FFF

I will take your sarcastic post for what it is, a sarcastic jab at something you know little about. No big deal.

What my references to the tribes boil down to is not that we can't catch enough Sockeye because of them. It is simply an accountability question. The Muckleshoots have done alot for the Sockeye in Lake Washington but it is the tax and license money that pays for all of it. The $120,000.00 in the budget for WDFW enforcement specifically during the Sockeye sports fishery was generated by citizens of Washington via their taxes. The tribes don't pay taxes. That money was funded based on a projected sports season of one week, not two days. The tribes are entitled by treaty to 50% of the harvestable stocks of Sockeye in Lake Washington even though those fish did not exist in 1855 when the treaties were signed. The run was planted almost 100 years later. So they are "co-managers" who jointly with WDFW determine when we get to fish and how many fish can be harvested.

You don't see them fish because they start at 11Pm and are off the water and away from the TV cameras by sunup. The fish piled in pick truck beds and trailers are not out in the open like the kids and parents on King 5 News. My point is that they can fish in front of the locks where the thousands of salmon caught are not counted and they can fish in the canal at night without enforcement or accountability. No enforcement swarms all over them when they return to the docks...no counts... No publicity for how many they harvest. The other item to consider is that the Muckelshoots have a contract with Safeway to sell fresh Sockeye and the contract stipulated July 13th as the first day of sale. That stipulation in the contract was inked well in advance of the decisions announced as to the opening of the seasons for sports and tribes. The meetings that were held to determine the season timing were heralded as taking run size and escapement into account but how can that be so if the tribal gill net fishery was set so far in advance?

So in conclusion it is an issue of accountability. Sports fishers are scrutinized with a fine toothed comb while the tribes are on their own with no accountability to anyone but themselves. In this day and age of severe cutbacks in all fisheries it is imperative that all user groups are equally accountable. That is not an unreasonable demand. Go ahead and take 50% of everything but stand up and be counted like we are. Simple....