As fisheries managers were busy this week in Vancouver trying to hammer out coastal commercial and recreational salmon fisheries — returns and possible seasons — the state Department of Fish and Wildlife has released the forecast for Grays Harbor and its tributaries for the 2017 season, which suggests a few more Chinook and coho may return this year but overall numbers remain low across most species.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council, which adopts ocean fishery options, including setting catch quotas for sport and commercial fisheries, began a full week of meetings in Vancouver Tuesday. This meeting is the first big step in the setting of commercial and recreational seasons for the upcoming season.

Region 6 biologist Mike Scharpf released the Grays Harbor numbers late last week. For spring Chinook, 1,277 unmarked fish are expected to return this year. If the numbers turn out to be accurate that means about 200 more fish than actually returned last year.

“In a nutshell, the Chinook numbers are a little down from the past few years, probably not much for fishery opportunities,” said Scharpf. “Coho numbers are up from last year, but still below the past five to 10 years, but can expect some fishing opportunities. Chum numbers are about normal.”

Fall Chinook numbers are expected to reach 10,351 naturally occurring fish in the Chehalis River and 5,841 in the Humptulips River. Both numbers are several thousand fish more than actually returned last season.

Hatchery fall Chinook forecast on the Chehalis is for just under 2,500 fish. For the Humptulips the number is just over 3,100. Both of these runs, if accurate, will fall well below the escapement goals set by state fish managers.

The Chehalis River coho forecast predicts a run of just over 41,000 naturally spawning fish in the 2017 season and just under 7,000 for the Humptulips. As for hatchery coho, nearly 26,000 are expected to return to the Chehalis in the coming season and just over 9,000 to the Humptulips.

Last year’s return of chum salmon surprised everyone, with about twice as many of them filling both Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay than expected. This year’s return to Grays Harbor is expected to be about half of what showed up last year, around 31,300 in total.

“We just started the North of Falcon process, which is the process to craft salmon fisheries for this fall. The forecasts are the starting point and shows us how many fish are available for harvest,” said Scharpf. “During the next several weeks, we will be meeting with the public, advisory committees, and co-managers to talk about and craft salmon fisheries for this fall. The progress of this process is available on the WDFW web site.”

The next Willapa Bay Advisory Group meeting will be held March 14 at the Raymond High School library at 6 p.m. Management objectives and preliminary fisheries options for Willapa Bay will be discussed, and the meeting is open to the public.

There will be a public Grays Harbor fisheries discussion March 28 at the Montesano City Hall at 6 p.m., and a Willapa Bay public fisheries discussion March 30 at the Raymond High School library at 6 p.m.

These will be the final chances for local public input on these two fisheries before the North of Falcon meeting in Olympia April 4 and when fisheries seasons and quotas are set at the final Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting April 7-12.