Frankly - he sounded like an idiot without a clue. He didn't put together a single articulate line of thought in that entire interview. Completely unqualified to negotiate on our behalf in my opinion. New or not, how can he go into a major negotiation and not know his numbers or be ready with a plan "B"? I'd be fired if I tried to explain the negative results of my negotiations to my boss as lamely as he did.
I had to listen to the show to hear what you folks did. Well not having a huge knowledge of PS I listened to what he was saying and not what I wanted to hear. His description of both tribal & WDF&W staff talking past each other is right on. The process critique also was pretty much on the mark also. So I always try to look through the others eyes and if I was him Holy sh-- comes to mind. Being a newbie he went forward with staff leading the way and had a vertical learning curve. What he was part of is a typical WDF&W thought process of you tribes we WDF&W and all hell broke loose.
I think the only upside is the recognition that with the projected ocean conditions numbers will only get worse. So next year it will be even more difficult but at least he has seen the WDF&W way in the recent past under Anderson at work. I doubt if he will go there again.
As I wrote earlier he was facing his first NOF cluster which is why Anderson was there to help guide him through the process - and we can see how that worked out. I sincerely hope that this has been a learning experience and that he has the managerial skills to avoid a repeat.
As to WDFW and the co-managers talking past one another I simply don't buy that explanation. We've had those fisheries for a couple of years now and the tribes have fought their existence each NOF so why should WDFW have thought this year was going to be different? This was simply lack of preparation and anticipation with no Plan B. (Correspondingly, refer to the PnP ramp resistance)
But after all of that and being scheduled for this program and with all of the adverse reaction he should have been far better prepared to answer for his actions regarding the P.S. marked selective fishery. The hosts were actually quite polite; almost too much so.
Now, what he did mention was that no one apparently had worked out one or more scenarios as to what might happen if the WDFW and the other co-managers could not come to an agreement. Would NOAA not issue a permit thereby precluding ALL Chinook harvest? Or would the Tribal fisheries continue while the rest of us sit on the beach? Or would NOAA take all the information available to them and play Solomon?
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