[ODFW-News] Youngs Bay, Blind Slough reopen to spring chinook harvest Thursday

[Odfw News]

For Immediate Release Tuesday, May 3, 2005
 
Youngs Bay, Blind Slough reopen to spring chinook harvest Thursday
Biologists now estimate Columbia River run to be 70,000 to 100,000
 
CLACKAMAS - Oregon and Washington fishery managers decided to reopen
Youngs Bay, Deep River and Blind Slough to a limited recreational and
commercial spring chinook harvest starting Thursday because the risk to
imperiled wild salmon is extremely low. In addition, Knappa Slough will
open to sport angling.
 
The mainstem Columbia River from Buoy 10 to McNary Dam remains closed to
the harvest of spring chinook. 
 
Youngs Bay, Deep River, Blind Slough and Knappa Slough are backwaters
and sloughs of the Columbia River and are the release sites of
hatchery-reared spring chinook salmon. Commercial boats may fish
Thursday evening for four hours in Youngs Bay and six hours in Deep
River and Blind Slough. The recreational season will reopen 12:01 a.m.,
Thursday, May 5, under permanent rules listed in the 2005 Oregon Sport
Fishing Regulations on pages 89-94.
 
Pre-season predictions for 254,100 "upriver" spring chinook salmon to
enter the Columbia River and cross Bonneville Dam have not materialized.
Biologists now estimate the run size to be between 70,000 and 100,000
spring chinook.  As of May 2, 37,265 adult spring chinook have been
counted at the dam. Over the last five years, an average of 65 percent
of the run had passed by this time. 
 
Fish managers set the Columbia River spring chinook fishery based on the
number of fish expected to return from the ocean and the allowable
impact to wild salmon and steelhead stocks listed under the federal
Endangered Species Act. "Impacts" are the unintended mortalities
associated with handling and releasing wild fish. The allowed non-Indian
impacts are 2 percent of the total runs of ESA-listed Snake River
spring/summer chinook and Upper Columbia River spring chinook. 
 
Additional information about the Columbia River spring chinook season
also may be found on ODFW's Web page at
http://www.dfw.state.or.us/OSCRP/CRM/action_notes.html .
 
Fishery managers will meet again Tuesday, May 10, to assess the Columbia
River fish runs. 
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