Salmon fishermen skeptical about 2010 season

<p>Local commercial fishermen say they're not optimistic about this year's salmon prospects, even after a federal panel recommended reopening the fishing season along the California coast, with restrictions.</p><p>The Pacific Fishery Management Council approved three options Thursday that outline where West Coast fishermen might be allowed to cast their lines and nets beginning this spring. Oregon and Washington are poised to have better seasons because fish are more bountiful there.</p><p>Federal biologists predict a possible return of 245,000 fall-run Chinook, a significant jump from last year's record low return of 39,500. Last year the federal fishery council predicted a return of 122,000.</p><p>That discrepancy worries local fishermen.</p><p>“This is the first year where I've seen the fishermen are much more conservative than the agencies,” said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations.</p><p>There remains a chance that California's salmon fishery could be closed altogether when the council issues its final decision during a meeting in Oregon next month. However, Council chairman David Ortmann called that possibility unlikely.</p><p>“Compared to the last two years, there's going to be more fishermen back on the water,” Ortmann said after the vote.</p><p>If fishing for Sacramento River fall-run Chinook salmon is allowed off California's coast, it would be limited for both commercial and recreational boats. Restrictions on when and where fishermen could travel are proposed because of concern about the decline in Chinook over the past three years.</p><p>Chris Lawson, president of the Fisherman's Marketing Association of Bodega Bay, said he wonders whether the allowed fishing limits would be “enough to gear up for.”</p><p>What's more, he said he was concerned that federal predictions could be way off again.</p><p>“If we go fishing and we get that 70,000 fish and we come in under the floor, then we've shot ourselves in the foot,” said Lawson, noting that he's currently crabbing.</p><p>“I think in 2011, we'll get a respectable season,” he said.</p><p>Salmon fishing has been closed the past two years off California's coast, leaving West Coast fishermen with the second-worst year on record.</p><p>Even so, commercial and recreational salmon fishing contributed $17 million to the West Coast economy in 2009, according to the council. That was more than twice the amount in 2008 when fishing was also restricted in Oregon.</p><p>Congress has allocated $170 million in disaster relief the past two years to help fishing communities in California, Oregon and Washington hurt by the losses.</p><p>The prospect for a salmon season in California comes after federal biologists predicted more fall-run Chinook will return to the Sacramento River and its tributaries this year.</p><p>Under the best-case scenario, most of the California coastline could be open to recreational fishermen between April and mid-November. A more restricted season would leave fishermen docked in May and June in central and southern California when more salmon are in the area, according to the recommendations.</p><p>Press Democrat Staff Writer Martin Espinoza and The Associated Press contributed to this report.</p>