Oregon Water Online
© Oregon Water CoalitionArchive for June, 2008
NOAA: seven stocks removed from overfishing list, none added
NOAA announced today that seven stocks have been removed from the overfishing list and no new stocks added in their annual report to Congress on the status of fishing stocks.
The report tracks both population levels and harvest rates for species caught in federal waters between three and 200 miles off U.S. coasts. This year’s report indicates that seven stocks have been removed from the overfishing list, four stocks have increased population levels and are no longer overfished, and three stocks are now listed as fully “rebuilt.”
“This is great news for the American people and for the scientists who devote their lives to the study of fish populations,” said Jim Balsiger, NOAA acting assistant administrator for NOAA’s Fisheries Service. “Ending overfishing on these stocks and preventing overfishing from occurring on others is critical to maintaining and rebuilding our valuable fisheries resources, and this year we took a giant step forward in this regard.”
NOAA’s Fisheries Service and the eight regional fishery management councils took significant steps toward ending “overfishing”—when too many fish in a species are caught in a year—and rebuilding stocks in 2007.
Among the report’s findings:
- 244 stocks and stock complexes were reviewed for their overfishing status.
- 203 (83 percent) are not subject to overfishing, while 41 (17 percent) are.
- Seven stocks were taken off the overfishing list in 2007, the largest number removed in a single year since NOAA has been compiling the report.
- 190 stocks and stock complexes were reviewed for their overfished status.
- 145 (76 percent) are not overfished, while 45 (24 percent) are. A stock or complex is considered to be overfished when its population numbers fall below a certain level.
- Four complexes are no longer overfished.
- Three complexes have fully rebuilt to target levels.
For complete information go to: nmfs.noaa.gov
“No new stocks were subject to overfishing in 2007, which is very good news as well,”
Balsiger said. “The economic, recreational and ecological stakes for sustaining these resources are incredibly high.”
“NOAA Fisheries scientists are learning more all the time about how to help fish populations,” he added. “Our agency is working hard to end overfishing by 2010, as required by the Magnuson Stevens Act. Continued and new sustainable management practices such as annual catch limits are one of the tools we are using.”
NOAA recently proposed guidelines to establish catch limits and targets for each stock to prevent overfishing. These annual catch limits are the amount of fish allowed to be caught in a year, and are required by a 2007 amendment to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation.
More time for negotiations on Columbia dredging mitigation
The Washington Department of Ecology has granted an extension of three months for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, lower Columbia River ports and a Southwest Washington family to reach agreement on a property purchase that will replace wetlands loss from the Columbia River channel deepening project that is under way.
The three parties asked for and received more time to negotiate an agreement that would use the entire Martin Island or the northern portion of the island in conjunction with property already acquired for project mitigation actions in the Woodland Bottoms area near Kalama. Acquisition of the island, which is currently owned by the Colf family, would satisfy the Corps’ and Ports’ obligation to offset habitat loss.
Ecology program manager Gordon White met with the Corps, the Colf family and representatives from several local ports earlier this month. Shortly afterwards, the parties requested from Ecology more time to finalize an agreement.
“After having met with the parties and touring the Colf family’s property, I am confident that giving them more time for negotiations will result in a successful agreement for everyone,” said White.
The Corps is deepening the Columbia River shipping channel to 43 feet, which will allow a new class of freighter to navigate to Washington and Oregon ports along the river. The Corps says the project is estimated to save Northwest farmers and businesses nearly $19 million in annual transportation costs while opening up the ports to larger, more fuel-efficient cargo and container ships.
The Corps is required by its Ecology permit to complete a mitigation project to replace habitat damaged by the deepening project. Both state and federal policies now require no net loss of wetlands.
The land options being considered for the mitigation ensure that important cropland in the Woodland Bottoms area is kept in production, a priority given by Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire to Ecology and the Corps.
World energy use to grow 50%; hydro, renewables 2.1%
World marketed energy consumption is projected to grow by 50 percent between 2005 and 2030, driven by robust economic growth and expanding populations in the world’s developing countries, according to the International Energy Outlook 2008 released this week by the Energy Information Administration.
Average world oil prices in every year since 2003 have been higher than the average for the previous year and prices in 2007 were nearly double the 2003 prices in real terms.
The IEO2008 uses oil price cases originally developed in the summer of 2007 for use in the Annual Energy Outlook 2008, which focuses on the U.S. energy outlook. These prices do not reflect the substantial runup in prices that has occurred since that time. Nonetheless, although liquid fuels are expected to remain the largest single source of energy through 2030, the liquids share of marketed world energy consumption declines from 37 percent in 2005 to 33 percent in 2030.
In addition, the share of conventional oil in the overall liquids supply declines with expanded use of unconventional oil, biofuels, and other unconventional liquids. High oil prices lead many consumers to switch to other fuels when feasible; fuel-switching and efficiency gains, for instance, slow the growth of oil use in the industrial sector. Those trends are even stronger in the IEO2008 high price case, which reflects oil prices that are closer to those being paid in mid-2008, as this report is being issued.
Other report highlights include:
- Coal’s share of world energy use has increased sharply over the past few years, and without significant changes in existing laws and policies, particularly those related to greenhouse gas emissions, robust growth is likely to continue. Coal accounted for 24 percent of total world energy use in 2002 and 27 percent in 2005, largely as a result of rapid increases in coal use in China. China’s coal consumption has nearly doubled since 2000, and given the country’s rapidly expanding economy and large domestic coal deposits, its demand for coal is projected to remain strong. In the IEO2008 reference case, coal use expands by 2 percent per year between 2005 and 2030, and coal’s share of total world energy consumption reaches 29 percent in 2030.
- Concerns about rising fossil fuel prices, energy security, and greenhouse gas emissions support the development of new nuclear generating capacity. World nuclear capacity is projected to rise from 374 gigawatts in 2005 to 498 gigawatts in 2030.
- Declines in nuclear capacity are projected only in Europe, where several countries (including Germany and Belgium) have either plans or mandates to phase out nuclear power, and where some old reactors are expected to be retired and not replaced. China is projected to add 45 gigawatts of net nuclear capacity over the projection period, India 17 gigawatts, Russia 18 gigawatts, and the United States 15 gigawatts.
- Sustained high prices for oil and natural gas encourage expanded use of renewable fuels. Renewable energy sources are attractive for environmental reasons, especially in countries where reducing greenhouse gas emissions is of particular concern. Government policies and incentives to increase renewable energy sources for electricity generation are expected to encourage the development of renewable energy even when it cannot compete economically with fossil fuels.
- Worldwide, the consumption of hydroelectricity and other renewable energy sources increases by 2.1 percent per year in the IEO2008 reference case between 2005 and 2030. In contrast, world coal consumption increases by 2.0 percent per year; natural gas by 1.7 percent per year; nuclear by 1.5 percent per year; and liquids by 1.2 percent per year.
- In the IEO2008 reference case, which does not include specific policies to limit greenhouse gas emissions, energy-related carbon dioxide emissions are projected to rise from 28.1 billion metric tons in 2005 to 42.3 billion metric tons in 2030 — an increase of 51 percent. With strong economic growth and continued heavy reliance on fossil fuels expected, much of the increase in carbon dioxide emissions is projected to occur among the developing nations of the world, especially in Asia.
The full report can be found at eia.doe.gov.
Spring chinook season shows increase over past three years
Unlike some West Coast salmon stocks that have or are expected to nosedive, the Columbia River basin’s upriver spring chinook run trended upward this year.
Fish ladder counts at the Columbia River’s Bonneville Dam indicate fairly healthy numbers of adult upriver spring chinook headed toward hatcheries and tributary spawning grounds in 2008.
As of June 15, the official end of the spring chinook season on the Columbia, almost 152,000 adult chinook had been counted at the dam. That is slightly below the 10-year average from 1998-2007 of about 175,000 fish, but it is considerably better than the past three years, which ranged from 126,000 chinook in 2006 to only 81,000 in 2007.
Additionally, about 26,000 upriver spring chinook were caught this year in non-tribal sport and commercial fisheries carried out on the 146 miles of river below Bonneville.
The 2006 count halted a four-year trend in which the number of spawning upriver spring chinook had declined each year from a record high of 412,653 in 2001 to 97,397 in 2005.
Columbia River spring chinook are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, as are Snake River spring/summer chinook. In a typical year, about 80 percent of the returning chinook adults consist of salmon that were raised in hatcheries; the remainder come from fish that spawned in the wild.
Counts at Bonneville Dam of spring chinook jacks—precocious, mostly male chinook salmon that return to spawn a year earlier than most of the female members of their cohort—are very high this year, over 22,000. That is more than twice the 10-year average.
Nearly as many upriver spring chinook jacks returned last year, slightly more than 20,000 were counted at Bonneville. Jacks are used as an indicator of the average strength of the next year’s adult returns.
Including adult chinook returning this year, jack counts in the last eight years have under predicted the following year’s adult returns four times and over predicted the return four times.
Recent improvements to the hydroelectric dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers are credited with increased survival of juvenile salmon heading downstream to the Pacific Ocean, according to a press release issued by four federal agencies involved in salmon recovery efforts. They include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation, which operate Columbia/Snake river basin dams, and the Bonneville Power Administration, which markets power generated in the system. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service is charged with protecting the 13 listed basin salmon and steelhead stocks.
Ocean conditions will always exercise a powerful influence over the salmon’s life cycle, the agencies say.
In that regard, initial surveys by biologists with show “very productive” ocean conditions north of Newport, Oregon.
That survey, completed late last month, showed, “These are very high numbers of juvenile salmon, some of the highest numbers we’ve ever seen,” according to John Ferguson, head of the Fish Ecology Division at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Service in Seattle.
Ferguson said there’s a strong correlation between high juvenile catches and good salmon returns in future years. The fish sampled offshore this year include coho that will return next year and spring chinook that will return in 2010.
A graph showing adult chinook counts at Bonneville Dam from 1939 through 2008 is available at salmonrecovery.gov.
Late runoff filling Dworshak for summer salmon migration
Cool water is stacking up behind central Idaho’s Dworshak Dam for use later this summer to chill warming water downstream in the Snake River for migrating salmon and steelhead.
It should be “less of a struggle this year” to decide how and when to deliver the North Fork of the Clearwater River’s cold water, the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission’s Kyle Dittmer said during Wednesday’s meeting of the Technical Management Team. The TMT’s federal, state and tribal members discuss potential changes to federal Columbia/Snake river dam operations that can improve conditions for migrating salmon.
With a slow transition from winter to spring, water temperatures have generally been cooler than normal and the annual runoff of mountain snowpack got a late start.
“We have a cooler pool at Dworshak than we’ve had in previous years,” said Jim Adams of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the dam. Those water temperatures this week ranged from about 39 degrees at the bottom of the reservoir to 64-65 degrees at the surface. The potential outlets, aside from spill gates, are well below the surface.
“We may have too much cool water,” Adams said of the current situation’s one potential problem. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service draws water from the river to rear juvenile steelhead, whose growth could be slowed if the water is too cold. Likewise fish in the North Fork and the Clearwater River need water warm enough allow steady growth.
Otherwise, current conditions offer “a good balance” for temperature control – keeping water temperatures downstream below 20 degrees C (about 68 degrees F) in July and September, Dittmer said. Returning adults don’t fare as well during their migration, or on the spawning grounds, if temperatures rise above 68.
“We have a good opportunity no matter what we do,” he said.
As of midweek the reservoir was 15 feet from full, having risen more than 110 feet since early May. The Corps has for the past week been releasing abut 15,000 cubic feet per second from the dam, the maximum of nearly 10 kcfs through the turbines and about 5 kcfs through spill gates. After peaking at 40 kcfs during the year’s only hot spell in mid-May, flows into the reservoir have been mostly in the 22-24 kcfs range in June.
“There’s a 100 percent chance that we’re going to refill; it’s just when. And we don’t want to overfill,” the Corps’ Stephen Hall said. Filling too early could force additional spill that could stir up total dissolved gas above legal limits that pose harm to fish and other aquatic species.
“It’s a pretty touchy year,” Hall said of the balancing act. The goal is to fill by July 1, ahead of an always busy weekend at the reservoir for recreationists.
The Corps expects the inflows to remain strong. Hall said that most of the higher elevation SNO-TEL stations operated by the National Resources Conservation Service are showing a blanket of snow holding 40 inches of water.
“There’s a lot of water up there,” Hall said.
Adams said the Corps intended to reduce outflows to 12 kcfs by this weekend to slow refill and hopefully avoid the need to spill.
The Nez Perce Tribe’s Dave Statler urged a scaling back to full powerhouse capacity, about 10 kcfs.
“You should not pass any more than is necessary, knowing we’re going to have a declining hydrograph,” Statler said of inflows that should soon begin to fall off. That would reduce the risk of having to spill.
Hall said the latest Northwest River Forecast update predicts that higher flows should continue in the near term.
A goal is to provide flow augmentation from the dam in summer, drawing it down from full pool (1,600 feet elevation) to 1,535 by the end of August, and 1,520 by the end of September. The water flows down the North Fork into the Clearwater and then the lower Snake River.
Given current river conditions and state of the cool-water reserve, Adams said water temperatures as measured at the lower Snake’s Lower Granite Dam “should not exceed 65 degrees.” Water temperatures are now at about 55-56 degrees.
“Last year we were pushing 68” during the third week in June, Adams said. The hydro and salmon managers have in the past on occasion had to tap Dworshak before July 4. Water at Clearwater and Snake monitoring stations above Lower Granite can rise into the 70s by the end of July.
Tribes start commercial fishery and direct sales to public
It’s a new season and fresh salmon caught by tribal fishermen in the Columbia River and tributaries is again available for purchase.
“This summer tribal fishery couldn’t come at a better time since the public has been inundated with the unfortunate news of salmon fishery closures in other parts of the west,” said Olney Patt Jr., executive director for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. CRITFC is the technical support and coordinating agency for fishery management policies of four treaty tribes: the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakima Nation and the Nez Perce Tribe.
“But the Columbia’s summer run is in good shape and our tribes are committed to providing public access to this unique resource,” Patt said
Tribal fishers are taking to the river Monday morning for the first of three anticipated commercial fishing seasons targeting summer chinook salmon and steelhead. The initial summer gill-net fishery runs from 6 a.m. June 23 through 6 p.m. June 25 in the Columbia’s Zone 6 – reservoirs above Bonneville Dam.
The tribes’ scaffold and hook and line fishery began this past Monday. Sales are planned on a daily basis until further notice.
Chinook, coho, steelhead, walleye, carp, and shad caught in the fisheries may be sold or retained for subsistence by tribal members.
As of Saturday, tribal fishers will also be able to catch and sell sockeye salmon. The Columbia River Compact on Thursday added sockeye to the list, based on a run-size forecast update that indicates escapement goals will likely be surpassed. That leaves sockeye available for harvest. The Compact sets Columbia mainstem fisheries.
Sturgeon may not be sold but may be retained for subsistence.
Additionally, Yakima Nation fishers can sell fish caught in the Wind, White Salmon and Klickitat rivers when the tributary openings overlap with either commercial openings for gillnet or platform gear in Zone 6.
Commercial sales of platform/ hook and line caught fish landed in the Yakima Nation subsistence fishery immediately below Bonneville Dam will also be allowed. That fishery is located on the Washington shoreline from 600 feet below the fish ladder at the Bonneville Dam North shore powerhouse downstream to Beacon Rock. Sales of fish there also coincide with Zone 6 sales with the exception of sturgeon, which may not be retained for sale or subsistence purposes,
Biologists forecast this year’s summer chinook run will total 52,000 upriver fish. CRITFC’s Salmon Marketing Program anticipates 9,000 fish will be harvested with peak availability over the next two weeks.
An estimated 326,400 upriver summer steelhead are expected to pass Bonneville Dam in 2008, which is similar to the 2007 passage of 319,400 fish.
The sockeye forecast was updated this week from a preseason estimate of 75,600 to the mouth of the Columbia to a return of at least 100,000. By Wednesday more than 50,000 of the spawning sockeye had passed Bonneville Dam. A management goal is to allow the escapement 75,000 over the dam.
Steelhead passage at Bonneville is minor during June, but increases significantly during July. A total of 8,000 had been counted at the dam through Wednesday.
The Indian salmon harvest reflects age-old traditions that were preserved by an 1855 treaty between the four Columbia Basin tribes and the U.S. government. Nutrient-rich salmon, flush with heart-healthful omega-3 fatty acids, figure prominently in native culture. Tribal members have long honored its importance for food, religion and livelihood.
Tribal fishers may be found selling fish at a number of locations along the river: Marine Park at Cascade Locks, The Dalles’ bridge and the boat launch near Roosevelt, Washington. Commercial sales will not occur on Corps of Engineers property at Bonneville Dam.
The public is urged to call the salmon marketing program at 888-289-1855 before heading up the river to find out where the day’s catch is being sold.
More information is available on the salmon marketing website at indiansalmonharvest.com
Price is determined at the point of sale and sales are cash only.
Surprising surge of sockeye opens mainstem sport fishery
Sockeye salmon are creating a stir on the Columbia River, surging past Bonneville Dam in unexpectedly high numbers and biting surprised steelhead anglers’ hooks.
The 66,468 sockeye counted at Bonneville Dam through June 19 appears to be an all-time record since the dam was constructed in 1938, according to WDFW fishery biologist Joe Hymer. The 15,543 fish counted Thursday is the highest daily sockeye count at the dame since 1955. The peak daily count that year was 27,112 fish on July 7.
“They are catching sockeye like crazy, phenomenal numbers of sockeye,” the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Cindy LeFleur said Wednesday.
Unfortunately for the anglers, however, the sockeye have not been fair game. But that will change.
The Columbia River Compact late Thursday afternoon, based on the abnormally high counts at the dam, approved harvest and sale of sockeye in non-Indian commercial fisheries below Bonneville and in treaty fisheries above the dam. The Compact, which sets mainstem commercial fisheries, is made up of representatives of the Oregon and Washington departments of fish and wildlife directors.
Meeting later as a joint state panel, the ODFW’s Steve Williams and WDFW’s Bill Tweit approved the harvest of sockeye during a June 21-28 sport fishery on the mainstem from the river mouth up to Bonneville and June 21-July 31 above Bonneville.
Sockeye returns have historically bobbed up and down from year to year. Last year’s return to the Columbia mouth was only 26,000 and the 2006 run numbers slightly more than 37,000.
The last year that sockeye retention was allowed on the mainstem was in 2004 when the return totaled 130,000 and an estimated 672 fish were caught, mostly in commercial fisheries. A return of 120,000 sockeye in 2001 allowed a harvest of 1,690 fish with most snared in gillnets.
But before that, little sockeye fishing was allowed on the mainstem dating back to the mid to late 1980s. The highest sport catch in decades was 226 sockeye in 1984, LeFleur said.
Mainstem fishing for sockeye has been limited since the listing in 1991 of the Snake River portion of the run under Endangered Species Act.
State officials had said that non-Indian fisheries for sockeye were not likely this year in the Columbia mainstem because the forecast return would barely meet management goals—the escapement of 65,000 upper Columbia River sockeye as far as Priest Rapids Dam. Under average migration conditions that normally requires passage of 75,000 fish over Bonneville.
But with a count of 11,295 Wednesday swelling the 2008 total to 50,930, that escapement goal is within reach. The Wednesday daily count far surpasses the total run in 1995, a record low 9,667 fish.
The Technical Advisory Committee met Thursday morning to review the counts and decided that a run of at least 100,000 could be expected.
Passage is typically 50 percent complete by June 24 based on the recent 10-year average, and 28 percent complete based on the earliest timing.
Through Monday, 30,223 sockeye salmon had been counted forging over Bonneville’s fish ladders, the highest total through that date in a half century or more, Hymer said. The total is higher than any recorded back to at least 1960, the earliest counts Hymer could find.
