2010 Spring Chinook Season Wrap-Up
July 1st, 2010
Every year following the conclusion of the Columbia River spring Chinook season, the Joint Management Staff of the Washington and Oregon Departments of Fish & Wildlife compile a post-season analysis of pre-season forecasts vs. post-season results, as well as of fishery management results and fishery performance. The 2010 post-season wrap-up was distributed to interested parties on July 1, 2010.
Because the Washington Fish & Wildlife Commission set a high priority for a 45-day recreational fishery below Bonneville dam in December 2008 as the primary factor in allocating the non-Indian mark-selective spring Chinook fishery, the Joint Management Staff places a higher share of the conservation burden on the non-Indian commercial fishery than the non-Indian recreational fishery in the Columbia River main stem spring Chinook fishery. In year’s such as this when the forecasted upriver run size falls short, there are no post run-size update fishing openers for the commercial fishery in the mainstem Columbia, as a result of which, the commercial sector’s share of the mainstem non-Indian fishery is reduced below the allocation guidelines.
The big news for lower river commercial fishermen this year was the dramatic uptick in the Select Area fisheries for spring Chinook, especially in Youngs Bay. The total landed catch in SAFE fisheries amounted to nearly 24,000 spring Chinook, compared to about 4,200 in 2009, and not quite 4,500 in 2008. The difference is chiefly attributed to an innovation introduced by former Clatsop Fisheries manager Tod Jones and retired Gnat Creek Hatchery manager Roger Warren. Called Low Head Oxygenators (LHOs), they basically amount to the industrial version of home oxygen collectors used by people with breathing difficulties. Special adaptations of these units are designed for use in aquaculture facilities. Though the LHOs are now avilable year-round, their introduction was especially important for production of spring Chinook smolts bound for Select Area net pens.
The advantage LHOs offer for the SAFE program and their partners in ODFW hatchery management is that they now have multiple, mobile units that can be used wherever they are needed to improve water quality for the fish they are raising. The LHOs run on 220-volt power, or can be operated on battery back up. That means hatchery operators now are able to keep juvenile spring Chinook longer without encountering the issues formerly caused by problems with diseases, which forced them to release fish before they were ready to go to sea. Many of those fish released early and at less than optimum health were eaten by birds while they milled around in the back waters used by the SAFE program. Now, by releasing healthy smolts when they are ready to go, and by doing it at night, they have been able to cut down on avian predation by a significant margin. The results are so dramatic that ODFW is ordering LHOs for the rest of their hatchery system.
The post-season wrap-up is appended as a PDF file:
