After three years of depressing news, there’s finally enough salmon to allow for fishing everywhere on the West Coast this summer.
How much fishing will be allowed varies widely along the coast. The Columbia River is having another year of strong salmon runs, good news for fishermen in Northern Oregon and Washington. For fishermen further south, the Sacramento and Klamath Rivers are doing better, but the seasons are more limited.
The news came out Thursday from the Pacific Fishery Management Council. PFMS is the federal agency that regulates West Coast salmon fishing.
North of Cape Falcon, Oregon:
Commercial fishing – a chinook season in May and June. Then an all-salmon season from July through September. Commercial boats will be allowed to catch 56,000 chinook which is double last year’s quota. The coho catch is limited to 13,000, about one-third of 2009′s quota.
Recreation fishing – a chinook season in late June. All salmon fishing opens in July and runs through September.
South of Cape Falcon, Oregon:
Commercial fishing – Along Oregon, fishing will be allowed from May through August. Off the California coast there are very short seasons in July and August.
Recreation fishing – In Oregon, fishing for chinook will be allowed from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day. Coho fishing starts in June with a limit of 26,000 fish. In California, chinook fishing will be allowed during the summer, but not coho.
As anyone who’s fished for salmon can tell you, the actual regulations are far more complex than what I’ve posted. For complete information see:
PFMC Adopted Salmon Regulations (Opens a PDF file)
These rules still need to be approved by NOAA. But that agency usually accepts them without major changes.
