Harvests

Being Frank: Certainty is Key

This year’s North of Falcon salmon management process, for the coast and Puget Sound, was tougher than it’s ever been. North of Falcon is the key part of annual planning that brings state and tribal co-managers together with input from stakeholders to set fishing regulations north of the Oregon Coast cape of the same name. As in years past, it was a give-and-take process of shaping fisheries to fit under the “impact lid” that helps us protect weak wild salmon stocks while, to the extent possible, harvesting abundant hatchery salmon. We are especially concerned about protecting Puget Sound chinook listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.

Continue ReadingBeing Frank: Certainty is Key

Hatcheries Aren’t Habitat

There’s no question that hatcheries have a role to play in salmon recovery, but hatchery fish aren’t wild fish, just like hatcheries aren’t habitat.

Hatcheries are absolutely needed to support some wild salmon stocks. Without them, those fish would disappear. Hatcheries make sure we have fish to catch. If we didn’t have hatchery salmon, no one would be fishing. Tribal treaty fishing rights would be meaningless.

Yes, hatchery fish are part of the answer to salmon recovery. Hatchery fish were never meant to replace wild fish, though, and we have to make sure that never happens. Only wild fish can carry us into the next century and beyond.

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Pollution Limits Shellfish Harvest In Dungeness Bay

SEQUIM (September 11, 2003) – All of Dungeness Bay will be closed to shellfish harvesting this upcoming winter, eliminating oyster and clam gathering opportunities for Indian and non-Indian harvesters. The Washington Department of Health officially closed the bay to tribal and non-tribal shellfish harvests from November through January, when water quality fails state and federal standards.

That’s a big blow to the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, which has always depended on the bay for shellfish. Not only does the Jamestown Tribe harvest clams and oysters along the beach for ceremonial and subsistence purposes, the tribe also operates a commercial shellfish farm in the bay. During the three-month closure, which coincides with the holiday season when clams and oysters are in high demand, the
tribe misses out on much-needed revenue.

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Tribes Will Do Their Part For Groundfish

September 24, 2002

Coastal treaty tribes will be especially hard hit by the sharp reductions in groundfish harvests off the Washington Coast this year.

Declining salmon runs and poor market conditions have been conspiring against the tribes for the past couple of decades. Now, just when they are beginning to access their treaty-reserved share of groundfish, deep harvest cuts must be made to address declining populations of some groundfish species.

Nonetheless, the Quileute, Hoh and Makah tribes and the Quinault Indian Nation will be doing their part to help protect and rebuild weak groundfish stocks.

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Larger Returns Don’t Equal Salmon Recovery

August 7, 2002

Here we go again.

A second year of big returns of hatchery chinook returning to the Columbia River – coupled with more good returns of coho to Puget Sound – and some folks already are talking loudly again about easing salmon habitat protection measures.

Unfortunately, what these returns really amount to are two small spikes on the overall downward trend of the salmon resource. Two years of good returns do not amount to salmon recovery. In fact, these larger returns actually may cause more harm than good.

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