SACRAMENTO - They drifted in, a couple here, a few there, like salmon returning to their home rivers. Some carried signs, most didn't. Some were snagged by reporters.

They were commercial salmon trollers from California to Washington, eager to protest a decision by the Pacific Fishery Management Council to close the commercial season, but at the same time eager to hear that they would be able to fish this year.

Dressed in jeans or work clothes, many wore T-shirts or jackets with pictures of boats or fish. The artwork was indicative of membership in a fishing organization or ownership of a fishing vessel.

Most were not at the meeting earlier in the week, when advisory panels, scientists and trollers navigated the fishery management waters that dictated any seasons must have minimal impacts on Klamath River fall Chinook stocks.

Trollers heard through talking with fellow fishermen and fishing organizations that their seasons could be cut completely, at worst, or that they would have severely restricted opportunity.

The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations organized the rally at the council meeting on Thursday. It was nowhere near as well attended as a similar sport-fishing rally staged on Tuesday.

But through it all, the fishermen worked together and worked with federal managers, well aware their decisions would doom some fishermen to financial losses and put an industry at risk in future years.

“We came into this process this year, knowing that it would be a very difficult year,” the council's Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife representative Curt Melcher said Thursday.

About 200 people filled the meeting room at the DoubleTree hotel Friday afternoon, down from the standing-room-only fishermen crowd that schooled up near the back of the room earlier in the week. Many of those 200 were ready for to testify before the council.

Well-known California troller Duncan MacLean and PCFFA President Chuck Wise led off the hours-long public comment period and, to save time, recommended fishermen who agreed with them step up to the microphone, state their names and home ports for the record.

More than 60 fishermen did. The line of trollers wound its way through the center aisle. Fishermen ready to picket left their signs in the chairs, opting for a simple, “I support the comments of Duncan MacLean and Chuck Wise” spoken remark on the record instead.

Later, many applauded comments made by other speakers, but few raised their voices. Only one slammed a door.

And as the public comment hearing wound down, the empty seats in the meeting room increased. Picket signs disappeared. About two-thirds of the fishermen remained to hear the council's final decisions.

The council eventually voted to close the commercial season completely in Southern Oregon and the extreme Northern California areas. Other areas closer to Central California and in Northern Oregon will have seasons, but very limited ones.

But as the meeting wound down and fishermen were left in their own sea of uncertainty, Oregon Salmon Commission member Jerry Reinholdt's words resonated: “When the fishermen are gone, who's going to speak for the salmon?”