Here is the response I got from my fax to the Mill Creek office...Funny how they dont talk about the wild fish killed in these systems every year...as I said...GROSS mismanagement.

FROM: Curt Kraemer, District Fish Biologist

SUBJECT: Spring steelhead season in the North Puget Sound Region.

Received your recent letter regarding the closure of the spring catch and release seasons on the Snohomish and Stillaguamish. Hopefully the information listed below will answer most of your questions. If you have addition questions feel free to contact me at the Mill Creek office, (425) 775-1311 ext 101.

The forecasts for the wild winter steelhead returning to the Skagit, Stillaguamish and Snohomish River systems this winter (2000/2001) are the lowest on record. These forecasts represent a continuing downward trend in overall steelhead survival in the North Puget Sound region. Last year both the overall wild run size and the spawning escapements for all three river systems were the lowest seen since before 1980. This year's forecasted run sizes are well below established escapement goals, see Table 1.

Table 1: North Puget Sound Wild Winter Steelhead Forecast

River Escapement 2000 2001 Run size
System Goal Escapement Forecast
Skagit 6,000 3,780 2,400
Snohomish 6,500 2,790 4,600
Stillaguamish,
(N.F. above Deer Creek) 950 463 700


The poor returns in the 1999/2000 season are due in large part to declining marine survival that has been noted over the last decade throughout the Puget Sound area. Studies conducted on the Keogh River on the northeast tip of Vancouver Island have shown a decline in average smolt to adult wild winter steelhead survival from 15% in the 1980s to less than 3% in the 1990s. Similar declines have been noted on the east coast of Vancouver Island, the lower mainland of British Columbia as well as the Puget Sound region for both hatchery and wild winter steelhead. Even though the fish returning in 1999/2000 were generally from escapements at or above goal, the poor marine survival contributed to the poor overall runs. For example the total estimated run that returned to the Snohomish system last year was only about 3,000 fish, even though the escapements of the parent years were more than twice that level.

The composition of each year's run of wild steelhead can be thought of being made up of three general components: repeat spawners from the previous year, age 5 fish returning mostly after spending 3 summers at sea (3-salts), and age 4 fish returning mostly after spending 2 summers at sea (2-salts). The poor returns during the 1999/2000 season means that it is likely that there will not be very many repeat spawners (normally about 15% of the previous years escapement) or 5 year old fish (generally less than ½ of a brood year returns as age 5 fish). With the expected poor contribution of repeat spawners and age 5 fish to these runs it would take a return to better than average marine survival conditions for the age 4 fish (smolts in 1999) to have even a remote chance of meeting the escapement for these river systems. Smolt trapping in the Skagit basin indicates that the survival of the 1997 brood year (this season's age 4 fish) was below average. This likely was influenced by the unusually high flows experienced in local rivers during late May of 1997, which is thought to have limited the survival of the eggs spawned that spring.


The co-managers (state and tribes) felt that it was necessary to take management actions that would minimize the incidental take of wild steelhead. This will mean restrictions on both the recreational and commercial fisheries. The focus of both fisheries will be directed towards the early returning hatchery steelhead. Tribal fisheries managers have agreed to concentrate their fisheries during the early season when the vast majority of the catch will be hatchery fish. The Stillaguamish tribal in-river fishery will be completed by the end of December. The Tulalip area 8 fishery is scheduled to be completed by the 6th of January. The concentration of these fisheries early in the winter period has been very successful in the past in reducing the catch of wild winter steelhead. Given the expected tribal effort, these seasons are expected to have less than a 5% impact on the wild resource.

In the case when the expected wild steelhead run is well below the escapement objective, Department policies (the Wild Salmonid Policy and the Draft Steelhead Management Plan) call for the planning of no recreational fisheries that would target wild steelhead. To harvest the co-mingled hatchery fish the policies require that recreational fisheries fish under a wild steelhead release schedule, that is only hatchery steelhead may be kept. Hatchery steelhead are identified by missing adipose or ventral fins and a healed scar in the location of the missing fin. Based on these policies "wild steelhead release" will be in effect throughout the Skagit, Snohomish, and Stillaguamish River systems during this winter season. These rules will be in effect from December 1 through the end of February. By the end of February virtually all the winter hatchery steelhead will have been either caught or spawned thus few hatchery fish would be available after this time. With the wild runs expected to be below escapement needs and few winter hatchery fish available during the spring period all areas of the river systems will be closed to all fishing during the spring (March 1 through May 31). This will included the very popular spring "catch and release" seasons on all three systems. As with the tribal seasons the expect impacts on the wild stocks will be less than 5%.