There are not a lot of good choices available.
Salmon fishermen face dire choices
By Matt Weiser - mweiser@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, March 15, 2008
California salmon fishermen, at best, will be allowed to chase a tiny number of treasured chinook on just a few days this year.
Under one of three preliminary options adopted Friday by fisheries managers meeting in Sacramento, commercial fishermen would be allotted just 9,000 fish to catch in one month, and only north of Pigeon Point, near San Francisco. South of there, no commercial catch is allowed under any scenario.
With about 565 salmon boats working in California last year, that's just 15 fish per boat. Oregon would fare slightly better.
The other two options are worse in both states. One closes commercial fishing entirely. The other creates a government-subsidized program that allows fishermen to catch salmon for a genetic study, but the fish would have to be released alive.
Zeke Grader of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations said some fishermen could survive by catching other species, such as crab. Others won't survive.
"It's going to have a big effect on our coastal communities," he said. "Our economies in places like Fort Bragg were built upon salmon, not slime eels. They were built upon working, not handouts."
The Pacific Fisheries Management Council will choose one of the three options to set rules for the 2008 salmon season when it meets next month in Seattle.
