Salmon fishing season likely to be shorter in 2016

North Coast fishermen may have plenty of free time on their hands this summer if regulators adopt any of three proposed alternatives for this year’s commercial salmon seasons.

With the outlook suggesting diminished abundance of two key Chinook salmon runs, fishery managers have structured a season with lots of gaps, especially in the Fort Bragg region, where the fishery would be all or mostly closed in June and completely shut down in July.

North Coast Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, and other bay-delta representatives said the proposed cuts would reduce commercial fishing boats’ time on the water by at least 20 percent overall - and by up to 45 percent along a stretch of the North Coast from Point Arena to Horse Mountain, located north of Shelter Cove in Humboldt County.

“I would say we have not much opportunity to catch what looks like not very many fish this year,” said McKinleyville fisherman Dave Bitts, a member of the salmon advisory subcommittee to the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which oversees coastal fisheries off California, Oregon and Washington.

The council determines which days from May to September can be fished each year in various stretches of coastline along the western United States, based on how many fish are believed to be available, biological projections and how many must be spared to meet tribal obligations and thresholds necessary to sustain populations.

The three options approved for public review at a council meeting Monday in Sacramento would include May 1 start dates for the San Francisco geographical region, which stretches from Point Arena in south Mendocino County to Pigeon Point in San Mateo County.

Fishing in that area would be permitted for all of May, parts of June and all but two days in August. One proposal also includes a week of July. Additional fishing would be permitted during several days in October between Point Reyes and Point San Pedro on the Marin County coast.

In the Fort Bragg cell, fishing would be permitted in parts of May and August and all of September. June and July would off-limits under all but one scenario, which would allow 10 days of fishing in June.

A public hearing on the proposals will be held March 29 in Fort Bragg. The council will choose a final recommendation next month during a meeting in Vancouver, Wash. The National Marine Fisheries Service must approve the final selection.

This week’s news was not unexpected but is nonetheless a blow for the embattled North Coast fishing fleet, which last year had a less restrictive salmon season but was largely unsuccessful because the fish were not around.

Many of the same fishermen counted on Dungeness crab to offset the failed salmon season, only to find the crab season virtually canceled because of a harmful algae bloom that resulted in unacceptably high levels of domoic acid in West Coast crab. The Dungeness crab season, which normally runs from Nov. 15 to June 30, could still open this year, but most fishermen fear there will be little market for what they might catch this late in the season.

Earlier this month, fish and wildlife officials said years of drought and warmer than usual ocean waters had taken their toll on West Coast salmon stocks. As a result, Windsor fisherman Ben Platt suggested late-season crab might, remarkably, end up being the best bet for those who would normally be packing up their crab pots and gearing up for fishing at this point in the year.

“Even without the crab thing this would probably be considered a disaster in terms of the salmon season this year,” said Platt, a member of the California Salmon Council who trolls for salmon all along the western states and crabs out of Half Moon Bay.

In contrast, the recreational salmon season would open April 2 around the North Coast and run with few interruptions through October or November, allowing sport anglers to compete for salmon with commercial fishermen to a degree many will think is unfair, Bodega Bay commercial fisherman Dick Ogg said.

“It’s hard for the guys to sit back and watch the recreational fishermen get a full season, a semi-full season, and us be cut back to basically nothing,” Ogg said.

Huffman and his bay-delta colleagues used the occasion to promote drought-relief legislation that would, in part, improve defense of salmon habitat and thus a $1.4 billion fishing industry against water grabs in the delta region.

“The regulations released by the Pacific Fisheries Management Council for the upcoming salmon fishing season confirm that five years of drought have been devastating for the health of the delta and the critical species that depend on the estuary for their survival,” said Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena. “We’re now faced with three options for a limited fishing season, each one more devastating than the last for a $1.4 billion industry that supports 23,000 jobs. This verdict will make painfully clear the importance of sound water management that doesn’t prioritize south of delta interests over an industry on the brink of collapse.”

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.