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Columbia Rules Focus of Meetings by Associated Press Statesman Journal, February 5, 2005

On table is whether to raise incidental mortality rate

Sport anglers and people from conservation groups are expected to be out in force today and next Friday when officials in Washington and Oregon review and approve rules for sport and commercial fishing on the Columbia River for spring-run chinook salmon.

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission is meeting today in Olympia.

Friday, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission meets in Troutdale.

At issue is a decision by officials from the federal NOAA Fisheries to allow an incidental mortality of up to 6 percent of the run of nonhatchery native winter-run steelhead, which are protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Previously, officials for both states had approved sport and commercial seasons for spring-run chinook based on the previous allowed incidental mortality rate of 2 percent.

The Washington commission is scheduled to vote on whether to adopt the raised ceiling today. That vote could set the tone for the decision by the Oregon commission on Friday.

Sportfishing groups, wild-fish conservation groups such as the Native Fish Society and Trout Unlimited all oppose lifting the limit.

Previously, officials for both states meeting in Vancouver, Wash., approved the rules that are nearly identical to 2004, which could be modified if the mortality ceiling for protected steelhead is raised. Overall, a run of about 413,000 spring chinook are expected to migrate up the Columbia and Willamette rivers this year:

• To try and keep the rest of the river open to springer fishing through April and into May, fishery managers decided to limit fishing to three days a week with a daily bag limit of one hatchery chinook a day in the area immediately below Bonneville Dam.
• In 2004, a large portion of spring chinook harvested from the Columbia were caught in the five miles immediately downstream of Bonneville Dam.
• The 2004 recreational fishery closed between the Interstate 5 Bridge and Bonneville Dam before the end of April because the allowable impacts to wild salmon had been met.
• Fishing for hatchery springers will be allowed every day from the mouth of the Columbia River at Buoy 10 upstream to Rooster Rock, and from Bonneville Dam upstream to McNary Dam.
• The rule will continue that prohibits Columbia River anglers from removing from the water any salmon or steelhead required to be released.

Of the total run, about 70 percent are expected to be marked by a missing adipose fin that designates them as hatchery keepers.

Biologists estimate a total Columbia River harvest of about 35,000 hatchery-bred spring chinook, split between sport anglers and the commercial fishing industry.

Fish managers set the Columbia River spring chinook fishery based on the number of fish expected to return from the ocean, and on the allowable impact to wild salmon and steelhead stocks listed under the federal Endangered Species Act.

"Impacts" are the unintended mortalities associated with handling and releasing wild fish.

The allowed non-Indian impacts are 2 percent of the total runs of ESA-listed Snake River spring/summer chinook and Upper Columbia River spring chinook.

Biologists will analyze the sport harvest and the impacts to wild fish one or two days a week from April 5 through May 15 to determine if the season length or bag limit needs to be made.

If changes need to be made, it would be in the following order:

• Eliminate the fishery between Rooster Rock and Bonneville Dam.
• Reduce the fishery below the Rooster Rock boundary to less than seven days a week.
• Eliminate the fishery below Rooster Rock.
• In addition, fishing above Bonneville Dam would be managed to provide similar fishing opportunities as in the lower Columbia.