COOS BAY - The talk was of zeros and giving everything away: Zero fishing for commercial salmon fishermen on the ocean this year and letting sport fishermen have as much fish as possible.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council held a hearing Monday night at the Red Lion Hotel to take input on three options for ocean salmon seasons this year. The federal council will make a final decision when it meets next week in Millbrae, Calif.

Fishermen have known for awhile the outlook is bad. Returns of fall Chinook to the Sacramento River were lower last year than in 2007 and the forecast is not stellar for this year. The Sacramento stock is the main supplier, for West Coast Chinook salmon seasons in Oregon and California.

On the other hand, various runs of coho are up - way up. There's enough coho to provide great ocean and river fishing opportunities this year for sport and charter fishermen.

"Please give all the fish you can to the ocean sport (fisheries)," said Charleston commercial troller Jeff Reeves.

Letting charter boats and anglers have the opportunity to fish would help coastal economies in Oregon already stung by a complete closure last year, he said.

Fishery managers want to make some allowance for commercial fishermen, though. They designed options that would allow some fishing in September on small quotas, after Sacramento fish have, in theory, already passed Oregon. Commercial fishermen would be allowed to catch an 11,000-coho or 10,000-coho quota in September, minimizing the risk of catching any Sacramento fall Chinook, under two of the options.

The third would allow for no coho or Chinook fishery except a catch-and-release genetics study. 

Trollers, appreciative of the council's efforts to provide some kind of opportunity, said the seasons wouldn't be worth it. Gearing up for a short season would cost more than what they'd make in profit, Reeves said.

Troller Rick Goche agreed.

"I used to be a salmon troller," he said.

Last year was the first in more than 40 years of fishing he spoke in favor of having no season at all, he said, "and here I am, speaking again against a season."

Many charter businesses and related community businesses from Reedsport to Harbor favored the second option for ocean sport seasons - a 95,000-coho quota between Cape Falcon, near Manzanita on the North Coast and the California border - in favor of a two-fish daily bag limit and a longer fishing season that would run from June 20 to Aug. 31 if the quota isn't caught.

Option one, the most lenient, includes a quota of 110,000 marked coho, a three-fish daily bag limit, but a shorter season that opens July 1 and runs through Aug. 31 if the quota isn't met.

Some commercial trollers already are looking to get out of the industry, said James Moore, who fishes out of Charleston. He and other fishermen have formed the Oregon Alliance for Sustainable Salmon Fisheries.

One of the group's goals, he said, is to consider the option of looking for a state or federal permit buyout so those who choose to participate in the fishery can have the chance at a future, when the salmon stock is in good shape again.

But for now, Moore said, none of the options are viable.

"Make a living in the salmon industry?" he said. "It's not possible."