Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission sets 2013 annual sturgeon limit at one fish

The Oregon statewide annual bag limit for sturgeon will be reduced to one fish beginning in 2013 under new rules adopted last week by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission.

The new rules covers all Oregon waters including inland rivers, bays and estuaries and supersedes a two fish annual bag limit set in September as part of the 2013 Sport Fishing Regulation development process.

At its meeting last Friday, the Commission had considered a proposal from an Oregon/Washington Workgroup that would have closed sturgeon to all retention in most state waters in 2013, but decided on the reduced bag limit as a transition to catch-and-release only fishing in 2014.

The reduced bag limit comes after several years of declining harvest quotas reflecting concerns about shrinking numbers of legal-sized fish.