Oregon coast salmon fishermen can learn about 2008 season prospects when the Ocean Salmon Industry Group (OSIG) and Oregon Salmon Commission (OSC) hold back-to-back sessions in Newport next week.

The two groups will meet at the Best Western Agate Beach Inn Thursday, March 6, to discuss 2008 salmon season forecasts, regulations, and other matters pertaining to commercial and recreational salmon fisheries.

Commercial fishermen are still recovering from the 2006 salmon fishery disaster, so interest is high in the issues influencing the structure of the 2008 season and the possible options stemming from them.

Co-sponsored by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) and the Oregon Coastal Zone Management Association (OCZMA), the OSIG session begins at 10 a.m. Eric Schindler, leader of ODFW's Ocean Sampling Project, will open the session with a review of 2007 ocean fisheries.

The sampling project - staffed by Schindler and an assistant leader in Newport, and two sampling coordinators, one each in Tillamook and Charleston - collects and analyzes data on Oregon's commercial ocean salmon fishery, including catch and fishing effort, recovers coded wire tags, and gathers average weight data from commercial salmon landings. Schindler said the project also conducts the Ocean Recreational Boat Survey "to estimate effort and catch in the ocean recreational boat fishery." The survey estimates total ocean sport effort by boat type (charter and private), using random interviews to generate catch estimates fro both salmon and non-salmon species.

Click here to read the complete story in the Newport News-Times (Oregon).