[7] Enviros, Oregon Go After New Hydro BiOp

Summer chinook season officially began on the Columbia River June 15, with a new harvest regime designed to target hatchery fish heading for the Upper Columbia. But the late spring run was still much in evidence, and one sportfishing group called for the release of any unmarked chinook, even though it was not a legal requirement.

However, sockeye have begun to show in surprising numbers, compared to preseason expectations, which led managers to let fishers keep them as well, for the first time since 2004.

The Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association sent a June 20 message that asked recreational fishers to keep only chinook with clipped fins for two reasons. First, they want as many wild chinook heading for the Upper-C to get there as possible, since they say they are remnants of the "June hogs," the legendary run of large chinook that may actually be more myth than reality.

But most wild Upper Columbia chinook now are likely come from strayed hatchery stock over the years, which was originally obtained by trapping returning wild fish at Rock Island Dam in the 1940s to seed the federal hatchery program that began after Grand Coulee Dam was completed. Even by then, there wasn't much of an upper Columbia run left, according to an important 1992 report by USFWS biologist James Mullan.

But the NSIA has put forward another reason to keep releasing unmarked chinook. "[It] ... is the fact that recent pit tag data indicates that a substantial number of spring chinook are still crossing over Bonneville Dam. Spring chinook [are] federally protected, and sport fishers are required to release all wild spring chinook unharmed."

Harvest managers approved the summer fisheries a few years ago, knowing that a few spring chinook would still be migrating upriver by the middle of June, but this year's late spring run didn't stop them from opening the summer season to treaty and non-treaty fisheries, including several days of commercial gillnetting.

Approximately 52,000 summer chinook salmon are expected to return to the Columbia River this season--up from 37,200 last year, said Joe Hymer, a WDFW fish biologist. The forecast for upriver summer steelhead is about 325,000, similar to last year, he said.

Recreational fishing for chinook was open below Bonneville Dam from June 21 to June 28, Above the dam, all the way to Priest Rapids Dam, it opened June 21 and was slated to go through July 31.

Hymer noted that summer chinook salmon are distinct from spring chinook, which returned to the Columbia River in lower numbers than predicted this year. To conserve spring chinook, fishery managers closed fishing early in some areas and delayed the hatchery steelhead season in the lower river to prevent the incidental catch of spring chinook in that fishery. Most of those fish have now moved upriver to spawning areas and fish hatcheries, clearing the way for summer chinook and steelhead fisheries, Hymer said in a June 12 press release.

Since the Upper Columbia summers are not listed under the ESA, harvest rates can be considerably higher than on the spring run. The latest agreement allows for a 10-percent treaty harvest and 7 percent non-treaty harvest when the run is between 36,250 and 50,000 fish; any excess will be harvested at a 50 percent rate and split equally between the two groups.

For runs above 50,000 fish, the treaty harvest is 50 percent of 75 percent of the margin above 50,000 plus 10,500 fish. Non-treaty harvest above 50,000 is the same.

But a check of the latest fish counts at mid-river dams still shows plenty of Snake fish around, with four to five times as many spring/summer chinook heading up the Snake as the upper Columbia. On June 23, 1,594 chinook passed Ice Harbor Dam on the Snake, while only 275 were counted at Priest Rapids Dam on the Columbia.

Meanwhile, the sockeye are still pouring in. On June 20, WDFW's Cindy LeFleur said this year's sockeye run to the Columbia River was expected to far exceed the pre-season forecast of 75,600 fish. As of June 18, a total of 50,900 sockeye had been counted moving past Bonneville Dam, with more than half of the run expected to arrive in the weeks ahead. By June 24, nearly 137,000 sockeye were tallied at the dam.

The Columbia's shad run is showing up as well, with more than 1.5 million counted so far, less than last year's 2.3 million by the same time. In 2006, more than 3 million shad had crossed the dam by now. -B. R.

Subscriptions and Feedback
Subscribe to the Fishletter notification e-mail list.
Send e-mail comments to the editor.

THE ARCHIVE :: Previous NW Fishletter issues and supporting documents.

NW Fishletter is produced by Energy NewsData.
Publisher: Cyrus Noë, Editor: Bill Rudolph
Phone: (206) 285-4848 Fax: (206) 281-8035