April 24, 2023 — Oregon Governor Tina Kotek is calling on the U.S. government to declare a federal fishery resource disaster over the closure of the 2023 season for all commercial and most recreational Chinook salmon fishing along much of the West Coast.
This month, the Pacific Fishery Management Council recommended closing all commercial ocean fishing ror Chinook from Cape Falcon on Oregon’s northern coast to Mexico. The action is in response to low Chinook returns.
April 6, 2023 — The Pacific Fishery Management Council voted on Thursday, 8 April to recommend the closure of the 2023 commercial chinook salmon fishery from the northern coast of the U.S. state of Oregon to the Mexico border.
The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service is likely to accept the recommendation, which will go into effect prior to the season’s start in mid-May, according to a statement issued by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which said the PFMC based its decision off low ocean abundance forecasts and low 2022 returns.
April 6, 2023 — The Pacific Fishery Management Council is asking federal regulators to rescind two “call areas” off the southern Oregon coast that have been identified for potential offshore wind energy development.
Council members voted 10-0 on March 9 to recommend scrapping both areas over worries that massive floating wind farms will burden commercial and tribal fishermen.
The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, established the areas last year — including one that covers 1,364 square miles of ocean near Coos Bay, and another spanning 448 square miles near Brookings.
April 4, 2023 — Recent years brought a sizeable dip in ocean Chinook salmon numbers out of California causing low returns throughout Oregon, according to the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC).
This week, a meeting of the PFMC will decide whether to close fall Chinook salmon fishing in Oregon this summer.
Federal agencies, tribal members, state representatives, and members of the fishing community comprise the Pacific Fishery Management Council.
The Council began a week-long meeting in California Monday to design a plan to protect this year’s run of fall Chinook salmon.
“They look at the data, the reports from the scientists, and the estimates of what the salmon season is going to look like in terms of numbers of fish coming back and then they determine the best way to shape the fishing season,” said Michael Milstein with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
April 4, 2023 — Mark Newell typically buys and processes a lot of salmon and tuna. But this year, he expects that a lack of salmon fishing off Oregon’s southern coast during the spring and summer seasons could wipe out a major chunk of his income.
Newell, based in Newport and a member of the Oregon Salmon Commission, has been a commercial fisherman since the 1970s and, in the past 15 years, a wholesale seafood buyer and processor. Ocean Beauty in Astoria is one of his accounts.
“It’s a tough deal,” he said. “It’s just tough to have no options.”
He is referring to ocean salmon season alternatives proposed by the Pacific Fishery Management Council, the entity responsible for setting ocean salmon seasons off the Pacific Coast.
In March, the council unveiled its alternatives for the summer salmon seasons and the picture was bleak.
March 22, 2023 — Researchers with Oregon State University are trying to better protect whales from getting entangled in fishing gear. They have discovered some areas of the ocean are more at risk for whales to get caught up in that gear, and the research has been forcing some changes for some fisherman.
The research is focused on fishing for Dungeness Crab. It was three years ago when the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife made changes to how many pots fisherman could have out, it was always a way to keep whales from getting caught in their lines.
March 22, 2023 — Researchers from a team led by Oregon State University have geographically located areas where whales are more likely to become entangled in fishing gear on the Oregon coast.
The research was recently published in a paper in the journal Biological Conservation and was a collaboration with scientists at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“We’ve also discovered that risk varies with time. It’s a very dynamic thing. And it varies with response to ocean conditions,” explained Solene Derville, a postdoctoral fellow at Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute.
March 14, 2023 — March is usually a time of bustle and activity on the port docks of the Oregon Coast. Salmon fishermen return to the docks to ready their trollers. Crabbers with salmon permits begin the process of transforming their boats for the upcoming season. Hay racks arrive, gurdies are put on, hydraulic lines are reconnected, and crab tanks removed.
Everywhere fishermen are exchanging news of season openers, which hoochies and spoons they think will be hottest, what the price might be, and where they believe the salmon will show up first. Spring comes with renewed promise as crab harvest has slowed down and the excitement of chasing Chinook salmon takes hold.
That most likely won’t be happening for most of Oregon, and all of California this year. The Pacific Fishery Management Council released the season alternatives for the Chinook salmon season in California, Oregon, and Washington this week. These three alternatives are released each year for consideration, with each one presenting a different season structure, before the season is set, giving fishermen a chance to voice their preferences in regards to opener lengths, which months typically offer better fishing, and conflicts with other fisheries.
As fishermen had feared, following the presentations at the Oregon Deoartment of Fish and Wildlife Salmon Commission meeting on Feb. 27, and the CDFW meeting on March 1, which showed catastrophically poor returns in the Klamath and Sacramento Rivers, and low projections for 2023, each of the alternatives that have been offered for consideration confirm the worst; commercial salmon season may be closed on all but the most northern tip of the Oregon coast until Sept. 1, and it may not open at all in California.
March 11, 2023 — An extremely low “abundance” of California Chinook salmon stocks and projected low spawning escapements has led to the cancellation of the upcoming commercial and recreational salmon fishing season along most of the Oregon coast.
Thursday’s announcement came in two parts from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, with both actions canceling fishing seasons between March 15 and May 15, 2023.
According to Fish and Wildlife, the action applies to all commercial ocean troll salmon fishery seasons from Cape Falcon to the Oregon-California Border. Meanwhile, recreational salmon fishing has been canceled in ocean waters between Cape Falcon and Humbug Mountain off the Oregon coast.
Fish and Wildlife’s announcement said the decision arrived in consultation between the National Marine Fisheries Service, Pacific Fishery Management Council and the state of California.
The agencies’ rationale is that “multiple stocks of California Chinook Salmon are at extremely low abundance and are projected to potentially fall below target spawning escapements.”
Just this January, the Biden administration said it would consider adding Chinook salmon in Oregon and Northern California to the endangered or threatened species lists. The consideration came at the behest of nonprofits who petitioned in August 2022 and pointed out that by the 1950s, most spring-run populations of coastal Oregon and Northern California Chinook salmon “were severely depressed or extirpated due to a combination of habitat degradation, commercial fisheries, and negative impacts of artificial propagation through hatcheries.”
March 2, 2023 — A bipartisan effort is underway to provide relief to local fishermen, seafood processors, and those facing food insecurity across the country.
Last month, lawmakers including Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden sent a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) requesting the purchase of West Coast seafood products for the USDA’s Section 32 program.
Section 32 began in 1935, purchasing surplus food products from farms and fisheries to go to food assistance programs and the National School Lunch Program.