[2] Budget Battle Nearly Doomed Netpen Fishery Project In Lower River
A 12-year-old program that produces chinook and coho salmon in netpens in the Columbia estuary for commercial and recreational harvest nearly got lost between the cracks of BPA's ongoing budget process. But a last-minute deal between Washington and Oregon at this month's meeting of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council has likely kept it alive for another three years.
The $1.8 million program is just a drop in the bucket compared to the $153 million that BPA plans to spend annually on its direct fish and wildlife program. The project has taken heat before because some say it does nothing to mitigate effects of the power system.
BPA's contribution, about 60 percent of the project budget, has helped to produce more harvestable salmon for the gillnet fleet, while allowing fishermen to set their nets in areas away from the main corridors of migrating ESA-listed salmonids. But critics say in the long run, it hasn't led to any reduced effort on listed stocks either. In fact, the commercial gillnetters were even forced to curtail their effort in one of the "select areas" because so few chinook had returned that managers were worried about trapping enough broodstock at one facility to produce next year's outmigration.
In addition to the nearly $2 million from BPA, the original proposal called for more than $800,000 in other funds from a diverse group of agencies and the federal government, including more than $200,000 from the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Department, along with voluntary assessments from the fishermen themselves.
While the state of Oregon said the select area fishery project is important, a review by the state's subbasin planning and implementation team [OSPIT] also said other proposals in the estuary province should have a higher priority for funding with the limited dollars available, only $3.66 million for 2007.
Todd Jones, director of the fisheries project for Clatsop County, writing in the summer 2006 issue of the Columbia River Gillnetter, said funding requests for BPA money "have been channeled through a new process that pits the project sponsors against each other in what has been equated to throwing a hunk of meat in a pen of hungry lions." He said the proposal was ranked "based on criteria for which we are not designed."
OSPIT still recommended the program for high priority funding, but in a document posted on PNCC Web site in June said the budget for the estuary province will not support the dollars requested by project sponsors. They said the project should be judged within the context of multiple subbasins, and agreed with The Lower Columbia River Funding Board on the Washington side of the river that the SAFE [Select Areas Fisheries Enhancement] proposal should be ranked as a priority in the "systemwide" budget category.
Astoria - where spring chinook prices went through the roof.
The LCRFB's rationale for moving the proposal into the systemwide category is that "the conservation benefits of the SAFE project apply to every anadromous fish population within the Columbia River watershed."
But Washington NWPPC member Larry Cassidy told NW Fishletter a week before the Council meeting that it was unlikely there was enough wiggle room in the systemwide budget category for the SAFE project to be funded there. The mainstem, basinwide section already had more than $70 million in annual proposals with about a $30 million cap.
In 2004, the netpen fishery produced 2.46 million juvenile coho, 1.55 million spring chinook and 0.57 million SAB fall chinook, a long way from their first release of 50,000 young coho in 1997.
However, the question remains for BPA and others, does this project actually help mitigate effects of the power system on Columbia River stocks? BPA has previously questioned the ultimate value of the project, and another report on its value is due at the end of the month.
The project received lukewarm praise last year from a joint review by a group of independent scientists and economists who examined an October 2004 report on the effort produced by fish and wildlife staffers from Oregon and Washington and economic development staff from Clatsop County.
The states said the netpens also produce fish that are caught in ocean commercial and recreational fisheries. In fact, they estimated about one-third of the returning fish produced by the netpen project were hooked before they reached the mouth of the Columbia.
However, the economic panel said the states' report didn't include enough data to calculate net benefits of the fishery, which precludes an analysis of costs and benefits.
The states said boosted values for wild spring chinook--after consumers were scared by publicized health concerns over farmed salmon--helped river fishers catch more than $800,000 worth of salmon in the SAFE fishery in 2003, up about $200,000 from 2002. In the late 1990's, the value from the SAFE fisheries to lower river commercial fishers was around $200,000 a year, but started climbing when more fish returned from much improved ocean conditions.
The states' report also pegged the estimated value of 2,400 chinook and coho caught by recreational fishermen at nearly $200,000. The total value of the SAFE fish was estimated at more than $3 million when all fisheries were accounted for, with a $735,000 estimated worth for the 14,000 SAFE-produced coho caught in ocean recreational fisheries.
When the Power Council met this month, they found themselves in Astoria, Ore., of all places, the home turf of commercial non-Indian gillnetters and expected to face some hostile questions from irate harvesters over the fate of their selective fishery, especially since the independent science panel that judges all the F&W proposals deemed the SAFE project "fundable."
But Washington Council member Cassidy hammered out an agreement with Oregon member Joan Dukes before the regular session took place, a day after an editorial in the Daily Astorian pushed for continuation of the netpen project.
Cassidy said he had heard from both sports fishers and commercial groups, which led him to suggest that his state would split funding equally between Bonneville and Oregon to keep the project alive. Cassidy's support came with the caveat that Oregon should work to allow Washington commercial fishermen more access to the Youngs Bay fishery near Astoria, which targets the chinook and coho returning to the net pen areas.
About 70 to 80 boats participate annually at peak harvest periods, a staffer at the fisheries project office in Astoria told NW Fishletter. Last spring, the non-Indian harvesters landed more than 4,300 chinook in their regular fishery, and another 5,200 or so from the select area fishing zones. With early prices averaging better than $5 a pound, their spring catch from the select areas alone added about $400,000 to their pocketbooks. -B. R.
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