Panel sets quota but restores brief commercial salmon seasons for California

Panel sets fishing quotas for West Coast salmon

PORTLAND, Ore. — For the first time since 2007, commercial and recreational fishermen will get to cast their lines for ocean salmon from the Canadian border to Mexico.

A federal panel set seasons and quotas for chinook and coho salmon off the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California on Thursday. The coast off California and much of Oregon has been closed to commercial fishing the last two seasons because of declining chinook runs.

The commercial fisheries in California will include two four-day openings in July from Point Arena to the Mexico border, bringing brief help to an industry that has relied on disaster relief funds the last two years.

After that, a single opening off Mendocino County will run from late July through August with a quota of about 27,000 fish.