Considering Grays harbor and the Chehalis Basin have fallen victum to every fruit loop bio's idea that has left the twin harbors ( Willapa also ) hatchery system in shambles I thought this was relevant.


Washington needs to OK co-managing fish hatcheries with tribes

Lisa Wilson Vice Chair

Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission needs to adopt an agreed-upon Co-Manager Hatchery Policy with the state’s tribes and not be influenced by outside groups trying to derail it.

After nearly 15 years of the state taking unilateral actions on salmon hatchery policy, state and tribal experts developed this proposed policy together, reaffirming our commitment to co-manage our shared resources.

The state Commission supported this two-year effort and should not be influenced now by antihatchery groups. One such group is on record saying the only hatcheries they support are “closed hatcheries.”

These views are scientifically unbalanced and ignore more significant issues that salmon face. They also conflict directly with treaty rights and tribal sovereignty. The state’s economy and population have grown at the expense of tribal communities and salmon.

We now must rely on hatcheries to prevent salmon extinction, preserve fishing opportunities for non-tribal citizens, and exercise the treaty rights that maintain our cultural identity. Hatcheries also are critical to the ecosystem.

Orcas and the multitude of other marine, aquatic and terrestrial species that rely on salmon as part of their diets do not distinguish between hatchery and natural-origin fish. Yet increasingly we see hatchery fish wrongly implicated in the decline of naturalorigin salmon and steelhead populations. A poor understanding of fisheries science and hatchery management proliferates these misconceptions.

The modern management of hatchery programs is supported by geneticists, veterinarians and statisticians. Fisheries biologists closely monitor salmon and steelhead populations, and the staggering volume of data they collect guides decisions on how to integrate hatcheries with other facets of natural resources management.

Hatcheries are an integral part of salmon recovery. They mitigate the historic and ongoing loss and degradation of salmon habitat caused by non-tribal entities and exacerbated by climate change. These are the primary causes of the decline of salmon. Meanwhile, hatcheries provide the vast majority of salmon that return to our region.

Those hatchery fish are treaty fish. We were promised in our treaties that we would always have salmon to harvest, and treaties are “Supreme Law of the Land,” according to the U.S. Constitution. Tribal members depend on salmon for ceremonial, subsistence, spiritual and commercial purposes.

Protecting salmon fisheries is paramount to ensuring treaty-reserved harvest in perpetuity, and the preservation of our heritage. We are salmon people and salmon are sacred to us. They are at the heart of our way of life.

While it is decades overdue, completing this first joint Co-Manager Hatchery Policy will be a strong signal that the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission affirms its legal obligations to co-manage the shared resource, as established in the 1974 Boldt decision and the Puget Sound Salmon Management Plan that followed. It is a step forward in salmon recovery using the best available science.

True co-management requires us to work in lockstep on all technical, policy and legal fronts to effectively manage and conserve salmon in perpetuity for all.

Lisa Wilson is a member of Lummi Indian Business Council and vice chair of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.