G-Man,

Here's a quick, simplified, hypothetical rundown of how the North of Falcon allocation process works...I wrote this in a thread a few months ago, but couldn't find it with the search function, so here goes again...

Assume there are 10,000 hatchery kings returning to the Nooksack, and that the hatchery needs 6,000. That leaves 4,000 for harvest, 2,000 for treaty fishers and 2,000 for non-treaty fishers (that's sportsmen and commercials).

Those kings are all over the Pacific Ocean during their rearing, and the fish managers actually have a pretty good idea of where they go and are at specific times.

So......there's a king fishery at Buoy 10. Of the thousands of kings there this summer, a very small percentage of them are Nooksack River fish that are passing through as the fishery takes place. Say it's 0.1%. If 25,000 fish are caught at B10, then mathematically that means that 25 of them are Nooksack River fish.

At the Westport fishery, 0.25% of the chinooks there are Nooksack fish. If another 15,000 kings are caught there, then 38 of them are Nooksack fish.

In Sekiu, another 78 Nooksack fish are caught in the sport fishery, and another 265 of them are caught incidentally by commercial fishers.

Throughout the Straits another 150 are caught by sporties, and another 375 are caught in commercial nets.

As the fish pass through the San Juans, another 165 are caught by sporties, and another 295 are caught by commercials.

When the fish hit Bellingham Bay, 69 more are caught by sportfishers, and 485 are caught by commercial fishermen.

When the fish enter the river, there are now 8055 fish left in the run.

Six thousand go to the hatchery, 2,000 go to the treaty fishermen.

That leaves 55. And 55 fish is not enough to open a season for.

As I mentioned, this is very simplified, not to mention that all the numbers I used are completely made up. However, it is how fish are allocated.

During the North of Falcon negotiations (check WDFW web page for dates and places; they're all over the west coast), everyone wants to have a season where they want to fish, and whoever makes the biggest stink gets the most fish.

Not participating to some extent in the NoF meetings and then complaining about the allocation is a lot like complaining about the government when you don't vote.

If you have allocation issues...then they're definitely not with the tribes. They get their half, and they get it right there where they fish on the Nooksack, or out at Lummi Rocks. "Your" share has been caught by other sport fishermen all over the state, and by commercial fishermen throughout Puget Sound and the Straits of Juan de Fuca.

I hope this clears it up some.

Fish on...

Todd.

BTW, as Gary pointed out above, participation in the meetings does work. It might take a couple of years to get with the swing of how it works, but the Sky Valley Chapter of TU, through local guide and chapter member Sam Ingram, singlehandedly secured a sport fishery for clipped summer chinook on the Skykomish River this summer by going and holding their hands up every time they asked "who wants to fish?".