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warmer water mase to start with, the upwellings hav« bean lees 

 effactiva. The «ad result has been significantly lowered salaon 

 productivity since 197fi. other related fish comaunlty changes 

 have occurred. Herring and anchovy standing stocX is noticeably 

 down and, by contrast, the more normally wans water associated 

 macleerel predator has not been uncomaon. 



oce2m survival for Oregon coastal eoho salmon was about 8 percent 

 during the dominant California Current flow years (pre 1976) and 

 individual adult fish were large. This situation was similar for 

 California coho salmon. Since then, ocean survival has been 2 to 

 3 percent and fresh weter survival may have been less because of 

 deleterious weather related effects inland. Adult fish have been 

 noticeably small. Ocean harvest rates were not significantly 

 adjusted for this definite drop in ocean (and possibly 

 freshwater) survival, S to 6 percent/ until 1992. 



Hatchery production aeeoxmted for about 75 percent of the coho 

 salmon in local nearshore waters in the mid 1970s, socioeconomic 

 pressures to harvest the relatively abundant hatchery fish 

 resulted in a han^est rate of about 70 percent in a mixed stock 

 fishery. This harvest rate was actually too low for hatchery 

 stocks and with hindsight far too high for wild stocks. This 

 caused a progressive decline in wild stock abundance and 

 escapement which has reached a crisis level. 



The mized stock overharvest problem was progressive in its effect 

 on wild coho salmon stocks, k similar ocean productivity shift 

 and subsequent overharvest impact occurred to the relatively non- 

 migratory southern chinook salmon stocks. These oceaui current 

 and overharvest problems were aggravated by growing marine maannal 

 predation. Salmon is not a major prey item for marine mammals, 

 but on an anauad basis, it is a significant item, perhaps 3 to IS 

 percent of the axmual diet varying by location. The decline in 

 the herring and anchovy fisheries may well have caused a prey 

 shift to salmonid prey since 1976. Simple first order dietary 

 estimates of salmon consumption by marine mammals suggest that it 

 was equal to dovible the Oregon commercial salmon catch in 1990. 

 &n Independent data sat, Columbia and Snake River fish counting 

 station counts of marine mammal bite and scratch wounds, 

 definitely indicate that marine maxtonal impact is indeed 

 significant and growing. 



The mention of lamprey decline problems by Professor Moyle is 

 significant. Lamprey populations are in decline throughout the 

 Pacific Northwest. Lamprey are a preferred prey of seals and sea 

 lions and their decline is highly circumstantial. Lamprey 

 abundance was not an apparent problem in the Klamath Basin in 

 198S based on 1983 data. In fact, we concluded that marine 

 mammal predation was not serious in 1985 on salmonids, a 

 conclusion that has changed in 1993 based on 1990 data. The only 

 apparent significant change that could have affected lamprey is 



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