GUEST BLOG: Columbia allocation too slow, most restrictive since 2000
NEW Feb. 17, 2009 / 2:00 p.m.

Finally, on February 11 fishery managers from Oregon and Washington set the spring Chinook season for the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. 

The process between the two states took too long due to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission being far more concerned about the needs of a few part-time gill-netters than that of thousands of recreational anglers, full-time fishing guides and retail businesses that depend on this fishery for their livelihoods. 

Slow decision = bad decision: While everyone is thankful to finally have a decision, it came a full five weeks past the All Sports Dealer Show - where tackle dealers were reluctant to buy fishing tackle due to uncertainty about the pending season - three weeks past the Puyallup Sport Show and a full week past the opening day of the Portland Sport Show, where fishing guides were trying to book trips and retailers sell tackle without knowing when and where they could fish on the Columbia.

What stunned many was when the Oregon Commission refused to embrace the season and allocation recommendations brought forth by the very bi-state work group the Commissions had jointly appointed to deal with this bitterly contentious issue. 

After the bi-state work group representatives recommended a sport/commercial allocation split, the full Washington Commission stuck to their agreement, while the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission abandoned their agreement with the work group recommendation and countered with a split far more favorable to the gill-netters. 

It's baffling that Oregon's Governor did not advise his commission to do what's best for Oregon's ailing economy. Surely he didn't receive more letters from the 85 gill-netters that landed spring Chinook last year as opposed to those from the more than 600,000 licensed sport anglers that supply the Department of Fish and Wildlife with the majority of its funding.

What this means is that while the third largest return of hatchery spring Chinook since 1938 is predicted to ascend the Columbia, sport anglers can look forward to a season that is the most restrictive season since 2000. Escalating the conflict is the fact that this is the third time the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission has allocated more to gill-netters and less to sport fishers since 2002.

What's open, when, where: While only a few fish show up this early in the season, the entire Columbia west of Bonneville Dam and lower Willamette downstream of the falls deadline at Oregon City is currently open to sport angling for hatchery fin-clipped spring chinook.

In what has become a complicated mess, the recent decision is as follows:

nHayden Island to Buoy 10: On the Columbia River west of Hayden Island power lines (the west towers near I-5), anglers will be able to fish 7 days a week from March 1 to 15 and three days a week (Thursday through Saturday) from March 19 to April 18.

nHayden Island to Bonneville: On the Columbia, from the Hayden Island power lines (west towers) upstream to Bonneville Dam, the season will run 7 days a week from March 1 to 22, and four days a week (Wednesday through Saturday) from March 25 to April 22.

The daily bag limit after March 1 will be two adipose fin-clipped salmon or steelhead, but only one may be a Chinook. The mainstem Columbia will be closed to sport fishing for the retention of shad and adipose fin-clipped steelhead except on days listed above open for spring salmon.

nWillamette River: On the Willamette, upstream to the falls at Oregon City, including the Multnomah Channel and Clackamas River downstream of the Highway 99 Bridge, the two fish/one Chinook season will be open for fin-clipped hatchery spring Chinook 7-days a week from March 1 to 15 and three days a week (Thursday through Saturday) from March 19 through April 30.

The sport season on the Columbia could have been far more generous (and far less complicated) had the states not chose to restrict sport anglers in favor of commercial netters. 

A SAFE option: In response to recent events, many are calling to outlaw gillnetting on the lower Columbia. A better solution has been proposed by a group of retired fishery scientists. Their proposal is a plan to move the entire commercial gillnet fishery off the Columbia and into what's known as SAFE areas, creating a win for the fish, for the commercials and the sport anglers. 

The SAFE for Salmon plan, when enacted, will put the sport fishery on the lower Columbia and provide the commercial gillnetting fleet off-channel access to harvest in what's known as safe areas - like Oregon's Young's Bay and Blind Sough. These terminal or "safe" areas provide commercial harvest away from where endangered salmon migrate. 

Currently, gill-netters catch about 70 percent of their hatchery spring salmon in safe areas, so this expansion makes sense: for wild fish, sport anglers and for commercial fishers, too. 

For more information on this subject, check out the Safe for Salmon website at: www.safeforsalmon.com.