Sturgeon population slowly improving in lower Columbia

State biologists estimate the population of legal-size sturgeon in the lower Columbia River increased 5 percent in 2014, the first year of a total ban on retention by sport and commercial fishermen.

Brad James of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife told the bistate Columbia River Recreational Advisor Group last week the population between the coast and Bonneville Dam is estimated to have been 130,990 in January 2014 and will be 138,200 in January of 2015.

Legal-size sturgeon are fish between 38 inches and 54 inches, measured from the tip of the snout to the fork in the tail.

Members of the state Fish and Wildlife Commission will be briefed on Columbia River sturgeon on Saturday in Tumwater. Several members of the sport-fishing advisory group asked for resumption of at least a small sturgeon retention season in 2015.

James said those comments will be relayed to the eight-member commission to see if the policy-setting panel has an interest in adopting a harvest season.

The legal-size population is about at the number it was a decade ago, when Washington and Oregon allowed annual harvests in the range of 40,000 sturgeon, he said.

Sportsmen in 2013 harvested 6,501 sturgeon, 7 percent above their guideline. Commercial fishermen in the lower Columbia and off-channel areas harvested 2,012 sturgeon, nine fish shy of their guideline of 2,021.

Butch Smith, an Ilwaco charter boat operator, said the retention fishery in the Columbia River estuary is very important to the coastal economy.

He suggested a season with an 8 percent to 10 percent harvest rate, which would be about 11,000 to 14,000 sturgeon.

Columbia sturgeon move to places such as Willapa Bay, Grays Harbor, Puget Sound and Tillamook Bay. Smith said resumption of sturgeon retention in those areas should be delayed until 2016 to be cautious.

Smelt have returned to the Columbia River and catch-and-release sturgeon angling in the estuary was excellent last summer, he said.

“People were begging to go home by 10 o’clock because they’d caught so many fish,” Smith said. “If we were keeping fish, we’d have limited out by 7:30 a.m.”

Steve Watrous of Vancouver also said the estuary catch-and-release season was good.

“I couldn’t keep all four rods in the water,” he said.

Robert Moxley of Dundee, Ore., called for at least “a sliver of retention opportunity.”

Some catch-and-keep fishing is needed to maintain interest in sturgeon, he added.

The states estimate there were 2,600 catch-and-release trips in 2014, down from 39,000 trips in 2013. By contrast, there were 134,000 angler trips in 2009.

“It matches what we typically see when retention fisheries close,” James said. “The drop off is 90 to 95 percent.”

Not everyone on the Recreational Advisory Group supported a return to retention.

Lance Beckman of White Salmon said the increase in legal-size sturgeon might just be a “bubble” in the population. He said the states should wait a minimum of 5 to 10 years to determine the trend.

Jim Bridwell of Portland agreed with Beckman that angling should remain catch-and-release.

The Fish and Wildlife Commission briefing on sturgeon will be at the Capital Events Center, 6005 Tyee Drive S.W., Tumwater.

The topic is on the tentative agenda for 11:15 a.m. Saturday, but the time is only an approximation.