Tulalip Tribes won’t set crab pots during sport chinook fishery
As reported on the Seattle Times Reel Time Northwest blog, the Tulalip Tribes will not have crab pots in the water when the recreational "bubble" fishery opens Friday. The bubble…
Grant may save Stillaguamish River chinook
The (Everett) Herald reported on the Stillaguamish Tribe’s project to recover South Fork Stillaguamish chinook.
The Seattle P-I, KOMO 1000 and The Olympian and others also picked up the story.
The Stillaguamish Tribe learned this week that it has received $634,044, which it will use to capture 15 to 20 male and female wild returning salmon each fall.
Starting next August, the plan is to collect the eggs and sperm, fertilize them and allow them to hatch and grow into fry at a tribal hatchery in Arlington.
Biologists use high-tech equipment to spy on Skagit River chum
Tribes are working with Seattle City Light to study Skagit River chum. The P-I reports:
SEDRO-WOOLLEY — On the Skagit River, biologists netted a 3-foot chum salmon with stripes the color of a bad bruise and vampire teeth just beginning to show.
The fish will be dead within a month. But during the next few weeks, they’ll learn more than they have in the past 30 years about how this wild fish behaves.
The Herald: State, Tulalips disagree on whether wild chinook should be released
The Daily Herald reported on Tulalip's hatchery, discussing the issue of selective fisheries: Unmarked salmon caught in certain areas must be returned to the water. That's the state's way of…
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.