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Recoup of lost chinook remains sketchy MT file photo Brad Littlefield, a fish culturist at Cole Rivers Fish Hatchery, pours into a holding tank some of the 1.3 million salmon that died in a January accident at the hatchery. By MARK FREEMAN State biologists are close to finalizing plans that attempt to make up expected fishing losses from the 1.4 million spring chinook fry that died in a hatchery pump and alarm system failure last month at Cole Rivers Hatchery. And the average Rogue fisherman will be hard-pressed to say whether the good news from the proposal adequately offsets the bad. First, the bad news: Biologists cannot come up with a workable, cost-effective and legal plan to ensure that the 2003 fishing year won't suffer from last month's death of 75 percent of the hatchery chinook bound for the Rogue that year. But the good news is this: The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has a doable, affordable and (probably) legal plan to boost catches of hatchery chinook in the ensuing five years. The doable plan calls for, among other things, raising and releasing 300,000 extra spring chinook smolts next year and three years after that. Those extra fish will head to sea and return as catchable adults from 2003 to 2008, with some significant catches beginning in 2004. If the plan is enacted, computer formulas predict that Rogue anglers will end up catching more fish this decade than if the hatchery fry-o-cide had not occurred. "Actually, it probably would result in greater overall benefits," says Mike Evenson, the ODFW's district fish biologist in Central Point. "By getting those replacement fish and and spreading their releases out over time, we think it's the best way to do it -- and it allows us to it within the constraints of the hatchery," Evenson says. But longtime anglers such as Ron Oachs aren't biting. The good news is good, Oachs says, but the bad news is worse. "I don't think anything will make up for a bad 2003," says Oach, a fishing guide. "What's done is done. If they want to try to throw a few fish our way, we'll take them." It will take more than a little something to remove the gloom on the Rogue since Jan. 6 saw the largest fish kill in the hatchery's 28-year history. An early-morning water pump failure at the facility's hatch house stopped the flow of clear, oxygen-rich water to about 1.8 million tiny spring chinook. Alarm systems meant to alert hatchery workers in their homes failed. All but 429,000 of the tiny salmon died before a janitor discovered the breakdown. Hatchery workers have since installed more alarms and added enough extra safety measures that the hatch house is better alarmed than even the Governor's Mansion. Yet that cannot make up for the devastating loss. Cole Rivers Hatchery normally releases about 1.62 million spring chinook smolts into the Rogue annually. Most come back as adults four years later, with smaller percentages returning as 2-, 3- and 5-year-olds. Based on computer formulas that account for ocean survival and catch rates, reducing this year's releases by 1.2 million would mean roughly 6,000 fewer 20-pound spring chinook over Gold Ray Dam in 2003. Of those, about 1,400 likely would be caught by anglers. Almost immediately, ODFW biologists began figuring how best to make up for those losses -- not just to the numbers of fish in the river, but to the numbers actually caught by anglers. Simply getting more fish over Gold Ray Dam is easy -- dump more fish in the river. But the focus is on the numbers of fish that are actually caught. The ODFW can't import spring chinook from other hatcheries because mixing of hatchery chinook between coastal river basins is no longer allowed. One possible solution that garnered the most interest is to raise enough extra fish next year to fill in the void left by this year's losses. But to do so, the hatchery would have to raise 3.2 million extra chinook smolts, flooding the Rogue with thousands of extra adult fish in 2003. This plan would cost up to $400,000, and is too large-scale to be done even at Cole Rivers Hatchery, which does not have the space to triple its spring chinook program. Most of the extra fish would not be caught by anglers and instead would clog hatchery ponds before being killed as excess and sold as food. "We want the public to be happy," hatchery Foreman Matt Frank says. "And the public's not going to be happy if a bunch of 3-year-old salmon come into the hatchery and we kill them and sell them." Besides, Evenson says, that many extra fish would violate Oregon's Wild Fish Policy, which limits the ratios of hatchery salmon to wild salmon in river basins. ODFW biologists instead are backing a plan to raise and release an extra 300,000 spring chinook a year from Cole Rivers from 2000 through 2003. The total number of fish would match what won't be released into the Rogue this year, but spacing them out will actually get them caught by fishermen at higher rates than if they were all dumped into the Rogue at once, Evenson says. That plan will cost just $25,000 extra per year, Evenson says. Plus, since the Rogue's hatchery releases likely are already at or over Wild Fish Policy thresholds, releasing the fish in smaller bunches is less of an assault on state policy, Evenson says. The agency also expects to recycle more of the hatchery's excess spring chinook and pamper this year's surviving fish enough to boost catch rates above normal, according to the plan's draft. The plan is waiting for final ODFW approval, which Evenson says could come by the end of February. While Oachs is happy that agency biologists are trying something, he does not have high expectations. The lack of this year's hatchery chinook will be most felt in 2002 and 2003, and Oachs fears that two bad years of fishing will turn tourists away. "Anything they're willing to do to improve fishing will be a plus to the angler," Oachs says. "But they can't undo what happened, and they won't be able to make up for 2003." (Staff writer Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. Call him at 776-4470, or e-mail him at [email protected] ) Outdoor Journal Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Mail Tribune � 2000 -- Medford, Oregon USA