[ODFW-News] Entire Columbia River closes to spring chinook angling Wednesday night

[Odfw News]

For Immediate Release Tuesday, April 19, 2005
 
Entire Columbia River closes to spring chinook angling Wednesday night
 
CLACKAMAS - Facing the second-lowest spring chinook counts on record for
this date, Oregon and Washington fishery managers today decided to close
all sport angling and commercial fishing for spring chinook in the
Columbia River, effective 11:59 p.m. Wednesday night. 
 
The decision closes the fishing season for salmon, steelhead and shad in
the mainstem Columbia River between the mouth at Buoy 10 upstream to
McNary Dam near the Oregon-Washington border. In addition, fishery
managers decided to close the "select area" bays off the mainstem
Columbia River near Astoria to sport angling and canceled previously
scheduled commercial seasons in those areas. The commercial fisheries in
Blind Slough/Knappa Slough, Deep River and Youngs Bay were slated to
occur April 21 and April 25. 
 
If the counts for spring chinook at Bonneville Dam improve during the
coming weeks, fishery managers will consider re-opening the fishing
seasons. 
 
Pre-season predictions for 254,100 "upriver" spring chinook salmon to
enter the Columbia River and cross Bonneville Dam have not materialized.
To date, only 1,545 spring chinook have been counted at the dam. Over
the last five years, an average of 31 percent of the run had passed by
this time, which would equate to more than 70,000 fish. Fishery managers
will meet at 11:30 a.m. April 27, to assess the run and make a new run
size prediction. 
 
Fish managers set the Columbia River spring chinook fishery based on the
number of fish expected to return from the ocean and the allowable
impact to wild salmon and steelhead stocks listed under the federal
Endangered Species Act. "Impacts" are the unintended mortalities
associated with handling and releasing wild fish. The allowed non-Indian
impacts are 2 percent of the total runs of ESA-listed Snake River
spring/summer chinook and Upper Columbia River spring chinook. 
 
Descriptions of the "select areas" scheduled to close can be found in
the 2005 Oregon Sport Fishing Regulations on pages 93-94. The
information also is available on the ODFW Web page at
http://www.dfw.state.or.us/ODFWhtml/Regulations/2005_reg_changes.htm#col
umbia 
 
Additional information about the Columbia River spring chinook season
also may be found on ODFW's Web page at
http://www.dfw.state.or.us/OSCRP/CRM/action_notes.html .
 

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