"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.

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I made sure to hide away the quote when they finally close the Hoh and the big Q down one day, to remind everyone by failing to be proactive now and our continued arrogance will be the resources demiss.

From the Port Townsend Testimony-

Jack Berryman, WSC Past President, spoke of the Historical Failure of Salmonids Management and warned to let us learn from history and not repeat historical failures while we still have a chance. Jack presented each Commission member and WDFW Director Koenings on behalf of the WSC a copy of the just released book by David Montgomery, King of Fish: 1000 Year Run of Salmon. (suggested reading for all)

Peter Dorn, WSC VP Fundraising, testified about Failed Steelhead Escapements. Peter presented information that the Hoh River on the Olympic Peninsula, which is deemed one of healthy rivers for harvest of wild steelhead, failed to meet its spawning escapement last year. In fact, last year the Hoh fell below its escapement needs by 800 fish and the WDFW is still proposing a kill fishery on this great NW steelhead stream.

Dick Burge, WSC VP Conservation and Nate Mantua, VP of Science and Education provided the State of Steelhead Resource and Biological Diversity. Dick and Nate provided compelling and sound scientific reasons for protecting of biodiversity and run timing in steelhead waters. They also provided evidence from the first years landing data since the 5 fish limit was instituted that this new limit has not reduced the kill of wild fish. As example, while the Quillayute escapement was declining from 12,500 to 11,200 fish last season, the sport kill increased from 1790 to 1930 wild steelhead. Anecdotal observations suggest sport fishers and guide trips have increased considerably following the closure of the other Washington and Oregon areas and are taking more wild fish. The reduced limit regulation in this case has not effected the reduction of the overall kill rate of wild steelhead and in fact the rate has gone up! Dick and Nate again presented the Commission and WDFW Director a copy of the WSC paper entitled Biological and Economic Effects of Wild Steelhead Release.