212 



DRAFT 



River Sport Fishery fpage 15) 



This one paragraph introduces four tables of sport catch information. Please refer to 

 the reviews of Tables 1.1-16 to 1.1-19 later in this document. 



Lower Columbia (pages 15-16) 



The first three paragraphs describe the sport catch in the main-stem lower Columbia for 

 each race or species of s^monids. In most cases the catch has declined over time. 

 However, the authors have ignored increased angling season closures in the last 20 

 years as a contributor to this trend. Seasons in the early 1970s were open year round 

 while recent angling seasons have been restricted to only January to March and August 

 to December for salmon, and year round closures for wild summer steelhead. 



The last paragraph describes a declining catch rate for lower Columbia sport anglers 

 based on Table 1.1-17. A review of this table (discussion to follow) shows that the 

 angler trip totals the authors used included sturgeon and shad anglers (fisheries that 

 have grown immensely in recent years). Including non-salmonid anglers in this 

 comparison providwl a greater than 50% under-estimate of salmonid catch rate. Thus 

 the author's concluding statement is misleading: 



"These (declining catch rates) imply a reduction in run size'. 



Buov 10 (pages 16-17) 



These three paragraphs compare highs and lows in harvest during the 9 years of this 

 fishery (Table 1. 1-19). This discussion does not acknowledge the effects of closed 

 seasons, catch quotas, in-season closures, or concurrent adjacent ocean fisheries on 

 these harvest statistics. 



Coastal River Sport Fishery (pages 17-18) 



This section provides comparisons of annual variation in sport catch figures, all from 

 Table 1.1-21. These comparisons are especially meaningless since the data being 

 compared is from only a 13-year period (1978-90). 



Ocean Troll Fishery (page 18) 



This section provides comparisons of troll catch statistics contained in Table 1.1-22. 

 The discussion does not acknowledge the effect of harvest quotas or seasonal regulation 

 on the fishery catch or effort trends. 



A-6 



