Faced with an unprecedented collapse in the number of chinook salmon from California's Sacramento River, the Pacific Fishery Management Council has proposed significant reductions in recreational and commercial salmon fishing for much of the West Coast. Proposals include the possibility of a complete shutdown for the season, which normally begins in March.

Salmon fishers, many of whom support the restrictions to protect the fish population, predict that businesses will suffer alongside consumers, who should expect to pay more for wild salmon.

"We don't want to catch the last fish," says Larry Collins, 50, president of the San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association.

Collins and his wife make 70% of their income off salmon. Collins says he's not sure how he's going to survive if the season is canceled, but doesn't see another option.

"We've got to think long-term here," he says.

Most of the high quality wild salmon in the USA is caught in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, says Paul Heikkila, a third-generation salmon fisher and a retired fisheries biologist with Oregon State University Extension Service.

The Sacramento River is the primary feeder river for Pacific fall-run chinook salmon, which also are called king salmon. After they leave the river, the salmon migrate along the Pacific coast until they return several years later to spawn.

In 2002, 775,499 adult chinook salmon returned to the Sacramento River, according to the council. Last year, the number dipped to about 88,000 and this year, the council predicts, 58,200 will return. The council believes that at least 122,000 fish must return to the river annually to maintain a healthy population.

"In my lifetime, I can never remember it this bad," Heikkila says.

Federal scientists aren't sure what caused the chinook population crash, but believe it may have to do with changing ocean temperatures, which altered the marine food chain, says Jennifer Gilden, council spokeswoman. Other factors, such as river water quality, dams and water diversions to urban areas also may be to blame, she says.

Overfishing is not considered the culprit, Gilden says. "It's sort of like the bottom has fallen out," she says.

The council, which meets this week in Seattle, is expected to act by Thursday. Its recommendations must be approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

All options before the council would significantly restrict recreational and commercial salmon fishing along the Pacific coast.

The most restrictive option would forbid all commercial and most recreational salmon fishing off California and most of Oregon.

Rep. Mike Thompson, a Democrat from California, and other West Coast lawmakers plan to ask for federal disaster relief funds to help fishers and other businesses affected by the fishing restrictions, Thompson's spokeswoman Anne Warden says.

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