Fishing | Summer of salmon like last year in Puget Sound waters

SEATAC — Salmon anglers are likely to see summer fishing seasons similar to last year — at least in interior Puget Sound waters, state fisheries managers said at the Pacific Fishery Management Council meetings Thursday.

"The entire process was quite a bit better this year compared to last year, and the bottom line is we met our [Endangered Species Act] goals," said Pat Pattillo, the state Fish and Wildlife intergovernmental policy coordinator.

Many involved in the process were upset that decisions last year were made behind closed doors with the treaty tribes.

"The public involvement in the past has been bad at this process, but this year we had sport-fishing observers attend the state and tribal meetings as well as [two state Fish and Wildlife] commissioners," Pattillo said. "We are moving in a positive direction to make it more open to the public."

Members of the Fish and Wildlife sport-fishing advisory board had mixed feelings about the outcome of the seasons, but felt the goal of getting more wild fish back to spawning grounds was met.

"I feel we achieved our conservation goal and we're proud of that," said Gary Krein, owner of All-Star Charters in Everett and a member of the advisory group. "But, I'm not 100 percent satisfied that we from the recreational sector met our needs of getting more time on the water in selective fisheries [those targeting hatchery-marked salmon with a missing adipose fin]."

One of the biggest changes in the sport-fishing package for this summer is that the Strait of Juan de Fuca from Sekiu to Port Angeles (Catch Areas 5 and 6) will be open daily for chinook and coho from July 1 to Aug. 9 with a two-fish daily limit.

"We had a quota system for [five] years at Sekiu, and they're bad for lots of reasons," said Chris Mohr, owner of Van Riper's Resort in Sekiu. "With an uncertain closing date when we first open we have a huge influx of people. Then it really tails off, because many people won't book dates later not knowing if we will be open or closed.

"This 40-day fishery gives us stability, and people can bank on knowing that it will be open when they make their vacation plans well in advance."

The summer hatchery-marked chinook fishery in central and northern Puget Sound (Areas 9 and 10) will open in mid-July.

The Area 10 quota is 3,000 chinook, and Area 9 will get 4,000. Last year, Area 9 was open 13 days and Area 10 was open 10 days with a quota of 7,000 chinook, with no more than a 1,700-fish ceiling in Area 10.

A change from last season for coho is that Area 9 will see a hatchery-marked coho fishery from July 16 through Sept. 15, then shift to hatchery and wild coho starting Sept. 16.

Also, the southern portion of Area 8-2 from the Clinton Ferry Dock south to the southeast end of Whidbey Island will be open for coho in October.

Members of the sport-fishing advisory group said more fisheries that target healthy stocks of hatchery-marked salmon could have been achieved had state Fish and Wildlife had the adequate funding to support it.

"We raise millions of hatchery fish with millions of dollars yet the department doesn't have the money to monitor these kinds of fisheries, which is very frustrating," Mohr said.

Mohr said the whole recreational community is upset that the Legislature cut the funding (about $350,000) to monitor expanded selective fisheries.

The most severe salmon-fishing seasons will occur off the coast this summer due to a poor return of Columbia River coho and tighter restrictions needed to protect salmon populations listed under the ESA.

This year's Columbia River coho run — a major contributor to the ocean fishery — is expected to total about 196,000 fish, nearly 266,000 fewer salmon than last year's return.

The adopted recreational ocean quota this year is 20,350 coho, which is about 97,000 fewer fish than last year and the lowest in about a decade.

A fairly strong chinook return will allow anglers to catch 20,000 fish off the coast this summer.

Coastal salmon fisheries are scheduled earlier this year off Ilwaco, Wetsport, La Push and Neah Bay.

Those fisheries, which will begin June 1, will give anglers an opportunity to harvest hatchery chinook while protecting Columbia River coho, said Phil Anderson, the deputy director for state Fish and Wildlife.

Mark Yuasa: 206-464-8780 or myuasa@seattletimes.com