Salmon anglers catch a break with no quotas and longer season

Salmon anglers got some good news Wednesday.

A historic expansion of selective fishing for hatchery-marked salmon in Puget Sound was the most significant item from the Pacific Fishery Management Council meetings.

Quotas have been lifted in northern and central Puget Sound [Catch Areas 9 and 10] for the first times since its conception in 2007 and there will be a longer season in many parts of Puget Sound.

Selective fishing is where anglers catch only those salmon with a missing adipose fin, indicating they are of hatchery origin while releasing wild stocks of concern.

"We had some major movement of the tribes support in the selective fisheries, while addressing the needs of wild salmon," said Pat Pattillo, the state Fish and Wildlife intergovernmental policy coordinator.

One of the biggest bumps will be in northern and central Puget Sound [Areas 9 and 10] where the non-quota hatchery-marked chinook fishery will be open July 16 through the end of August.

While the fishery will be a non-quota season, if catches skyrocket then it could be shut down earlier than expected. Last year, it was open July 16 to Aug. 15 under a 7,000 chinook quota.

"In the [salmon season setting] process, this will be the biggest, most significant expansion in the history of fishing in Washington," said Tony Floor, director of fishing affairs for the Northwest Marine Trade Association.

"I have been involved in selective fishing since its conception in the late 1990s, and this is the biggest step forward that I have witnessed in dozens of years."

Another expansion is the San Juan Islands [Area 7] where the winter hatchery chinook fishery will be open Dec. 1 through April 30, which is 2 ½ months more fishing than last year.

Other areas where fishing will be longer than last year include central Puget Sound [Area 10], which will be open from Oct. 1 to Jan 31 [closed Oct. 1-15 last year].

South central Puget Sound [Area 11] will be open Feb. 1 through April 30, which is one month longer than last year.

In the Strait of Juan de Fuca off Sekiu and Port Angeles, the hatchery-marked chinook fishery will be open July 1-Aug. 15.

A bright spot is that more than 5.1 million pink salmon are expected back to Puget Sound streams this summer, nearly 2 million more fish than forecast in 2007. These are the smallest of the Pacific salmon species, and the majority of them return in odd-numbered years.

Another strong fall chum salmon return is forecast for Hood Canal and other areas of Puget Sound, where the run is expected to total nearly 915,000 fish.

The ocean coho salmon fishery should be fantastic this summer, and also includes some chinook in the catch.

"It is going to be a great salmon fishing season, there are going to be a lot of fish around, and we will be catching a lot of fish," said Mark Cedergreen, president of the Westport Charterboat Association. "It is hard to find any negatives about this season compared to the last three years. It will be like the good old days as far as the catching goes, and hopefully people will come on down to the coast."

The ocean sport quota is 176,400 hatchery coho and 20,500 chinook, compared to last season when it was 20,000 for coho and 20,000 for chinook.

The huge jump in the coho catch quota is due to a huge forecast Columbia River hatchery coho return of more than 1.2 million fish, the largest since 2001. Compare that to last year when 736,300 coho returned (276,100 were predicted).

The reason for this resurgence of coho is very good upwelling and ocean conditions. Plus, when these young coho arrived in the ocean from their natal rivers they found lots of feed and survived well.

The North Coast will open June 27, and the South Coast will open June 28. Westport, Neah Bay and La Push will close Sept. 20 or until the quota is achieved. Ilwaco will close Sept. 30 or until the quota is achieved.

Westport will be open Sundays to Thursdays only, and then could go to a seven day a week fishery on July 23.

Neah Bay and La Push will be open Tuesdays to Saturdays only, and then could switch to seven days per week on July 17. Ilwaco will be open daily, but days could e cut back if they near the quota numbers.

The daily limit off the coast will be two salmon of which only one may be a chinook. Neah Bay will also have a bonus bag limit of two pink salmon, and Westport will get an additional one pink in the daily limit.

A freshwater fishery that will be a good shot in the arm for sumer anglers is the Skagit River opening for chinook July 9-Aug. 9. Fishing will be allowed from Thursday at noon through Sunday each week with a one chinook daily catch limit.

"We haven't had a fishery there in a number of years, and it will certainly attract attention from anglers," Pattillo said. "We think it is a quite healthy run and we will be well above the spawning escapement goal in the Skagit. This fishery wouldn't have been possible without the cooperation of the tribes."

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the annual cooperative season-setting process known as North of Falcon. The name refers to a cape on the northern Oregon coast that marks the southern boundary of Washington's managed fisheries.

"We created North of Falcon a quarter century ago to work cooperatively for the benefit of the salmon resource, as well as Indian and non-Indian fishermen," said Lorraine Loomis, Swinomish tribal fisheries manager and tribal North of Falcon coordinator. "The tribes are just as committed to the process today as we were then, because it works."

Phil Anderson, interim director of state Fish and Wildlife says, "the North of Falcon process has been a success because we make conservation of wild salmon populations our highest priority, while designing fisheries that respect the needs of the tribes and the state in sharing the harvest opportunity."

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