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Excess salmon will be filleted, frozen for needy By MARK FREEMAN The freshly gutted Rogue River coho salmon given free annually from Cole Rivers Hatchery to low-income residents will be replaced this fall by cut and frozen salmon fillets under a new statewide effort to put excess salmon in the hands of Oregon's hungry. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will reach into its coho cornucopia and provide needy residents with as much as 400,000 pounds of frozen and vacuum-packed fillets ready for grilling, baking or pan-frying. The fish will come from facilities such as Cole Rivers Hatchery, where more than 22,000 excess coho are expected to return during a fall run that is estimated to generate 1.7 million coho returning to Oregon hatcheries. In past years, the salmon giveaways were done strictly on a local level. Area service organizations took whole dead fish from Cole Rivers and distributed them, taking upon themselves the responsibilities to cut and clean the salmon as well as dispose of the unused carcasses. This year, about 143,000 excess coho from eight western Oregon hatcheries will be shipped to a Washington fish processor that will return the frozen fillets for free - in exchange for keeping the salmon roe and carcasses for sale in various fish-product markets. "This is a nice, clean and efficient way to do it," Cole Rivers Manager Randy Robart said. "It's providing people with a better all-around product ... and not just a fish flopping around in the back of a pickup." The coho will be returning to Oregon rivers this fall, and the fish should be available as early as October and into December. The salmon will be funneled through the Eugene-based Oregon Food Bank to more than 700 distributors across Oregon, including at least 15 food pantries in Jackson County. Groups such as the Central Point-based Gleaning Network, which often feeds the excess coho to low-income seniors, believe the new program will be met warmly. "The older people probably will prefer to have their fish that way because they won't have to worry about cleaning them," said gleaner Dianna Lucas. "I'm sure there's probably going to be some rough edges to work out, but it probably will be a very good thing." Just getting that much fresh protein for food boxes is a plus, said warehouse coordinator Dan Lindquist at CERVS, which will be the main local clearinghouse for the excess coho. "Salmon is meat, and it's expensive to buy," Lindquist said. "And meat is something we can't get enough of." Last year, Cole Rivers provided about 9,000 fresh coho locally, virtually flooding the area's food-share market, Robart said. With twice that many expected this year, it became necessary to find other regions to give away the excess Rogue hatchery fish, he said. Good ocean conditions have contributed to near record-high returns of coho to Oregon hatcheries this year. In past years, facilities such as Cole Rivers sold the excess coho to seafood producers in the same fashion as excess chinook are sold. But the mid-'90s brought bid prices so low that Cole Rivers workers began to give away the fish instead. The program, with some extra nudging from the Oregon State Police, began to grow to where it now is statewide, in part because of the huge glut of returning fish. American/Canadian Fisheries, Inc., a Bellingham, Wash., company that buys excess Cole Rivers spring chinook salmon, will do the processing. Any legitimate food-share group in Oregon will qualify for the giveaway, provided they register through the Oregon Food Bank, Robart said. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.