This is a very sad deal!!! From what i understand the tribes presented this fishery at the very last minute at the North of Falcon meetings creating quite a upstir... Seems that it not only will be going on in the skagit river but in the bay as well and it's a gill net fisherey with a Bycatch qouto of 7000 Chinnook.. Would be nice if a repersenative that attended the NOF meetings coulg fill us in on all exacts.
Just to clarify a bit, the Skagit sockeye fishery was part of the tribes' original proposal at North of Falcon. At the first joint NOF meeting in March, the co-managers tabled it for later discussion, so that may be why there was the perception it was introduced at the last minute.
You're absolutely right, the fishery does have a bay component with a bycatch ceiling for chinook. Like all fisheries (tribal, non-tribal, etc...), impacts from this fishery were accounted for in the decision-making process. In terms of impacts on Stilly fish, the breakdown
of tribal to non-tribal impacts is something along the lines of 27 percent tribal and the rest non-tribal. I can get specific numbers if you want.
It’s been more than 30 years since Swinomish had a sockeye fishery here, and this fishery is the result of many years of enhancement efforts by the tribes and Seattle City Light that have increased the return to Baker Lake.
You can see the entire list of agreed-to fisheries at
http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/tribal/2008-09agreement.pdfIf you have questions, feel free to call WDFW, or the individual tribes. Each tribe has a hotline with up-to-date information about their fisheries: 360-466-4112 (Swinomish and Sauk-Suiattle); 360-854-7095 (Upper Skagit).
~~~~~~~
Kari Neumeyer
North Sound Information Officer
Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
360-424-8226
kneumeyer@nwifc.org
www.nwifc.org 
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