Reports - California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations

FISHERIES REVIEW
CalCOFI Rep., Vol. 47, 2006
Regulations enacted in 2005 by the PFMC and
Commission for commercial and recreational ocean
salmon fisheries in California were designed to do the
following:
• provide commercial and recreational fisheries south
of Point Arena substantially the same as the 2000 and
2001 seasons, in terms of timing and duration, to protect
Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon
(Oncorhynchus tshawytcha) which are listed as endangered
under California and federal Endangered Species
acts (ESAs);
• allow a maximum exploitation rate (marine and freshwater
combined) of 15% for Oregon coast natural
coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch);
• provide for at least 35,000 naturally spawning adult
Klamath River fall Chinook salmon with a minimum
adult natural spawner escapement rate of 33%;
• meet the allocation objectives for Klamath River fall
Chinook salmon of (1) 50% (8,300 fish) of the allowable
adult harvest for federally-recognized tribal
subsistence and 50% for non-tribal fisheries, (2) 15%
(1,200 fish) of the non-tribal fisheries for the Klamath
River (in-river) recreational fishery and 85% (7,100
fish) to the ocean harvest, and (3) 17.1% (1,200 fish)
of the ocean harvest to the KMZ recreational fishery;
• limit the ocean harvest rate for age-four Klamath
River fall Chinook salmon to no more than 16% to
protect California coastal Chinook salmon;
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Figure 11. California recreational landings of ocean salmon, 1981–2005. Note: Landings of coho salmon
(Oncorhynchus kisutch) were prohibited after 1996 to protect California coho salmon stocks. Numbers reported
since 1996 are from illegal harvest.
• provide for the escapement of 122,000 to 180,000
hatchery and natural adult Sacramento River fall
Chinook salmon; and
• prohibit the retention of coho salmon in California to
protect central California coast coho salmon which are
listed as endangered under California and federal ESAs.
For more complete information, see PFMC’s Website,
, where you will find the report
“Review of the 2005 Ocean Salmon Fisheries,” which
was compiled by the PFMC Salmon Technical Team
and PFMC staff.
Nearshore Live-Fish
Preliminary commercial statewide nearshore finfish
landings for 2005 totaled approximately 254 t. This is
a slight decrease from the 2004 total of 257 t. Live-fish
landings accounted for 87% of the 2005 fishery, totaling
220 t. This is a 3.5% decrease from the 2004 livefish
total of 228 t. The ex-vessel value for the 2005
nearshore finfish fishery was $2.26 million, of which
$2.16 million was generated from finfish landed in a live
condition (fig. 12). This is comparable to the $2.27
million generated in 2004, with $2.18 million paid for
live-fish. The proportion of live landings in the nearshore
fishery declined approximately 2% from the 89%
observed in 2004 (fig.13).
Since the live-fishery began in the mid-1980s, principally
to supply fish for the California Asian community,