If it was the Queets then there is a very good chance that the sled with a white container was engaged in the annual fall chinook broodstock collection program.

This goes to show why folks should think about things and ask questions before jumping to conclusions.

The Quinaults have been conducting one of the few wild indictaor stock programs under the Pacific Salmon Commission. Approximately 60 pair of Queets fall chinook are captured each year and held until spawned. The goal is to produce 200,000 coded wire tagged smolts. This program has been going on for about 20 years. The data generated from the recovery of coded wire tags is used by managers to determine the migration range of Queets wild fall chinook, their contribution to various fisheries, and after the spawning escapement data is made available, exploitation rates are determined. Data from the Queets is used to make inferences about other coastal WA fall chinook stocks.

All in all, an extremely valuabe and important project. Sleds have been utilized on the Queets, in the Park, for every one of these 20 or more years... strictly for this project. It takes a tote half full of water and charged with O2 for the adults to be transfered to the trucking site... not something a drift biat is well suited for.

Again, a very important project. Imagine that, a tribe being responsible for an international fisheries management research project for the past 20 years. Who'd have thunk it???