UNIT 12 

 PACIFIC COAST SALMON 



Commercial Landings 



For 1995-97, the combined chinook salmon 

 harvest from natural and hatchery production av- 

 eraged about 936,000 fish. In the same period, 

 the commercial catch of coho salmon averaged 

 about 349,000 salmon. This represents a modest 

 increase in chinook salmon landings over the 

 576,000 taken during 1992-94, and a further de- 

 cline in coho landings which averaged about 

 512,000 during 1992-94 and produced annual 

 landings of more than 2,000,000 fish as recently 

 as 1989. As with recreational landings, the decline 

 reflects restrictions placed on ocean fisheries be- 

 ginning in 1993 to protect the spawning escape- 

 ment of depressed and ESA listed stocks. The land- 

 ings also reflect poor ocean conditions that coho 

 and chinook salmon have been experiencing in 

 recent years. 



Sockeye, pink and chum salmon have not suf- 

 fered the same recent declines as chinook and coho 

 salmon. Trends in the recent landings have gener- 

 ally been stable or increasing, with downturns in 

 landings of chum and sockeye salmon in the last 

 3 years. While the downturn in chum salmon re- 

 flects an actual decline in abundance in the Puget 

 Sound region, sockeye salmon landed in Wash- 

 ington are primarily from the Fraser River in Brit- 

 ish Columbia. Fraser River sockeye salmon runs 

 have been very strong recently, but ocean condi- 

 tions have caused a large proportion of the fish to 

 migrate north of Vancouver Island where they were 

 unavailable to U.S. fisheries. Recent average an- 

 nual catches of these species were roughly 700,000 

 sockeye salmon (1995-97), 660,000 chum salmon 

 (1995-97), and 2.2 million pink salmon (1993, 

 1995, and 1997). 



ISSUES AND PROGRESS 



Balancing Competing Users 



The decline in chinook and coho salmon 

 abundance has forced severe reductions and clo- 

 sures of ocean fisheries in recent years. These re- 

 ductions, in some cases, follow earlier reductions 

 legallv mandated to allocate salmon to interior- 

 water fisheries for harvest by Native American 

 tribes. Ocean salmon fisheries cannot redirect their 



Landings 



(x 1,000.000 



fish) 



35 - 



Landings 



(k 1.000.000 



fishi 



16 - 



Landings 



Year 



Figure 12-3 



Sockeye salmon landings, 

 1960-97. 



Landings 



!\ ,1 



Figure 12-4 



Chum salmon landings, 

 1960-97, 



1 53 



