Oregon chinook season canceled

GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- Fisheries managers on Wednesday canceled early season ocean fishing for chinook salmon off Oregon.

Eric Schindler, supervising biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in Newport, said fisheries managers meeting in Sacramento, Calif., did not want to risk catching so many fish in March and April that they would have to cut any chance of fishing later in the year.

Oregon Salmon Commission member Mark Newell said fishermen figure they will be lucky to get any fishing in July and August, so they had not been expecting the March and April season set last year to hold up.

Commercial trolling for chinook had been set to open Saturday and run through April from Cape Falcon on the northern Oregon coast to the Oregon-California border.

In recent years, California trollers have started May 1, but commercial fishermen in Oregon waters have been allowed to start in April and sometimes March.

Normally, the fish are far from shore and in deep water in March and April, making them difficult for sport fishermen to reach, Schindler said.

Returns of chinook and coho salmon were far below expectations last year, culminating three straight years of decline.

In the Sacramento system, so few salmon are expected to return this fall that even if there is no fishing the numbers will be just half of the goal set to spawn the next generation.