Associated Press
 
November 16, 2009
 
ASTORIA, Ore. -- The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife says it will add an extra quarter-million spring chinook smolts to the Youngs Bay net pens next March.
 
The smolts will come from a group of 2.2 million hatchery chinook salmon bing raised on the Clackamas and McKenzie rivers. They will be added to about a million fish already scheduled for release from Clatsop County's Youngs Bay net pen fishery.
 
The Daily Astorian reports the move is likely to boost both sport and commercial fisheries at the mouth of the Columbia River in 2013, but it has generated questions about whether the state is planning to shift commercial gillnetters from the mainstem river to off-channel areas.