Council to adopt ocean salmon fishing options

Options for salmon fishing off the coasts of Washington, Oregon and northern California will be developed beginning Sunday when the Pacific Fishery Management Council begins a five-day meeting in Vancouver.

The event will be at the Hilton Vancouver Hotel, 301 W. Sixth St.

Three options for ocean salmon seasons are scheduled to be adopted for public review on the morning of March 12.

Other topics on the agenda include incidental catch recommendations for halibut in salmon troll fisheries, protection of unmanaged forage fish species and adoption of goals and objectives for a drift gillnet management and monitoring plan.

Sport and commercial fishermen met Monday in Olympia to discuss the upcoming PFMC meeting.

The need to limit harvest in the ocean of a weak stock of wild coho salmon destined for the Queets River on the Olympic Peninsula is likely to reduce fishing seasons in 2015.

Only 7,500 Queets River wild coho are forecast for 2015, with the minimum spawning escapement is set at 5,800.

Phil Anderson, a special assistant for state wildlife director Jim Unsworth, said on Monday fishing reductions off Southeast Alaska and British Columbia look likely and may make chinook stocks more plentiful off the Washington coast.

A discussion of Columbia River summer and fall salmon fishing issues will begin at 10 a.m. March 16 at the Hilton in Vancouver.

The PFMC will meeting April 11 to 16 in Rohnert Park, Calif., to adopt the final ocean salmon seasons.

Washington and Oregon will announce the specific of the Columbia River summer and fall seasons at the conclusion of the PFMC April session.