This was just posted by Mr. Brett Rosson, a member of the Puget Sound Sport fishing Advisory Group.


North of Falcon 2014 was the first time I heard mention of WDFW getting its own permit. This was also the first year that WDFW began to focus on Marine Area 7 (MA 7) as a place to start reducing chinook fishing opportunity in order to comply with NOAA mandated ‘conservation objectives’.

Back then, the Lake Washington and Mid Hood Canal stocks were really driving cuts (cuts mandated so as to be in compliance with NOAA’s guidelines for recovery of Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed stocks). These two stocks were concentrated in the mid to southern portion of the Sound, and so the majority of the restrictions or cuts were made to MA 9-10.

But in 2014 the focus of cuts shifted north, and have by and large remained there ever since. So in 2014 WDFW began by converting October from non-selective (able to keep non-clipped chinook) to a selective fishery (having to release of non-clipped fish), and that’s when the landslide truly began. Over the next six years, MA 7 chinook fishery was systematically whittled down. Our season went from eight months of non-selective chinook fishing in 2014 to TWO WEEKS of selective chinook fishing in 2020.

Now the average person would look at this and say, “wow, there must have been really good reason for this, or WDFW would not have cut this fishery by 93%". Looking at these cuts, one would have reasonably concluded that the number of chinook returning to Puget Sound, and in particular those passing through MA 7, had very significantly dropped off. Well, that person would be wrong.

You see, what really took place in 2014 is that WDFW was no longer in year-to-year negotiations with tribes to get an agreement on a fishing package to present to NOAA for approval. Because the previously agreed to ten-year chinook harvest management plan had expired, our permit to fish was now tied to (piggybacked) to the tribes permit. This piggybacking was intended to be a short term solution that allowed the state to continue to get an annual permit to fish while the two sides worked on an agreement for the next ten-year management plan. It was at the beginning of this interim period that the tribes began to dictate, not negotiate.
Brett Rosson

CLICK HERE:Memebers of the Puget Sound Sport Fishng Advisory Group