I’ve seen smelt in the Lewis, Cowlitz and Sandy rivers so thick you could almost grab them barehanded. I’ve seen them dipped at such odd places as the Marine Park boat ramp, Beacon Rock moorage and even behind the former bowling alley along the Washougal River.
And now it’s come to this: Columbia River smelt are an endangered species and all sport and commercial dipping is banned.
The Columbia River Compact on Tuesday closed commercial smelt dipping in the big river. Without the action, dipping season would have opened Wednesday. Occasionally, the handful of commercials still in the smelt business would get a few fish from pilot runs in December.
Sport dipping already is closed under permanent rules in Washington. Commercial dipping in the Washington tributaries also is closed permanently unless opened by the state.
Sport smelt dipping season in Oregon tributaries of the Columbia will close Jan. 1. Commercial dipping in the Sandy and Umpqua rivers is expected to be closed beginning Wednesday.
Since smelt haven’t returned in appreciable numbers for years, Tuesday’s action really isn’t that significant.
Still, to see an across-the-board ban on harvesting a resource once so incredibly plentiful comes as a unfortunate milestone.
“This day is not unexpected, but it’s still kind of a sad day,” said Harry Barber of Washougal, a fishery activist and leader in the Coastal Conservation Association.
Meager catch
In 2010, the commercials in the Columbia River landed a total of 3,600 pounds of which 2,200 pounds were landed Jan. 21. They were allowed to net seven hours at a time twice a week into early March.
No smelt were landed in the six hours per week of commercial dipping allowed in February in the lower Cowlitz. Sport dipping effort and catch in the lower Cowlitz were minimal.
Compare this to two decades ago when landings were measured in the millions of pounds.
I have a photo of my son, at age 5 in 1994, smiling while he holds up smelt I dipped from the Cowlitz near Castle Rock. I’ll take that photo out from underneath a magnet on the refrigerator and save it, so he can show his grandchildren that smelt actually once were so abundant you could dip net them for bait or even table fare.
The federal Endangered Species Act listing determination for smelt identified “changes in ocean conditions due to climate change as the most significant threat to eulachon (smelt) and their habitats.”
Biologist Brad James of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said smelt woes are not limited to the Columbia River.
British Columbia has 17 populations from the Fraser River on the south to the Nass River on the north in trouble.
“You have to get up to Alaska to find populations in decent shape,” James said. “There’s an ocean current that splits and populations to the south are in trouble,” he said. “Something is happening out in the ocean.”
Population swings
Hobe Kytr of Salmon For All, an Astoria-based commercial fishing group, said not all hope is lost.
Historical records show tremendous swings in Columbia River smelt populations, Kytr said.
While the fish were plentiful in the 1805-06 journals of Lewis and Clark, smelt disappear from historical mention from about 1830 to 1860, he said
“We’ve seen them disappear for a generation,” Kytr said. “Abundance swings in eulachon (smelt) are frequent and well-documented.”
Tony Nigro of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and Guy Norman of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said the federal government has committed research grants to sample for juvenile smelt and collect genetic information.
Nigro and Norman both said they hope to be able to contract with the commercials to do some limited sampling to maintain a long-standing catch data base.
Kytr said few commercial smelt fishermen remain.
“It’s (fishing) quite important to members in Clatskanie and Cathlamet where jobs are few and hard to come by,” he said.
Jack Marincovich of the Columbia River Fisheries Protective Union, another commercial group, made a succinct comment Tuesday about smelt:
“There’s still a lot of people who look forward each winter to buying some smelt on the market,” Marincovich said. “There are people who like to eat them, or smoke them.”
