It's long past time to discontinue NT commercial salmon fishing in WA. We spend $93.7 million per biennium to raise hatchery salmong and steelhead, mostly salmon, so that over half of them can be caught in Canada and to a lesser extent, AK. The ones that return to WA are sorted between NT commercial, NT recreational, and treaty fisheries. I haven't been able to access enough current data to see just how much "short end of the stick" the sport fishery gets.

97% of WA residents don't buy either hunting or fishing licenses, but they pay state taxes, which is where WDFW's General Fund appropriation comes from. The 3% of us who buy licenses cough up the 27% of the WDFW budget from the Wildlife Account. The number I'm looking for is how many $$ does it cost to return one salmon to the recreational fishery. Updated values to WDFW's study of economic impacts of sport and commercial fishing places each angler day at just under $60. If it's costing hundreds of dollars to create a sport caught hatchery salmon, taxpayers and license buyers are being fleeced.

I like to fish for and eat fresh salmon, but I'm not willing to ask my fellow citizen taxpayers to pay rediculous subsidies so that I can catch a couple 7 pound coho like I caught this season down on the Columbia River. From a strictly dollars and cents perspective, it might be time for WA to retire from the salmon hatchery business.