Wild Oregon Coast coho salmon sustain popular sportfishing seasons
by NOAA Fisheries 23 Dec 2024 09:57 PST
Oregon angler Jim Anderson displays a wild Oregon Coast coho salmon that he caught in the popular coastal fishery for the rebounding species. Although still listed under Endangered Species Act, wild species is productive enough to support a sport fishery © Lance Kruzic / NOAA Fisheries
Low salmon returns have closed salmon fishing in California and limited it elsewhere on the West Coast. But Oregon anglers have enjoyed robust sportfishing on a strong wild salmon species.
Oregon Coast coho salmon are a bright spot among West Coast salmon, supporting popular fall recreational fishing over the last 3 years. Oregon Coast coho offers a special chance to fish for wild salmon so productive that anglers can take their catch home. In many other places, anglers must check whether salmon have clipped adipose fins, signaling that it came from a hatchery. They typically return wild coho to the water.
"Coho are fun to fish for in the ocean and bays because the salmon bite well and fight hard and everyone has the opportunity to catch a big coho salmon," said Lance Kruzic, who leads NOAA Fisheries' office in Roseburg, Oregon. He has worked for years on coho recovery in Oregon. "This has been a very welcome and exciting opportunity for a lot of people to experience what it's like to catch a wild salmon."
Hatcheries once produced millions of coho to support sport and commercial fisheries. However, the hatchery fish swamped coho spawning grounds and mixed with wild fish, compromising their wild fitness and survival. The species also lost habitat to logging and other development impacts and faced overfishing.
NOAA Fisheries listed the species in 1998 as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Oregon had already begun reducing hatchery releases from the high levels of the 1990s. The state, tribes, and local watershed groups have also worked with NOAA Fisheries to restore and reopen habitat, especially for juvenile coho salmon on their way to the ocean.
Coho numbers rebounding
Coho numbers remain far from their historic annual peak of 1 to 2 million returning adults. However, they have now rebounded to the point where NOAA Fisheries has determined the population can sustain recreational fishing seasons. The Endangered Species Act allows for these expanded harvest opportunities, under a well-managed fisheries plan, when the survival of the salmon runs are good.
Close to 99 percent of adult coho now returning from the ocean are wild fish born and reared in the rivers of the Oregon Coast. The species has regained its natural fitness and has become increasingly productive given the improvements in hatchery practices, habitat, and harvest management.
The rebound has benefited recreational anglers who took home more than 40,000 wild coho salmon from the Oregon Coast this year. This far exceeded the catch of hatchery fish.
Forecasts project that following the summer's productive catches, more than 150,000 coho salmon will spawn in Oregon's coastal rivers and streams this fall. A 2022 viability assessment found that the species "showed a remarkable ability to avoid the extremely low abundances and marine survival rates" that sent other salmon into declines in the 1990s.
A later 5-year review by NOAA Fisheries found "that freshwater habitat may be sufficient to support self-sustaining populations and serves as an indication that Oregon Coast coho recovery is within reach." A recovery plan for the species outlines improvements necessary to bring the species back.
Those include habitat conservation plans for state and private forest lands in Oregon that will improve conditions for Oregon Coast coho. Restoring access for juvenile coho to the floodplains that serve as their nursery on the way to the ocean will also improve juvenile survival. That will help meet the criteria to delist the species under the Endangered Species Act.
"This helps demonstrate that Oregon Coast coho are on the road to recovery," Kruzic said. "We can begin to see the many benefits of the robust wild populations that long ago flourished in these coastal rivers."
Coastal upwelling benefits coho
Studies have found that young coho salmon migrating to the ocean do not travel as far out into the Pacific Ocean as many other salmon and steelhead populations. Instead coho remain in coastal waters enriched by wind-driven upwelling that brings cold water laden with nutrients from ocean depths to the surface, boosting their survival. Recent marine heatwaves forming farther offshore may have done the opposite, leaving steelhead and some Chinook to ply warmer waters where food is scarce and their survival declines.
"The ocean conditions that have reduced survival for some salmon have worked out well for Oregon Coast coho," said Laurie Weitkamp, a research scientist at NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Newport, Oregon. The wild population is proving more resilient than other Pacific salmon and steelhead species, which may also help them weather further shifts that may come with climate change.