New poster here, thanks for all you have educated me on the past several years. I sent my support to the director. Although I'd love to fish this year, I'd rather see us become independent of the tribes ESA permits.

Hope it helps to hear from common folk

"Director Unsworth, I heard a news report yesterday that the department and tribes were close on a settlement regarding PS salmon fishing. I fully support your previous position and standing fast for the non-tribal interests. I urge you to not give away the farm during these negotiations, even if it means putting a hold on fishing for the season. No one person or group in our society should hold all the cards, unfortunately a good majority of the deck seems to be given away in the treaty's of the 1850's. Unfortunately Governor Stevens didn't seem to fully understand what he was giving away or fore sight to see the rapid depletion of fish from over harvest and waste (started by non-tribal in the late 1800's and continues to this day by both sides.) All anyone at the time could see was fish forever, unfortunately we did not learn from the decimation of the buffalo herds or many others that was taking place during the time. I'm sure that what we have today as co-managers is not what was intended by the authors of the treaties. I fully support your stance in this matter and hope that you continue to stand your ground and let the tribes know that they need to give as much as they take.
Regardless of the outcome of this current stalemate (I use that term loosely as the tribes do not seem to be affected much at all, and seem to have been well prepared for this situation), I hope that you continue to pursue our own permits/authorization from NOAA so that we are independent of the tribes and are not reliant on piggybacking on their permits as co-managers. Surely everyone agrees that NOF process is broken and we should never allow ourselves to be in this situation again.
When NOAA is evaluating NT fishing they should be made well aware that sport fishers are required to go to great lengths to avoid lethal impacts on ESA fish through run timing, barb-less hooks , non removal from water and selective gear rules and commercial fishers impacts are limited through gear rules, run timing, and recovery boxes. NT fishers are closely monitored by on board monitors on the commercial side and enforcement officers (as well as fellow sport fishers) on the rec side.
In contrast tribal fishers use gill nets that kill everything, wild and hatchery, for most of their commercial fishing and their "sports fishers" regularly use weighted treble hooks. The enforcement is self reporting with very little monitoring. Both sides should have the ability to closely monitor each other if we are ever going to be able to co-manage the resource.

Thanks for considering my thoughts,"