05/22/2008

By RACHEL LA CORTE  / Associated Press

The U.S. and Canada have reached a new 10-year agreement to prevent overfishing salmon off the coast of Vancouver Island and southeast Alaska.

The plan announced Thursday by Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire's office could most effect Chinook salmon, which migrate from Washington state north to the waters of British Columbia and Alaska, where they often get caught by sport and commercial fisheries, preventing their return to Washington's waters.

Under the proposed change to the existing Pacific Salmon Treaty, the U.S. would give Canada $30 million for its effort to reduce commercial salmon fishing; Alaska would receive about $7 million. Washington would receive about $7 million in federal money to improve Chinook habitat.

In addition to management of Chinook, it addresses coho, chum and pink and sockeye salmon. Officials believe it could allow about 1 million more Chinook to return to hatcheries or spawning areas in Puget Sound.

Gregoire called the agreement historic.

"This could not have happened had we not come with a common goal and a collaborative approach," she told The Associated Press. "We now have a fighting chance to save the salmon."

The agreement needs to be approved by Congress and the Canadian government.

Portions of the 1985 treaty between the U.S. and Canada were up for renewal at the end of this year, and the new agreement covers U.S. and Canadian management plans from 2009-2018. The treaty was written to prevent the overfishing of Pacific salmon and to determine how the harvests should be divided among Alaska, Oregon, Washington and Canada.

The new agreement covers fish returning to Pacific Northwest waters of Washington and Oregon, and covers both Columbia River and Puget Sound stocks.

The agreement comes just a month after federal authorities declared the West Coast ocean salmon fishery a failure, opening the way for Congress to appropriate economic disaster assistance for coastal communities in California, Oregon and Washington.

The declaration stemmed from the sudden collapse of the Chinook salmon run in California's Sacramento River, where the salmon return to spawn. Scientists are studying the causes of the collapse, with possible factors ranging from ocean conditions and habitat destruction to dam operations and agricultural pollution.

Washington state has seen severe declines as well, said Jeff Koenings, director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and chair of the Pacific Salmon Commission.

"The fish are just not materializing and we don't know why," he said.

The agreement does not address the coastal salmon fishery collapse, but officials said that return of salmon from the north will help with the fisheries problems that Washington and Oregon are having.

Bill Ruckelshaus, chairman of the Puget Sound Partnership and former Environmental Protection Agency chief, said the increase of about 100,000 Chinook returning to the region each year will help the state's goal of ultimately delisting the fish from endangered status.

"Our goal is to restore the whole ecosystem in Puget Sound," he said. "Restoring the salmon is a big part of that."

The governors of Washington, Oregon and California, who requested the federal disaster declaration, have estimated that those losses will rise to $290 million as they ripple through the economy. California is seeking $208 million in disaster aid, Oregon $45 million and Washington $36 million.

The recently approved farm bill also includes $170 million for the disaster-plagued Pacific Coast salmon fishing industry.