Coho run leads to help for the hungry.

Byline: Mike Stahlberg The Register-Guard

Surplus salmon on the dinner table, a surge in the number of hunters and fishers and an unexpected ally in the war on poaching are topics of this week's look Inside the Outdoors.

This year's banner run of coho salmon has received considerable publicity as bag limits were raised and seasons extended. Anglers were even allowed to harvest "wild" coho in some waterways for the first time in many years.

Sport fishers, however, will take only a tiny percentage of the 700,000 coho returning to the Columbia Basin. Coho are notoriously finicky biters.

As a result, state fish hatcheries are being inundated with fish. This is good news for hungry families in Oregon.

With the help of volunteers, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is processing thousands of surplus salmon at six hatcheries for distribution to the hungry through food banks.

"These huge runs of coho couldn't have come at a better time, with a down economy and Oregon facing historically high unemployment rates," said Bill Otto, manager of ODFW's North Fish Hatchery Group. "We are fortunate to be able to help feed a lot of people who are hurting right now."

For the past two weeks, up to 2,000 fish per day have been put on ice and trucked to American Canadian Fisheries' processing plant in Bellingham, Wash. There, the fish are filleted and flash frozen in preparation for distribution to 20 regional food banks around the state. The company processes the fish in exchange for their eggs, which it cures and sells as bait.

"It's not often that we have the opportunity to get this kind of premium protein for the families we serve," said Dan Crunican, food resource developer for the Oregon Food Bank.

"The number of people seeking emergency food through the OFB Network is unprecedented," said Jean Kempe-Ware, Oregon Food Bank public relations manager.

Meanwhile, the slow economy appears to have helped, rather than hurt, the sales of hunting and fishing licenses and tags.

The total number of 2009 annual resident licenses (hunting, fishing, combination and "SportPac") sold through September was 525,343, according to Christine Broniak, ODFW staff economist. That's 11.5 percent more than the 471,109 licenses sold at the same time last year.

The increase is believed to be a result of the fact that, during periods of high unemployment, more people have time to hunt and fish. Also, those activities can be a relatively inexpensive source of food.

Finally, Oregon hunters have what many would regard to be an unlikely ally in the Humane Society of the United States.

Not only did the Humane Society donate a $4,000 radio-controlled elk (pictured on the cover of this section) to the Wildlife Enforcement Decoy program operated by the Oregon State Police, but the national animal support group has also put up rewards to help solve Oregon poaching cases.

One of those was in Lane County in July. It involved a buck deer found shot, butchered and dumped at the end of Idylewild Street in Creswell.

The Oregon Hunters Association's Turn in Poachers (TIP) reward program posted a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible.

Then the Humane Society upped the ante, promising an additional $2,500.

"The flippant poaching of this deer is a serious crime and shows the disregard some individuals have of wildlife," said Scott Beckstead, Oregon State Director of the Humane Society of the United States.

Publicity about the big reward produced a telephone tip.

"I made the case in large part due to the media attention your reward received," State Police trooper Marc Boyd wrote Beckstead while reporting that the reward needed to be paid.

Boyd cited two men, ages 19 and 20. They were convicted and ordered to pay fines and restitution totaling $5,000, which included repaying the Humane Society for the $2,500 reward.

The Humane Society, of course, is no fan of legal hunting.

"As a matter of principle, The HSUS opposes the hunting of any living creature for fun, trophy, or sport because of the animal trauma, suffering, and death that result," says the group's policy statement.

"As a practical matter," however, the policy statement says, "The legitimate needs of human subsistence ...sometimes necessitate the killing of wildlife. In such cases, killing should be accomplished in a humane and non-wasteful manner."

But the HSUS, like all ethical hunters, abhors the illegal killing of game animals. "The HSUS works hard to stop the abuse of wildlife, and poachers are some of the most irresponsible abusers we know," the organization says.

Which is why the organization frequently helps game wardens by posting rewards and providing enforcement tools.

Oregon's new Robo Elk is one example, Another example: a Humane Society grant is helping pay for the care and feeding of several "wildlife" dogs used by California Department of Fish and Game officers.

Trained to detect the odors of bear, deer, elk, and gunpowder, the K-9s help officers locate tell-tale carcasses, body parts, spent cartridges or other evidence.

"A sweet part of the deal," a Humane Society news release says, is that the program "saves the lives of shelter dogs who might not have had a chance otherwise. Bringing poachers to justice is icing on the cake."

E-mail Mike Stahlberg at [e-mail]