Here's the Tribune's coverage of the WDFW hearings in Pt. Townsend last week.

Major congratulations to the participants in the PSA Crab Allocation Protest.

I'll make my other comment after the article...

Steelhead, crab dominate hearing
JEFFREY P. MAYOR; The News Tribune

The steelheaders want an end to catching and keeping the state's wild steelhead.

The crabbers want an increase in the recreational crabbing allocation.


The boaters - guides and private owners alike - want to kill a proposed prohibition of powerboats on stretches of the Wynoochee and Satsop rivers.


Those were the common themes as dozens of people testified to the State Fish and Wildlife Commission on Saturday in Port Townsend. The commission was hearing comments on the proposed fishing regulation changes for the 2004-2005 season.


Saturday was the last day to submit oral or written comments on the proposals. The commission is scheduled to vote on the final recommendations at its meeting in February.


The most visible group was made up of the crabbers, who stood outside the USO Hall meeting site, waving signs reading, "We crab, we fish, we vote."


Gary Hulsey, president of the East Jefferson Chapter of Puget Sound Anglers and one of the organizers, said recreational crabbers want their share of the record bounty in the Sound.


A 1997 court decision mandates the crab harvest be split 50-50 between the state and Washington's tribes. The issue for the crabbers is the allocation of the state's 50 percent take, Hulsey said.


"Right now, we're going through record crab numbers, and the sport season in the last two years has dwindled from months to weeks," Hulsey said.


"After you take out the state commercial crabbers and the tribes, we get 15.4 percent of the harvest," the Port Townsend resident said.


Doug Williams of the Department of Fish and Wildlife said the state has traditionally split its portion of the Puget Sound harvest at 65 percent for commercial crabbers and 35 percent for recreational crabbing.


"It's just a question of increased pressure on a finite resource," Williams said.


Before the meeting and before the commission, Hulsey said the estimated 150,000 recreational crabbers on the Sound far outnumber the 250 commercial crabbers. He also said the value of the recreational industry is valued at $50 million, outpacing the $6.3 million value of the state's commercial harvest.


"We feel recreational crabbing is a subsistence crabbing, and a Washington State heritage, and that should be the priority," Hulsey said.


The protest was informational and not related to a specific proposal. The crab harvest quotas are not set in the fishing regulations.


"The split in the non-treaty allocation isn't written in stone anywhere; it's essentially the historical split between commercial and recreational fleets," Williams said.


"Up until recently, the split provided for a full-season recreational fishery. It's only been the past few years where sport crabbers had their seasons closed early because they had reached their quota or had gone over. Those early closures have come because of increased participation in the recreational fleet and increased harvest rates," he said.


Release all wild steelhead


For steelhead anglers, the issue was a regulation not among the 104 the state is considering - a statewide rule requiring all wild steelhead to be released.


"We can only be described as outraged that this item was not put on this list," said Bill Redmond of the Federation of Fly Fishers' steelhead committee.


"The harvest of wild steelhead is still supported by this department on 16 rivers," said Jack Berryman, president of the Wild Steelhead Coalition. "How can you kill the wild steelhead seeds and expect the species to survive?"


As part of his testimony, Berryman gave each commissioner a copy of "King of Fish: The Thousand Year Run of Salmon," written by David R. Montgomery, a professor of geological sciences at the University of Washington.


Another member of the coalition, Nate Mantua said the state's policies should make ecosystem management the priority, echoing the views of Montgomery in his book.


"Management philosophies and principles are geared toward harvest," Mantua said. "Everything in the system is important."


Jeff Koenings, director of the department, said he certainly understands the fervor to protect steelhead.


"It's one of the icons of the Pacific Northwest. It's like the orca," he said. "It's almost like a religion. There's a real interest in keeping steelheading going."


Koenings doesn't agree, however, with the call to eliminate the harvesting of all wild steelhead.


"Our position is where you have healthy runs, you should have the opportunity to catch and keep a wild steelhead," the director said.


"It's not a case of one size fits all in terms of regulations," Koenings said.


Powerboat prohibition


The proposal that drew the most comments was the one to make it illegal to fish from a boat with a motor on the Wynoochee River above the city of Aberdeen's water intake dam and on the Satsop River and Middle Fork Satsop above the confluence of the East and West forks.


Albert Carter, a Grays Harbor County commissioner, said that group has gone on record opposing the closure.


"This will have a financial impact on not only guides but the county itself," Carter said. "This seems to be an issue between user groups."


Jeffrey P. Mayor 253-597-8640


jeff.mayor@mail.tribnet.com


Also on the table


Among the 104 rule changes being considered by the commission are:


• Keeping salmon and steelhead anglers from taking their catch out of the water if anglers are required to release the fish.


• A ban on the use of treble hooks in Marine Areas 1-13.


• Extending the closed area for catch-and-release fishing on over-sized sturgeon in the Columbia River, and requiring tags for sturgeon.


What's next


• Now until January: Department of Fish and Wildlife staff will review the oral and written comments and consider changes in the proposed rule changes for the 2004-2005 fishing season.


• Feb. 6-7: The commission will vote on the proposed rules at its meeting in Olympia.


• May 1: New rules will take effect.


(Published 12:01AM, December 11th, 2003)


Back to my comments...I don't necessarily agree with Dr. Koening's comment regarding having kill fisheries over healthy populations, but I think that his comment further begs the ultimate question, which is "Do we have truly healthy populations of wild steelhead".

All of the regression models show that not only do we not have really healthy populations, even on the OP, but that they also have been steadily declining when looked at as a whole, rather than trying to look at a few years of good runs as a successful management result.

While I don't expect a different comment from someone who wants to kill wild steelhead, or from someone who chooses not to, but doesn't want to be told not to, but to hear it from the Director, who is himself a PhD and has been in the field for a long time, is both discouraging and encouraging.

Discouraging because I expect a better recognition of prevailing science, and encouraging because there are still roads out there to walk, and folks who believe in WSR are willing to keep on walkin'.

Fish on...

Todd.