Why Salmon Seasons Close

The river is full of salmon and fishing is just getting good, so why is Fish and Game closing the season? Recreational salmon seasons close when a set number of fish have been caught, and that depends on the numbers of fish returning to Idaho. Returning hatchery raised adult salmon - marked by clipped adipose fin - are split among hatcheries and tribal and nontribal recreational fisheries. The first priority is to ensure the hatcheries are filled to capacity - eggs are collected, hatched and raised, and the young released two years later as ocean-bound salmon. The released smolts are marked with tags that can be read at several of the federal dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers when they return as adults. Data from these tags are used to estimate the numbers returning to each hatchery. Numbers in excess of hatchery requirements are deemed harvestable. The Rapid River Hatchery, for example, needs about 2,400 adult salmon and the McCall Fish Hatchery needs about 1,300 adult salmon, trapped in the South Fork Salmon River. Thus, if an estimated 4,400 salmon are bound for Rapid River, then about 2,000 "harvestable" fish would be split evenly between tribal and nontribal fisheries. During the fishing season, Fish and Game monitors the harvest to ensure shares are not exceeded. When harvest shares are reached, seasons end even with many fish still in the river. Nontribal seasons sometime close earlier than tribal fisheries because there are more nontribal anglers, and their fishery often is downstream of the tribal fisheries. Seasons also may end when a certain number of wild Chinook - listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act - are reported caught and released. The number is based on the percentage of wild salmon that die after being caught and released. The act sets strict limits on allowable fishery related incidental mortality of wild salmon. In opening and closing seasons, managers try to balance the incidental mortalities to wild fish among the fisheries. When the incidental mortality limit is reached, the federal law requires that Chinook fishing stop regardless of how many hatchery fish are still in the river. If hatchery fish in excess of hatchery needs are left in the river when the seasons close, they are trapped and distributed to treaty tribes and food banks, or they may be allowed to spawn naturally in selected streams where they will not affect existing natural populations.