It's getting stale here, so just for fun, take a look into

A glimpse into the not so distant future:

A Puget Sound wild steelhead population averaging 4,500 fish annually and a spawning escapement goal of 4,000. Presently the river is closed to fishing for wild steelhead because they are listed as threatened under the ESA. Despite protection from not just over-fishing, but protection from any fishing, and a host of habitat protections and improvement projects, there is no credible evidence to suggest the population will increase significantly anytime soon, if ever.

The easy alternative is to continue the status quo. Nobody fishes. The run is making escapement, but the recruits per spawner (R/S) equals 1 to 1.125. The population is not and will not increase to any larger abundance. But human nature being what it is – insert your favorite adjectives, greedy, self-absorbed, responsive to constituents, etc. – fishery managers see some potential opportunity. A catch-and-release (CNR) sport fishery could produce significant social and economic opportunity without impacting the escapement, provided total exploitation and incidental mortality is less than 250 steelhead. The local treaty Indian Tribe isn’t interested in a targeted fishery on steelhead where the treaty harvest share is 250 fish. The Tribe is interested in fishing for hatchery spring chinook, which they are being prevented from fishing because of the conservation protection for the ESA-listed steelhead.

WDFW and the Tribe collaborate to develop a management plan that will continue to conserve wild steelhead by achieving the spawning goal of 4,000 and incidentally take no more than an average of 500 steelhead combined in the treaty chinook fishery and the non-treaty recreational steelhead CNR fishery. It seems easy enough. The Tribe proposes to fish for chinook with gillnets 2 days/week beginning with the onset of the spring chinook run, which in this case is March 15 until they have taken 250 steelhead, at which point their fishery closes.

WDFW proposes that the recreational CNR fishery run from February 1 – April 30, inclusive, spanning the timing window of the wild steelhead run, prior to the onset of significant spawning activity in May. The Tribe protests because the collaborative analysis reveals that the recreational fishery would have an estimated CNR catch of 80% of the run, meaning the expected average recreational catch would be 3,600 wild steelhead. No one disputes that the recreational anglers will catch 80% of the run, what with the WA state human population having well eclipsed 7 million people and is well on its way to 8 million, and with anglers and guides operating 20’+ sled with 4 to 8 anglers/boat pounding every piece of holding water for 3months straight. The 80% might be a conservative estimate, what with steelhead willing to hit bait and lures repeatedly and be caught multiple times.

The co-manager’s collaboration hits a snag. WDFW and NMFS had been using a conservative value of 10% incidental mortality applied to recreational fishing where wild or unmarked fish are required to be released. The estimated 360 incidental recreational steelhead mortalities puts the sport fishery over its allocation. Further, the Tribe, which doesn’t believe it’s proper to play with food, asserts for policy reasons that incidental mortality of sport-fishing released fish is 100%. The issue is clouded with recent research indicating that incidental mortality of released steelhead is less than 5%, but that if offset by other research suggesting the female steelhead caught and released multiple times have decreased egg viability. And so it goes.

Without an agreement, there is no fishing plan. Without a plan, NMFS doesn’t approve fishing by anyone, although the Tribe is in the driver’s seat because their side of the proposal is that they will stop fishing when their incidental take reaches 250 wild steelhead. WDFW is under pressure from sport fishing organizations that want the longest fishing season possible, knowing that a conventional harvest season is never going to be a choice because wild steelhead productivity is so low.

The impasse can be avoided if WDFW agrees to regulate the recreational fishery such that the total recreational catch does not exceed 2,125 wild steelhead, which with incidental mortalities would range from 107 to 213 fish, both under the 250 non-treaty allocation. WDFW needs to figure out how to keep the recreational catch under 2,125. WDFW puts a draft plan out for public comment. Here are some of the comments received:

1. Open Feb. 1- Apr. 30 because a sport fishery is never as efficient as a net fishery. “Nuff said.”
2. Open Feb. 1 – Apr. 30, Wed. through Sat. only, selective rules (single barbless hook, artificial lures only), reducing the 80% catch to 2,057.
3. Open Feb. 1 – Apr. 30, no fishing from a boat, reducing the 80% catch to 1,200.
4. Open Feb. 1 – Apr. 30, fly fishing greased line only while wearing a silk ascot and tweed jacket, reducing 80% catch to statistically not different from zero.

In a region where human population growth is uncontrolled, and the healthiest steelhead populations won’t support any significant harvest and only limited incidental mortalities, some choices have to be made about sport fishing, if there will be any. Fishing can only occur if fish per angler encounters are significantly reduced. My real point here is to learn what you would choose in order that there might be recreational fishing for steelhead. Would you just quit and stay home? Would you give up side drifting/free drifting/boondogging/plug pulling and fish off your feet from the bank, where on weekends there are more anglers than rocks to stand on? I created this example to illustrate the very real possibility that angler –fish encounters must be reduced when there are too many of us and we are collectively too efficient for the best populations that the remaining Puget Sound habitat can produce.

Enjoy.

Sg