Originally Posted By: Carcassman
Too many people in WA support/push for the marine mixed stock fisheries. Ilwaco, Westport, Neah Bay, and so on inside, too.

Plus, i suspect that the tribes and feds still believe as they did in Hoh v. Baldridge, that we need the ocean fishery so the Tribe's can balance catches inside. As an example, let's say Hoh coho are forecast to return no harvestable. With no ocean fishery, the Tribe can't fish the river because the NI side has taken all available conservation measures. But, if there is coho mortality in the ocean, the Tribal fishery gets to balance impacts.

Plus, as we have seen by tribe; actions in PS, they don't want fisheries they can see (local). They will push for ocean fisheries and hope the NI's take all their harvest out there. That is the Perfect World.


I wondered for a long time why the Tribes never went after the open ocean fisheries, since they presumably account for a lot of fish the Tribes could be taking terminally. That Hoh v. Baldridge decision paints the picture pretty clearly, so thank you for that. Essentially, ocean fisheries provide justification for the Tribes to fish when the forecasting model says they shouldn't. Good tool to have in their box these days, I suppose.