North Coast salmon season opens Friday but low catch expected

BODEGA BAY

Salmon season kicks off today along the Sonoma Coast, but one would scarcely know it from the low-level action Thursday in Bodega Harbor, in what continues to be a weird year for the commercial?ocean-going fleet.

Where docks would normally be bustling with preparation for the opening of a key fishery, the scene was notable for how little energy was in the air.

Few fishermen are participating in the salmon opener this year, deterred by dismal ocean abundance projections and the ongoing Dungeness crab season that got started so late it’s still in the relatively early stages.

“I’d say almost nobody’s going,” said 45-year veteran John Josephs of Albion, who expected to forgo salmon altogether this year in favor of crab. “Maybe 10 boats out of this harbor.”

King salmon is traditionally a staple fishery for the North Coast, with 2014 landings worth $7.5 million in Bodega Bay and Fort Bragg. Crab has recently been a more lucrative fishery for Bodega Bay, bringing in more than $10 million directly to commercial crabbers that year.

But after a dismal salmon season last year when the statewide catch was half of normal, this year’s outlook was even worse.

State and national wildlife experts in February estimated ocean abundance at fewer than 300,000 adult fish - less than half of what was forecast any year since 2010.

The number of returning fish for the Sacramento River winter run and the Klamath River were particularly low, restricting the salmon season so that fishermen have about a third less time on the water this season, as well, said John Koeppen of Bodega Bay, captain of the LuLu.

“So we’ve got half the fish and about two-thirds the opportunity,” he said.

At the same time, the crab season, though still underway, is expected to produce a sliver of its potential. Delayed for more than four months by a toxic algal bloom that has finally subsided, the fishery opened months after the lucrative holiday markets were over, resulting in low prices and a short season.

Josephs said the whole fleet is “just beaten down” as a consequence.

Koeppen, who doesn’t fish crab from his boat, though he does crew for friends who do, said he still planned to go out for salmon this year because the price is strong - reported at $9.50 a pound in Santa Cruz, where the salmon season opened May 1, according to John McManus, executive director of the Golden Gate Salmon Association.

But those who fish crab and salmon most years, said Koeppen, would have to spend several days unstacking their pots and gearing up for salmon in short order, when normally their boats would have been unstacked weeks ago.

In addition, there remains a significant volume of crab pots and lines in the water, making for crowded ocean conditions. Anyone dropping fishing lines risks snags and entanglement from submerged gear.

“The guys that fish both salmon and crab are in a quandary,” Koeppen said.

Some, like Luke Clark of Fort Bragg, who was reconfiguring his boat, Sea, for salmon, said he would fish but continue to set his crab pots, though the crab harvest had slowed substantially.

“In order to fish every day, we had to fish for something else,” he said.

Jason Dennon of Eureka, fueling up the Nanbellis Jo, said he similarly would spread his efforts.

“I’m doing both at the same time,” he said. “You gotta make your expenses.”

McManus said landing reports from the area south of San Mateo County, where salmon season opened May 1, are pretty good. “People were pleasantly surprised,” he said.

But sport fishermen who have been authorized to fish for the past month in the area between there and Point Arena, are returning with favorable reports off San Francisco, but not so good along Sonoma County. That area opens to commercial boats today.

Those spotty reports, said Aaron Weinzinger, captain of the Regina Marie in Bodega Bay, are enough to keep him going after crab as long as he’s still hauling them in, rather than risk going in search of salmon that may not be there.

“Right now, it’s not economical to go out on a discovery mission,” he said.

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