Over the years, this piscatorial pursuit has had such a profound effect on my life that it's hard to imagine any aspect of my day-to-day activities that it has not touched. The anticipation of preparing for a fishing trip, the challenge of making the critters bite, the thrill of a hot fish on the other end of the line, the elation when a big wild platinum snow-belly comes to hand, the satisfaction of seeing it swim away, the beauty of the natural surroundings, the camaraderie, the fond memories forever etched in my mind... priceless.
Then there's the frustration of fish politics... made tolerable only by the sweet vindication that occurs in those rare instances where the fish actually win.
Chalk up one small victory for the fish.Thanks to Todd and slabhunter who both took time out of their busy lives to help me make the case for the chronic harvest abuses plaguing Grays Harbor.
Todd led off with a discussion about the circumstances that led to this year's gillnet fishery harvesting more than twice the non-treaty share of wild GH coho. The recipe of designing fishing schedules to purposely harvest into escapement, PLUS making flawed assumptions about the mark rate of the coho run, MULTIPLIED by grossly underestimating the harvest efficiency of the gillnet fleet, EQUALS way more dead wild coho than they ever planned on. He also made his case from the perspective of a small business owner dependent on robust sportfisheries.
Slabhunter echoed those points and highlighted the perils of managing these runs in isolation. A more comprehensive approach to managing ALL the basin's fish resources is needed. Instead a priority is given to HARVEST HARVEST HARVEST using the least sustainable non-selective methods to the detriment of the wild stocks.
I closed our testimony with a condensed briefing of the Tier Plan and how Region 6 has habitually deviated from the plan... again stressing the repeated pattern of setting seasons designed to fish into escapement for not just this year's coho but for Chehalis River chinook in 2006 and 2007.
I know I'm preaching to the choir on this board, and virtually all of these points were already discussed in the other thread.
But let me tell you that I've testified before the Commission about these very same issues twice before and was barely able to raise an eyebrow among the commissioners.
This year, for whatever reason, the message resonated LOUD and CLEAR! Not sure if it was the repetition, or if we finally made the case that these abuses are NOT just isolated events but rather an irresponsible pattern on the part of Region 6. All I know is that we hit it right outta the ball park with three solid home runs! It was nothing short of a grand slam.
Their body language was unmistakable... they were genuinely interested and at the same time dumbfounded and disgusted at what we had to present.
Instead of being dismissed at the sound of the three minute buzzer, each of us was met with eager questions asked out of the commissioners' desires to have a deeper understanding of the situation. We literally overwhelmed them with our data... of course all of it supported by the appropriate WDFW documents.
They asked WDFW staff to explain why Region 6 chooses to willfully fish into escapement. The state Fish Program Manager drew the short straw in having to defend WDFW from our allegations, but she was completely unprepared to refute what we had to present.
The bottom line is that the Commission initiated a "blue sheet"... their special lingo for directing WDFW to assemble the history and data needed for the commissioners to better digest this issue. Ultimately, it will be the topic of a formal scheduled agenda item at a subsequent Commission meeting where it will be fleshed out in a more comprehensive fashion, hopefully with provisions for additional public input.
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