Seattle Times: Federal officials on Thursday declared a failure in the West Coast ocean salmon fishery, an announcement that will allow the region to seek disaster aid for fishermen and others affected in
California,
Oregon and
Washington. The disaster declaration results from a collapse of the
Sacramento River chinook. These
California chinook are a mainstay of the West Coast harvests, and many are believed to have perished several years back as they emerged from freshwater amid poor ocean conditions and reduced food supplies.
To protect the California chinook, there will be a near closure of all ocean salmon harvests off California and most of Oregon. Meanwhile, a small portion of northern Oregon and Washington will have limited seasons for sport, tribal and commercial fishermen to target Columbia River chinook as well as a diminished run of coho salmon.
Overall, it will be the worst harvest in the history of the West Coast salmon fishing. "This is a bleak year," Jim Balsiger, acting assistant administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Service, said in announcing the declaration in Portland….
A Chinook salmon in the fish ladder at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, photo by Josh Larios from Seattle, Wikimedia Commons, under Creative CommonsAttribution ShareAlike 2.0 License
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