After the collapse of the Sacramento River Chinook population, we'd been expecting this:

Early season salmon fishing off the coasts of California and most of Oregon was shut down Wednesday by federal regulators responding to an unprecedented collapse of salmon populations along the West Coast.

The actions affect commercial and recreational fishing seasons either underway or scheduled to open in the coming weeks. When they meet again next month, regulators are likely to close the bigger fishing seasons that come later in the year.

Specifically, a small recreational fishing season off Fort Bragg that opened in mid-February will close April 1. Other recreational fishing seasons from San Francisco to the Mexican border that were scheduled to open April 5 have been closed.

This report from the Contra Costa Times says the later salmon seasons will probably be canceled as well -- the product of a disastrous 2007 fall chinook salmon run on the Sacramento River.

Ocean conditions, delta pumping blamed
The Sacramento chinook had been the backbone of the west coast salmon runs, but with less than 90,000 adults returning to spawn (second lowest number on record) and a dismal number of two year-old "jack" salmon counted (less than 2,000), it appears the commission thinks even a recreational sport fishery isn't warranted.

Next year's salmon run could easily fall below 60,000, so any salmon fishery that might impact the Sacramento's Fall chinook run will likely be affected.

This spells trouble (or even the end of) the west coast salmon fleet, which has already been rocked by the 2006 closure to protect failing Klamath River salmon runs.

The blame game is fully underway, and while Pacific Fishery Management Council scientists point the finger at oceanic conditions (lack of nutrients at the bottom of the food chain), others feel that increased pumping from the Delta -- leading to the collapse of several native species -- is a contributing factor.

You can read the whole Contra Costa Times article here, and the Seattle Times article here.

See you buying salmon belly futures, Tom Chandler.

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