NWP,

Glad you enjoy the discussion. If you're following it closely, you'll see that nets are not a part of this equation. I'm not aware of ANY net fisheries targeting or even significantly incidentally catching Stilly chinook.


GBL,

I've lived in WA 59 years and have been working in fisheries since 1976. The difference I see between us is that you seem to let your feelings about certain fishing activities color your interpretation of facts. I try to let the data speak for itself.

Sure there are net fisheries in the Straits and terminal areas, but they are not 24/7/365. The Straits and PS have been closed to net fishing when the preponderance of Stilly chinook are passing through since the late 70s or early 80s. While gillnetting certainly contributes to some conservation problems, I can't point my finger at any gillnet fishery as either a proximate or secondary cause for the declining abundance of Stillaguamish chinook. If you some data other than your emotionally enhanced general observations, I'm completely open to a different interpretation of how Stilly chinook arrived at their present status. If you examine data, rather than your feelings, I think you'll find that Stilly chinook harvests occur primarily in BC sport and commercial fisheries that WA and the Stilly Tribe have no control over. The only practical way to extend further harvest protection to Stilly chinook in WA waters is to close all sport and commercial fishing in salt water, and frankly, that is not a practical solution - at this time.

Pug,

The public shows repeatedly that salmon are an important icon of the PNW. And in support of that icon, WA citizens and politicians express the highest quality lip service and even millions of $$ toward salmon recovery. Unfortunately, the vast majority remain unwilling to accept the kinds of hard choices necessary to actually recover salmon. People don't want to give up urban sprawl or single occupant vehicles or Walmart supermalls. People want to fund one habitat improvement project for every nine or ten state, local, and federal gov't. approved habitat degradation projects and believe they are making a positive difference when it isn't. Virtually all hard data, exclusive of emotions like GBL and others express, point to habitat as the variable most limiting the natural production of salmon and steelhead.

That is exactly the case with Stilly chinook. Massive erosion from forest practices has degraded and in many cases eliminated the habitat conditions chinook require to successfully hold as pre-spawners, spawn, incubate, and rear in freshwater prior to emigration to Port Susan. There is no quick fix. Stopping sport and commercial fishing for 5 or 6 years is meaningless, as few Stilly chinook are harvested in such fisheries in WA anyway. The habitat of the Stilly will stabilize and improve over time. I haven't a clue as to how long that might be.

The commercial bailout you suggest is unnecessary, as the non-treaty commercial fisheries that used to target returning PS chinook have been closed for many years, and are unlikely to ever resume. No one in WA makes a living commercial fishing for salmon in WA anymore and most likely never will again. You needn't worry about taking the food off a commercial fisherman's table. He's doing something else these days and fishes part time or as a hobby.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.