FISHERY COLLAPSE SPAWNS PROBLEMS

Here’s the catch: fewer salmon

So few Chinook migrated upstream last year that no fish will be available for pen-rearing programs — a setback for a local fisheries conservation group

By David Sneed

For the first time in its 25-year history, Central Coast Salmon Enhancement will not raise and release Chinook salmon into the ocean at Port San Luis this year.

The Grover Beach-based fisheries conservation group endured a series of setbacks last month, including its four rearing pens washing up on the beach during heavy swells.

But the biggest problem facing the group is the state’s collapsing salmon fishery.While volunteers were working to salvage the pens, word came from the Department of Fish and Game’s Mokelumne River Hatchery in San Joaquin County that so few fish migrated upstream from the ocean last year that no fish will be available for any pen-rearing programs.

“It’s not going to happen this year — maybe 2009,” said Thorv Hessellund, president of the group’s board of directors.

Although the group does habitat restoration and public education work, pen-rearing as many as 140,000 small fish each year is Central Coast Salmon Enhancement’s cornerstone activity.

Over the years, the group has released more than 1.5 million salmon into the ocean, where they are caught by recreational and commercial anglers.

“This is a big loss in terms of the mission of the program,” Hessellund said.

The group has also lost two of its 20-by-40-foot rearing pens. Unusually large swells in December ripped all four of the pens out of their moorings and washed them onto the beach at Port San Luis.

Workers were able to refloat two of the pens, but the other two were so badly damaged that they had to be disassembled to be used as spare parts, said Stephnie Wald, the group’s watershed program manager.

The collapse of the state’s salmon fishery also is causing financial problems for Central Coast Salmon Enhancement. Every year, the group applies for state grants to cover the costs of the pen-rearing pro-gram that is funded by salmon stamps purchased by commercial fishermen.

Fewer fish means fewer fishermen and fewer salmon fees paid, Wald said. State grants for pen-rearing programs are getting harder to come by.

“It’s not a sure thing every year; it’s a vagary,” she said.

With the availability of state-supplied salmon questionable at best in the coming years, the group is looking for other sources of fish, including bringing them in from out of state or finding a way to raise salmon eggs locally.

“While the solution is not clear yet, what is clear is our dedication to seeing our stock enhancement project continue well into the future,” the group’s executive director, Sarah Paddack, said in a recent newsletter to supporters.