Read News: Chinook salmon fishing faces limit

Chinook salmon fishing faces limit

BILL MONROE Special to The Oregonian

SALEM -- The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission wants to ban sport and commercial fishing for spring chinook salmon on the lower Columbia River this year to protect a minuscule projected Willamette River run.

But the commission would compensate with seven-day fishing on the Willamette River and Multnomah Channel all spring and six-day fishing on the Columbia River east of Interstate 5 through the end of April.

One of the commission's longest single-subject meetings began with Oregon State Police on the roof of its Salem headquarters building and more than 300 people spilling into the lobby and an extra meeting room.

Uniformed troopers also permeated the large crowd of sport and commercial fishers. The groups are often volatile and at odds with each other. In a recent similar meeting in Vancouver, shouting and shoving occurred. Friday's crowd in Salem, however, was calm and well-behaved.

Sport anglers outnumbered gill-netters by about 4-1 among 118 who testified, but commissioners told the audience they are depending on all fishers to get together to try to sort out their differences.

Testimony covered a gamut of issues, but although many of the sport anglers asked for a higher allocation of the available fish from the Columbia, commissioners didn't address changes in the current allocation of 57 percent sport and 43 percent commercial.

Eyes immediately turned to Washington, where that state's Fish and Wildlife Commission was to meet by telephone late Friday afternoon to decide whether to ask for a change and whether to demand sportfishing on the lower Columbia.

The states must negotiate any differences in management policies on shared waters of the Columbia River before state biologists meet Friday to set angling regulations for this year's topsy-turvy spring chinook run.

Late Friday, Oregon fish managers said they don't know what they will do if Washington demands sport fishing on the lower Columbia.

Oregon alone sets seasons on the Willamette River, where this spring's run prediction of 34,000 is among the lowest on record.

News Source: Oregonlive.com

Posted On February 09, 2008 15:29

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