Well this is interesting! Put the gillnetters in U and blew the model apart!

Morning Willapa Bay Advisors,
Just wanted to give everyone a quick update on commercial fisheries in Willapa Bay. Regional staff are currently working on this week’s fishery update and hope to have that out to everyone later today. Commercial fisheries began in the bay on Tuesday in commercial catch area 2U. Effort was consistent with what we have historically seen in tangle net fisheries in recent years. Both Chinook and coho encounters were higher than predicted preseason. Yesterday, commercial catch area 2N was open utilizing tangle net gear. As mentioned above, staff are still working through the data but what we do know as of this morning is that effort was low, and catch was also low. So, what does this mean and where do we stand.

After the two combined days of commercial fishing the estimate of natural origin Chinook impacts stands at 100 fish. This would represent a 400% increase relative to the weekly preseason prediction of 25 fish and is 69% of the total allowable impacts (144 fish) for the season in order to achieve the 14% impact rate cap on natural origin Willapa River and Naselle River Chinook management objective. The estimated catch of natural origin coho was 180 fish. This is 158% of the preseason prediction for the week of 114 natural origin coho harvested.

Based on preseason predictions and uncertainty around runsize updates in-season, a modification of the commercial fishery is necessary to help ensure that conservation objectives for Chinook and coho are met. Commercial fisheries planned for Friday in commercial catch area 2T and the opener on Monday the 14th in commercial catch area 2T, 2U, 2N, and 2M will also be closed. The next scheduled commercial fishery is scheduled for Thursday, September 17. This fishery was planned preseason to utilize small mesh gill net but will be modified to a tangle net fishery. As mentioned above the weekly fishery update will include more detailed information relative to fisheries performance and will be sent out later today.
Thanks,

Chad Herring
Anadromous Resource Policy Analyst
Montesano Regional Headquarters