Contact: Brian Gorman FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 30, 1996
Fishing management measures designed to reduce the harvest of endangered Sacramento River winter chinook and protect the dwindling stock from extinction will begin May 1, the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced today.
Recommended by the Pacific Fishery Management Council to NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service in April, the regulations set the 1996 ocean fishing seasons off California, Oregon and Washington.
According to the fisheries service, the abundance of all salmon off Washington and Oregon is little improved over the record lows of recent years, and today's salmon measures allow no commercial and sport salmon fishing off Washington and only limited seasons off Oregon and northern California.
"These conservation measures are necessary to protect endangered fish from extinction," said Rolland Schmitten, fisheries service director. "The Pacific Fisheries Management Council and the fisheries service worked hard to design these regulations so as to minimize the economic impacts while achieving our conservation goals."
Off central California, where salmon abundance is predicted to be somewhat lower than average, the new measures provide protection for Sacramento River winter chinook, which has been listed under the Endangered Species Act since 1989. In recent years the numbers of winter chinook have remained at perilously low levels and the fishery service this year issued a biological opinion that required reductions in ocean harvest of winter chinook.
Winter chinook are smaller than the much more plentiful fall chinook and the management measures seek to exploit the size difference by increasing the minimum size limit for winter chinook in the recreational and commercial fisheries. By requiring fishermen to release a greater number of smaller fish, the measures increase the likelihood that few winter chinook will be retained, allowing some continued harvest of the larger fall chinook. Retention of coho salmon is prohibited in all fisheries off California and Oregon.
The recreational season off northern California will be affected primarily by a four-inch increase in the minimum size limit (to 24 inches from 20 inches) in the Fort Bragg area. Off San Francisco, the traditional fishing season will close two weeks early (on Oct. 14) and in 1997 the opening will be delayed by a full month, until March 29.
South of San Francisco, the recreational season will close 2 months early, on August 25, and open two weeks late, on March 15, in 1997.
Minimum size limits off San Francisco and south were increased four inches to 24 inches in April and will be followed by an additional two-inch increase to 26 inches on July 1. Each angler will be restricted to using only one rod, and will be required to use 5/0 hooks when mooching, a fishing technique in which fishermen drift above a school of salmon. The 5/0 hook, larger than the size typically used, reduces the chance of a fish swallowing the hook and thus improves its chances of being successfully released.
In previous years, the recreational minimum size limit has been 20 inches for chinook and there have been no restrictions placed on the number of rods an angler could use off California.
The California commercial seasons are, in general, unchanged from recent years. The minimum size limit will be raised from 26 inches to 27 inches July 1. An experimental commercial fishery has been approved between Point Lopez and Point Mugu in the last half of April, 1997. The experimental fishery will help biologists determine the mix of Central Valley, Klamath Basin and southern Oregon salmon caught in the area.
Because the management measures rely on the release of undersize fish to reduce the harvest of winter chinook, fishery service biologists emphasize it will be especially important for commercial and recreational fishermen to exercise as much care as possible in releasing hooked salmon to increase the chances the fish will survive when they are returned to the water. Information on the best methods for releasing salmon are available from the National Marine Fisheries Service and the California Department of Fish and Game.