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40 °F 5 Day Forecast Tuesday, December 9, 2003 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | eSouthernOregon | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend November 28, 2003 Hungry will likely get less free salmon than past years By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune Slow Rogue River coho salmon returns to Cole Rivers Hatchery and increased sales of excess coho from a Columbia River hatchery mean Oregon’s hungry likely will get fewer free salmon than last year, authorities said. But representatives of the Oregon Food Bank, which distributes the excess salmon from Oregon hatcheries to the state’s needy say they welcome whatever they get. "Protein is what we’re always looking for and we use what’s available," said Carolyn Brown, the food bank’s food resource developer based in Eugene. "We don’t bank on the same number of fish every year because you never know what mother nature can do," Brown said. "I look at this as a bonus." The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, American/Canadian Fisheries in Washington and the food bank have teamed since 2001 to distribute what is considered "excess" adult coho collected at some hatcheries that get more adults than needed annually for spawning. Advertisement The ODFW sends the coho whole to American/Canadian Fisheries, which cleans, fillets and packages the salmon for free. In return, the Bellingham-based company gets the carcasses and eggs for sale and processing. The processor cuts the coho into 1-pound fillets, that are shrink-wrapped, frozen and trucked to the food bank’s Portland distribution center. The group will then disseminate the protein-rich fish, along with recipes and handling instructions, to hungry families across Oregon via a network of 780 local agencies covered by the food bank’s umbrella. In 2001, the Oregon Food Bank distributed 122,175 pounds of coho; last year’s coho poundage was cut to 54,504. So far this year, Brown said, only 21,000 pounds of coho have been collected for the food bank — about half of what’s needed to fill one truck. "We haven’t even taken possession of it yet," Brown said. "We wait for a full truckload." The main culprit for the drop is slower than expected returns of Rogue coho at Cole Rivers, which last year sent 11,293 coho to the food bank program to make it the largest single source of food-bank fish. Hatchery manager Randy Robart said he was prepared to get 20,000 coho returning to the hatchery, based on last year’s returns of smaller "jack" salmon. But the counts through mid-November were running at about 60 percent of last year. Hatchery workers Tuesday delivered their first 1,736 excess coho to American/Canadian Fisheries, and through Wednesday the hatchery has collected just 4,370 coho. "Based on our jack counts last year, we should have beaucoup fish," Robart said. "But I don’t know where they are." The food bank program took another hit when Big Creek Hatchery along the Columbia River sold all of its excess salmon and did not contribute any to the food bank, which received 3,868 Big Creek Hatchery fish last year. ODFW’s budget shortfalls and a tenfold increase in the price for excess hatchery coho were cited as the reasons. Last year, only 1,812 coho were sold for 5 cents apiece from Big Creek, said George Nandor, the ODFW’s assistant fish-propagation manager. "But this year’s price jumped to 53 cents, and the ODFW sold 5,936 coho to the Seattle firm of Smoki Foods, the highest bidder, Nandor said. "Fiscally, the budgets are short and this was an opportunity to have some dollars for some projects," said Bill Otto, the ODFW’s fish-propagation manager based in Clackamas and the former Cole Rivers Hatchery manager. The Sandy River Hatchery, which last year provided 5,985 coho to the food bank program, contributed 6,095 this year, Nandor said. A few other hatcheries sprinkled in small amounts of excess fish as well, he said. No one knows how many fish the food bank will receive until the returns are over at Cole Rivers, where the coho run is later than on the Columbia. "They’ll be a lot more fish if the run at Cole Rivers pans out," Nandor said. "We’ll have to wait and see." For Brown, it means finding more sources of protein wherever possible. "At this point, we have a small yield," Brown said. "At the Oregon Food Bank, we take things as we can get them and use what’s available." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2003 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback 3 WEEKS FREE! ADVERTISERS SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Real Estate Showcase Food for Thought Hike of the Week Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Openings Prime Times