Salmon Program Called Success Despite Disease : Coast: Anglers say fishermen should reel in 20-pounders next year for the first time since the 1960s.

Despite a disease that killed nearly a third of the fish in a program designed to stock the coastal waters of Ventura County with salmon, a group of anglers has dubbed the first year of the three-year effort a success.

In a report to the Board of Supervisors, the Ventura County chapter of the United Anglers of California said the venture to replenish the salmon stock for sport fishermen has so far released 40,000 young salmon.

The report, however, said the program--financed partly through a $20,000 county donation and administered by the anglers’ organization--was hampered early by vibriosis, a bacteria that caused the death of about 18,000 young salmon before their release.

To a lesser degree, the program was also hindered by local fishermen who illegally snagged baby salmon off local piers before the fish could grow to full size.

James Donlon, chairman of the anglers’ Ventura County chapter, played down the losses, saying what the group lost in fish it made up in lessons learned.

“For the first year of this program, our success was very well established,” he said. “The loss was far less than normally expected.”

Channel Islands Marina Vice President Charles Farrell, who helped build the pen used to hold the fish, agreed. “We had some problems with disease and we worked them out,” he said. “We shouldn’t have that problem again.”

The salmon stock in the ocean off Ventura County has been seriously reduced over the past 30 years by overfishing. Pollution and dams on the Ventura and Santa Clara rivers have also degraded much of the salmon’s spawning habitat.

If all goes well, the anglers say, fishermen should begin to reel in 20-pounders next year for the first time since the 1960s.

Donlon said his organization hopes to reduce the mortality rate among fish in the holding pen to 10% and increase the number of young salmon released into the ocean this year to about 55,000.

He said the group is also drafting a proposal for the Fish and Game Department to build a small fish hatchery in Fillmore next year. If successful, the hatchery would reduce the cost of buying the young fish from private hatcheries, Donlon said.

The Ventura County Salmon Enhancement Program was funded through the county’s donation and $10,700 in private contributions, according to the report released last week. The first year’s expenses totaled $26,880, including $11,473 for the construction of a 2,500-square-foot pen near the Channel Islands Marina.

Beginning next month, Farrell said, the anglers’ organization plans to use the offshore pen to raise 10,000 young white sea bass. Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors approved a recommendation to contribute $5,000 toward the project.

Officials at the regional office of the Fish and Game Department said they had not read the one-year progress report and declined to comment on the program.

The effort began in earnest last year when 63,000 fertilized salmon eggs were trucked from a Seattle laboratory to a hatchery in Yountville, Calif. After the salmon reached 2 1/2 inches in length, they were trucked to the specially built pen in Oxnard.

The disease was suspected 11 days after delivery, when fish began to show several symptoms of the bacteria, including dull-colored gills and small, yellowish globs attached to the gills, the report said.

In an ill-fated attempt to control the disease, the anglers transferred nearly 40% of the fish to a pen that had been filled with medicated sea water, according to the report. But some fish died from the severe stress caused by the transfer, the report said.

After the disease was identified, the anglers fed the tiny salmon medicated feed six times a day for 10 days, the report said. Three days after the treatment began, the loss of fish declined to about 30 fish per day, an average that the anglers considered acceptable, according to the report.

Several days after the fish were released about half a mile off Channel Island Harbor, state Fish and Game Department wardens began daily patrols at the Ventura Pier, looking to cite fishermen who illegally snagged the baby salmon.

Wardens estimated that more than 100 of the six-inch-long fish were caught at the Ventura Pier.

Donlon said he believes that more fish were caught off the Port Hueneme pier and the Sycamore pier near Point Mugu.

He said, however, that there is no way of telling how many salmon were lost to the illegal fishing, and added that next time the fish will be released farther out at sea in hopes they will stay far from shore.