose authority and power hungry groups do not allow anything that reduces their grip on the world. The Gill Netters may also consider this a threat as then other harvest methods would be more practical under “incidental take” of wild fish

[fishnagain]

Do you know if the commercial netting days are set yet?

[Bill Monroe]

As I understand it, net seasons won't begin at all (each of them) until there's test netting...at gill-netters' expense...to make sure there are no upriver fish. The first test-netting is feb. 22, with a possible short season on the 24th...then it's almost day to day...test-fish, test-fish...they want to avoid problems with the sudden premature appearance of upriver fish like happened last year.

And those mortality figures I believe were from 8-inch mesh. Early net seasons will require 9-inch mesh that allow all steelhead and smaller chinook to get through. Early fish are large Willamette...once test nets show the presence of upriver fish, they've got to switch to shorter tangle nets with 4 1/4 inch mesh, which is where the 18.5 kicks in. Netters also are being strongly encouraged (but not yet required) to use tangle nets that have a wide band of 12-inch mesh on the top. Steelhead swim closer to the surface and thus will be able to get through more often. Also, there's a lull later in March (no nets in April and probably will be out in mid-March) when there aren't as many wild steelhead in the river.

[ 02-06-2004, 01:02 PM: Message edited by: Bill Monroe ]