Big tuna catch may be nothing to be happy about.

Byline: Mike Stahlberg The Register-Guard

Sport fishermen in the ocean along the coast of Oregon this summer found tuna to be as thick, well, as thick as silver salmon are supposed to be.

According to state creel checkers working the docks, more than 56,000 albacore tuna were landed in Oregon through Aug. 26. Newport, Depoe Bay and Charleston had the biggest sport harvests of tuna, but every port on the coast contributed to the catch.

Amazingly, the Oregon tuna fishery this year was bigger than the coho salmon fishery between Tillamook and the California border.

The coho harvest quota in those waters was capped at 50,000 hatchery fin-clipped fish this year, and there's a chance salmon fishermen might not reach that number before the season ends Sept. 16. Meanwhile, tuna fishing will continue until the schools move elsewhere, which usually occurs by early October.

Prior to this year, Oregon's record for sport-harvested albacore was 17,700, set in 2004. In other words, the 2007 take represents more than a threefold increase in the record.

Yippee, skippy! Right?

Maybe not.

Sure, there WERE a bunch of happy fishermen this summer. According to the ODFW, most weeks the average albacore angler brought 4 to 5 tuna back to the dock.

That looks pretty good on the grill compared with a limit of two salmon (especially when some of the tuna were bigger than many of the coho).

Another positive effect of the tuna bonanza is that anglers got so excited over the prospects of catching albacore that fewer fishermen targeted bottomfish.

As a result, it is unlikely that the recreational bottom-fishing season will have to be shut down early, as occurred in two of the past three years. In 2004 and '05, bottomfishing was halted in August and October, respectively.

But something's out of whack when albacore are being caught four miles from the beach at Depoe Bay, or eight miles off the mouth of the Chetco River, as happened this summer.

Something's screwy when anglers crossing the bar out of Salmon Harbor (Winchester Bay) end up hooking sharks and dorado (mahi-mahi).

Historically, anglers have had to boat 50 to 100 miles out to sea to find warm "blue water" currents and the species that inhabit them, like albacore.

Historically, you don't see sport boats at the docks in Newport off-loading halibut, salmon and tuna - all caught the same day.

If the tuna fishing provided by the summer of 2007 turns out to be just a fluke, then it was great fun. Wahoo!

But if, coupled with 2004, it's the start of a developing trend, then it could be another sign of this planet's temperature troubles.

In the long run, the change in ocean temperature patterns that made Oregon's beaches a summer hangout for tuna this year is nothing to be happy about. Warm water and salmon don't mix. And salmonids are the lifeblood of Oregon's sport fishery.

Speaking of salmon, the gradual easing of regulations designed to protect wild coho populations on the central Oregon coast continues. The harvest of coho was banned following the population crash, and ensuing Endangered Species listing, that occurred in the mid-1990s

Fishing for wild coho at Siltcoos and Tahkenitch Lakes (through which returning adults swim to reach their spawning grounds) resumed in 2004 on a year-by-year "temporary rule" basis that included a tightly-monitored quota and.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission last month approved the 2007 fishery, but the harvest quota has been dropped and the wild coho fishery will become a permanent rule in 2008. The bag limit will continue to be one-fish per day, five per year.

Meanwhile, local ODFW biologists are ready to move ahead with opening the Coos and Coquille Rivers to a similar limited-harvest wild coho season with a quota monitored by creel checkers. Wild coho populations in both river basins appear to be in good shape, according to district fish biologist Michael Gray.

However, it is unclear whether the ODFW will seek and obtain the necessary federal approval for the fisheries in time for this year's run, which begins in October. If not, anglers should still be able to catch-and-release lots of wild coho while targeting the relatively small runs of hatchery silvers that return to both rivers.

One other related angling change of note was included in the 2008 angling rules approved last month. Language allowing Umpqua and North Umpqua River anglers to harvest limited numbers of winter steelhead with intact adipose fins will no longer appear in the regulations.

Mike Stahlberg can be reached at [e-mail].