Oregon coast commercial salmon season curtailed again

Salmon boats will have to sit idle or try their luck with other species off the Oregon coast again this year. Federal fisheries managers voted Wednesday to severely limit the upcoming commercial salmon season much like they did last year. "Looks like I'm going to be doing something else again this summer," said David Bitts, a salmon fisherman from Eureka who is president of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. Like last year, the restrictions approved at a meeting of the Pacific Fishery Management Council stem from declining runs in California's Sacramento River. The spring Chinook that leave that river system and pass under the Golden Gate bridge make up most of the salmon caught off the Oregon coast. There was some good news for Oregon fishers in the council's decision: sport fisherman will be able to catch Coho salmon this summer, and there will be a brief commercial Coho season in September...The Oregonian