Fishermen Fear Way of Life Will Vanish With Salmon : Ecology: Their catch dwindles, and a ban may be next. They blame dams built to serve cities and farmers.

These are anxious times for the salmon fishermen of the Mendocino coast. Men and women who have spent decades on the open ocean see their way of life slipping toward extinction.

In remote Noyo Harbor, just south of Ft. Bragg, dozens of salmon trollers are for sale. Fishermen who once made a good living catching salmon have turned to odd jobs to make ends meet. Others have taken up new careers, such as selling real estate.

With many varieties of salmon suffering a sharp decline in recent years, the last few fishing seasons have been dismal along the Northern California coast. But this year is shaping up to be the worst ever.

In April, the federal Pacific Fisheries Management Council is expected to ban all commercial and recreational salmon fishing on the West Coast or, at the very least, to enact the strictest limits ever imposed on the commercial fishing season.

“I don’t think this year there’s going to be any sense in going fishing,” said Scott T. McDermid, head of the local salmon fishermen’s association. “I know what I’ll be doing. I’ll be driving a truck.”

The threat of having no fishing season has left the region’s fishermen bitter, angry and worried. Some contend that if the government is going to prohibit fishing, it should step in and buy out the salmon fleet. Others talk of simply burning their boats and walking away.

In the little town of Ft. Bragg, once one of the biggest producers of salmon on the West Coast, the drastic reduction or elimination of this year’s fishing season could be devastating for many businesses.

“The whole community is really suffering from this,” fisherman John Josephs, 46, said. “All my life I’ve only fished. What do I do, go retrain myself as a computer programmer?”

Many fishermen see themselves as victims of a distant political system that favors those with money and clout. They contend that commercial fishermen are being made the scapegoat for the disappearance of once-abundant salmon from Northern California and the Pacific Northwest.

Among fishermen there is widespread resentment of the destruction of the salmon’s river habitat by dams that divert water for agriculture and power generation, which have ruined the spawning grounds and taken away water the fish need to survive.

“The rivers are just a mess. That’s what led to the decline of the fish,” said Buzz Platt, 57, a fisherman for more than 20 years who works part time making dock repairs. “They’re taking the easy way out by regulating the commercial fisherman.”

Along the rugged, isolated North Coast, where opportunities to make a living are scarce, fishing has been a way of life for generations in some families.

Often, the salmon fishermen go to sea alone, or as a couple, in vessels as small as 22 feet long. Usually, they own their boats and are their own bosses. They revel in their life on the ocean, their independence and their daily battle against nature.

“We have a tremendous pride in our cultural heritage,” said Nathaniel Bingham, until recently the president of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Assns. “We are probably the last guardians of ancient seafaring traditions. The tradition stops here.”

Traditionally, the salmon season was April 15 to Sept. 30, with the best fishing from the end of May to early July. Most of the Noyo Harbor fleet of 300 commercial ships fished locally off the coast of Mendocino, going out a day at a time, and many could make a good living just from catching salmon.

Last year, however, the Pacific Fisheries Management Council imposed heavy restrictions on the salmon season, limiting commercial fishing off the coast of Ft. Bragg to August and September. All-season fishing was limited to south of Point Arena, a day’s journey at sea.

This year the council has announced that it will choose from options that range from no fishing to permitting half the commercial catch of last year. At best, this would mean commercial fishing off Ft. Bragg only for the month of September. At certain times, fishing would be allowed south of Point Arena and at other times it would be permitted only south of San Francisco, at least two days away by boat.

The council is expected to make a final decision in mid-April, just weeks before the season would normally begin.

For most Noyo Harbor fishermen, even the council’s most favorable choice would mean no fishing at all, except in September, when few salmon remain, Harbormaster Howard Merritt said. At least 60% of the boats in the harbor are only large enough for day trips, he said, and would be unsafe on longer excursions.

The decision to restrict North Coast fishing results largely from the depletion of salmon in the Klamath River system, which flows from southern Oregon and California’s Trinity Mountains, emptying into the Pacific south of Crescent City.

The salmon population in the Klamath has fallen sharply during California’s extended drought as water for farms and cities continued to be pumped from the system’s rivers--including water pumped through the mountains from the Trinity River and into the Sacramento River.

The federal government’s goal is to keep fishermen from catching too many of the salmon that spawn in the Klamath. However, because salmon can swim hundreds of miles in the open ocean, the general restriction against salmon fishing is believed to be necessary to spare the Klamath fish.

Salmon from other rivers, most notably the Sacramento, could be taken were it not for the federal rules. The Mendocino fishermen complain that there will be plenty of salmon in the ocean, but they will not be allowed to catch them.

“I can’t talk about it--I get so upset,” said Mark Bolin, who has been fishing for salmon for more than a decade. “They want salmon trollers off the water so they can have the water for agriculture. It’s not even a hidden agenda--it’s obvious.”

The commercial fishermen see themselves as the group in the California water wars with the least political muscle--and the ones called upon to make the greatest sacrifice.

They note that the Yurok Indians, who fish at the mouth of the Klamath, will be allowed to catch 3,500 salmon, even if the commercial season is canceled. The hake fleet, with its huge factory ships out of Alaska, would be permitted to fish off the coast even though they are likely to take large quantities of salmon incidentally, the fishermen say.

Last year, recreational fisherman were allowed to hook salmon right off Ft. Bragg while the commercial fleet sat in the harbor. In fact, the fishing was so good that the local excursion boats doubled their number of daily trips from two to four.

“There were so many fish last year,” Josephs said. “The sports fishermen were allowed to hammer them and we couldn’t fish.”

This year, the federal fisheries council is considering canceling the recreational fishing season along with the commercial season. However, a second option under consideration would allow a normal sportfishing season north of Point Arena except for most of June.

The prospect of another bad year fills commercial fishermen with gloom and uncertainty about their future.

“It’s going to put us out of business if it continues the same,” said Buzz Earwood, who has been catching salmon for 16 years. “We can’t survive much longer. The majority of the fishermen were born and raised here. It’s pretty hard for them to pick up and go somewhere else, not knowing anything else or anywhere else.”

Those who want to change careers find they are unable to sell their boats for anything close to the money they have invested in them. To survive, many fishermen are considering getting out of the salmon business and going for bottom fish like black cod. But so many fishermen have already made the switch that there is considerable pressure on those fisheries too.

Beyond the fishing fleet, all kinds of businesses in Ft. Bragg are suffering with the loss of income to the region. Although the fishing industry is a small part of California’s economy, it is vital to Ft. Bragg, especially with the decline of logging in the region.

Estes Marine, a Noyo Harbor shop that sells gear to fishermen, is open only five hours a day and is not making enough for its owner, Julie Estes, to collect a salary.

“There’s no way we could sell this business,” said Estes, whose husband and sons are fishermen. “It’s worth nothing, just like the salmon boats are worth nothing. We’ve been reading a lot about businesses moving to Nevada. In fishing, you don’t have that option.”

On the dock at Noyo Harbor, Platt paused for a moment in his repairs and lamented the fact that few young people will be able to go into fishing and make a living. A former baseball coach at Pomona College, he moved north about 1970 for a life on the sea. “I raised a family fishing salmon and crab,” he said. “It’s just a shame it’s not going to be a possibility for others.”