In early September, the Columbia River's fall chinook run shifted into high gear, with more than 15,000 counted at Bonneville Dam on Sept. 2 alone, shadowed by a jack return that may set a modern record, and signal a huge return next year.
By Sept. 13, more than 221,000 had been counted at the dam, along with 78,000 fall jacks -- about four times the 10-year average.
Steelhead are still pouring in as well. The count by Sept. 13 was well over half a million, at 547,000.
Harvest managers were looking forward to more than half a million hatchery and wild upriver-bound fall chinook entering the river this year -- the largest component expected to be the wild run heading for the Hanford Reach, close to 300,000. On Sept. 10, they said the upriver bright run appeared to be early and may be less than predicted.
The mainstem commercial gillnet fishery was shut down Aug. 27 until mid-September after fishers were expected to reach their impact limits for ESA-listed lower Columbia fall chinook. They had caught more than 23,000 fall chinook by then. Non-Indian impact limits to Snake fall chinook are 11 percent. They are now fishing in select areas outside the mainstem to reduce impacts on listed stocks.
Sport fishers, who share non-Indian impacts with commercial gillnetters, are allowed slightly more than half of the total impact limit on listed lower Columbia fall chinook, and slightly less than half of the total non-tribal impact on Snake River fall chinook
Pre-season expectations in the lower Columbia Buoy 10 sport fishery were a catch of 10,700 chinook and more than 119,000 coho. By Aug. 19, they had caught about 3,200 chinook and 9,200 coho.
According to Seattle Times outdoors writer Mark Yuasa, salmon anglers made 47,100 trips on the Lower Columbia River in August, landed 5,663 adult chinook, 6,000 summer steelhead, and released another 3,700 steelhead.
"The total effort, fall chinook and steelhead catch numbers are all record highs for the month of August since records began in 1969. The previous records for August were 5,133 fall chinook in 2002 while 4,525 steelhead were kept in 2007," Yuasa's numbers came from WDFW staffer Joe Hymer.
"For comparison, the fishery peaked in 2003 when anglers made 113,000 angler trips during an entire uninterrupted fishery. Last year, the Lower Columbia was closed for chinook retention in August," he reported.
Tribal fishers above Bonneville are still fishing as well. They are allowed a 27-percent impact on ESA-listed Snake River fall chinook (non-Indian 11 percent) and a 20-percent impact on listed B-run steelhead on their way to Idaho. If the upriver bright run is downgraded below 200,000, the tribal impact will be reduced to 23 percent on the upriver fall run and 15 percent on the steelhead.
By Sept. 18, tribal fishers were expected to catch around 57,000 fall chinook, with about 31,000 upriver brights -- only an 11.35 percent harvest rate. They had caught about 23,000 steelhead, with an estimated harvest rate on the B run of nearly 5 percent.
With good numbers of fall chinook bound for the Snake again this year, WDFW managers announced that parts of the lower Snake opened Sept. 1 for hatchery chinook. They expected it to remain open until Oct. 15 unless the fishery's impact limit on listed wild falls is reached before then.
Meanwhile, back in the lower Columbia, a new WDFW study is underway to investigate selective harvest techniques.
WDFW biologist Pat Frazier said the study will look at beach seines and purse seines as a way for commercial fishers to reduce their impacts on ESA-listed lower Columbia wild chinook and coho, while allowing them to catch more hatchery fish -- and help to reduce the numbers of hatchery chinook that end up on spawning grounds with the wild ones.
The seines allow wild fish to be caught and released with minimal damage. Frazier said it's starting to look like the mortality of the released fish may be as low as 5 percent. The released fish are being tagged to track them if they are caught upriver.
He said the $200,000 funding for the pilot study came from the Pacific Coast Salmon Recovery Fund and some dollars left over from previous projects.
But funding for next year is problematic. Frazier said. He hoped he could interest BPA in possibly paying for part of it. He also said Washington congressman Norm Dicks, may help find future dollars to keep the project going.
Dicks has played a big role in helping reform Northwest hatcheries, and sponsored legislation to mark hatchery fish so that listed stocks have a better chance at recovering, while allowing selective fisheries to continue.
Frazier said fishers could catch a lot more hatchery chinook and coho if managers can find new ways to protect wild fish. But he acknowledged it could be difficult to figure how commercial gillnetters in the lower Columbia would transition to these new selective gear types. He said the agency hoped that the fishermen themselves would figure out how to divvy up the catch.
Recreational fishers shouldn't feel left out. On Sept. 2, NOAA head Jane Lubchenco announced that she was creating a new position of senior policy advisor for recreational fishing that will report directly to the assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries to help coordinate fisheries policy.
"As a first task" Lubchenco said, "the advisor will coordinate, in cooperation with the angling community, a recreational fishing summit to identify issues of concern and possible solutions. This national meeting will be followed by a series of joint problem-solving roundtables to identify roadblocks to an improved relationship and to design reasonable solutions. Suggested specific topics include data and resources needed to incorporate the economic value of recreational fishing into NOAA's information and reports, recreational fish habitat considerations, a review of NOAA's implementation of the Magnuson-Stevens requirements for closure of areas to fishing, expectations for NOAA's new Marine Recreational Information Program, marine spatial planning, catch shares, NOAA's strategic plans and the role of recreational fisheries, and how NOAA Fisheries can focus personnel and financial resources on the recreational sector. No issue will be off limits
