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OVERFISHING 



Overfishing is often died as a principle factor causing decline of salmon runs. However, there are few historical 

 or recent records to indicate that curtailment of fishing iias lead to increased spawning abundance of coho salmon. 

 For example, curtailment of fishing seasons has been thought to have reduced harvest-related mortality rates on 

 Oregon coastal coho substantially during the past decade. However, there has been i^ evidence of Increased 

 spawncr escapement during (his period, suggesting that fishing curtailment is at best merely keeping pace with 

 nq>id habitat dctorioratJon and declining productivity of coho populations. In other words, environmcniai change 

 is driving sustainable harvest rates downward as fast as. or pciliaps faster, than catch has been reduced. 



Current methods of forecasting and in-scason adjustment of Tishlng are insufficient to ensure sustainable harvest 

 rates and wild fish escapement Orcatcr factors of safety for escapement targets and Improved indicators of 

 freshwater and marine survival will be necessary. 



THE NEED FOR ESA PROTECTION 



The only sustained regulatory attempt to protect coho salmon has been increasing restriction of the fishery. This 

 approach has failed. Indeed, the hisiorical record shows a dismal paiicm of failure -- and the situation is no better 

 today. Wild coho salmon are pooriy protected by existing regulatory mechanisms because coho: 



1) are managed in a complex and most often conflicting and ineffective regulatory landscape of local, state 

 and federal laws that govern this fish's freshwater and marine habitats .separately: 



2) represent an economic resource to the commercial fishing industry, native American tribes and 

 Ihe recreation industry and management is frequently driven by attempts to maximi/x; shon-term 

 economic return, and; 



3) arc not as visible or widely monitored or studied as terrestrial species or marine mammals and, as a 

 result, do iwt receive Ihe attention required to gain protection under a variety of federal and state water 

 and environmental quality laws. 



Putthcrmore, hatchery production of coho salmon exacerbates each of these problems by: 



1) temporarily masking the decline in wild coho and the degradation of their freshwater habitats; 



2) increasing competition for potentially limited freshwater and ocean resources, and; 



3) contributing to the genetic dilution ^ loss of naturally occurring, wild coho. 



A few attempts have been made to mobilize efforts for recovery, again with little effect The Northwest Power 

 Planning Council was created in 1980, in pan to recover all salmonids within the Columbia basin. However, as 

 the recent listings of soclceye salmon and others indicates, to dale this attempt has failed. Oregon Governor 

 Barbara Roberts held a coastal summit in December 1992 that eventually led to some general conceptual 

 agrccmenU and movement towards some funding in the state legislature, but as of yet nothing has actually hit the 

 ground in terms of specific recovery actions. 



President Clinton has prtposcd a strategy that could provide protection and possibly rcstoraiion for coho habitat 

 on federal lands. However, the future of the so-called "Option 9" proposal remains uncertain, and. if implemented, 

 it would not address private land river ecosystems or coho habitat It could provide the basic federal land habitat 

 protection and restoration strategy required for coho, however. 



Page 3 



Coho Petition: Summary 



