4.11.2008 7:00 AM

Chinook Salmon Kaput

Officials Vote to Close Salmon Fishery on West Coast

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Photo: USGS

By Dan Shapley

Facing what is expected to be the worst Pacific salmon run in recorded history, state fisheries managers have voted to ban all fishing for chinook salmon in California and Oregon, according to Reuters and the Associated Press.

The collapse of the fishery prompted extreme action by the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which regulates fishing on the Pacific coast. The National Marine Fisheries Council is expected to approve the regional agency's recommendation, ending fishing on 700-miles of coastline.

Just 15% of the fish that once spawned in coastal estuaries are expected to return this year, and most of them are probably descendants of hatchery-raised fish, meaning the population of wild chinook salmon is even more depleted than meets the eye.

The action to ban the fishing season, for both commercial and recreational fishermen, was expected. But the bureaucratic milestone is a reminder of just how bad the state of the oceans and inland rivers have become. By some estimates, half of the largest fish in the oceans will be "commercially extinct" – like chinook salmon – by the middle of this century.

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