Originally Posted By: Ron Warren
The 100,000 coho released into the Wynoochee River will be tagged with a coded wire but will not be marked (with clipped adipose fins) for the first five years of the plan. As unmarked fish, these coho have a better chance of making it back to the spawning grounds in the Wynoochee River since the retention of unmarked coho is prohibited except in years when high numbers of wild fish are expected to return, Warren said.


Raises a couple of interesting points:

1. This statement appears to suggest that "hatchery raised fish are going to be let onto the gravel to spawn as wild fish, simply because they did not have their adipose fin clipped...at least five years worth.

2. Harvest of these "non-clipped" fish will be determined by return, but it does not mention for who? If a coho fishery IS allowed for marked selective fish, and the tribal fisheries are using non-selective nets, isn't this the same thing as giving the tribes a huge amount of fish that are NOT available to sportsmen?


This sounds like a great plan to increase fish, but it smells like a good way to keep fish away from sports harvest and increase incidental catch in nets... just saying.