Officials say pikeminnow program helping salmon

Fisheries and power officials in the Northwest say they think a program aimed at reducing a rapacious predator of young salmon in the Columbia and Snake rivers is working, based on the latest tally from the 2009 pikeminnow season.

Anglers caught only about 141,000 of the salmon hunters through Oct. 11, down from annual pikeminnow catches that have ranged as high as 200,000.

Russell Porter, with the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission in Portland, Ore., says, "We believe it's due to the program doing what it was designed to do: reduce the number of pikeminnow."

Anglers who catch the fish earn bounties ranging from $4 to $8 per pikeminnow. In addition, some caught 180 specially tagged fish, each worth $500.

And from August on, anglers were also eligible for weekly drawings of $1,000, for a total of $60,000 paid out.

Since 1991, more than 3.3 million northern pikeminnow have been removed from the Snake and Columbia rivers through this program.