Spring Fact Sheet #1 & Compact Action
April 9th, 2012
The Columbia River Compact convened by teleconference at 1:00 p.m. on Monday, April 9, 2012 to consider non-Indian commercial fishing time for spring Chinook. Fishery managers were trying to balance fishing opportunity against ongoing concerns that the spring Chinook run is not going to materialize as expected this year. As of Sunday, April 8, 2012, only 98 adult spring Chinook had passed over Bonneville Dam. This caused the Columbia River Treaty Tribes to repeat their request that no additional lower river fisheries be approved until and unless the run has demonstrated significant passage over Bonneville.
Fishery managers acknowledged the tribal concerns, but felt that passage over Bonneville was not necessarily the best indicator of the strength of the upriver spring Chinook run. Last year’s spring chinook run also was extremely late, and looked weak at this point in the year, but ended up coming in above the pre-season forecast. This year’s run still could produce significant numbers before it is over.
Spring Fact Sheet No. 1 and the subsequent Compact Action Notice are appended as PDF files.
