Well,
Looks like the tribes conducted another full-blown fishery last night; taking around 4,500 fish but the sportsment will not get another fishery. In their first tribal fishery, they took over 4,000 fish. How many would you guess we took in the 4 weekends? (by the way of which the first two there were no Kings to speak of). I doubt if we took even 600. Hell, if it were open 24/7 for the whole month of August we couldn't even come close to taking 9,500 fish. Go figure. I guess the escapement goal just got thrown out the window. What a fine Fisheries Dept we have. Let's just let the Native Americans extinct the Green River run so no one will have to worry about the Endangered species act!

there you go the wdf has given in to the will of the tribes. they are gonna do just what they want to do.because this state has lost in every court.its a lost cause. the indians own comercial fishing in wa.lets face it.white comercial fishing is done in this state if we want a decent sport fishjery

This comes as no suprise, Govenor Locke and and the WDFW are all on the tribes payroll, it is just phucked up for all us sportee's. The NWIFC will continue to do business and resource miss use and abuse until it is all gone. I am sorry!!!
Peace Superfly :

I got a question for anybody who might have an answer. Here goes, do the tribes pay anything to all the hatchery programs we have in this state? All us non-native people pay through our fishing licences etc. Plus most of our fish now of are hatchery origin. We have to let native fish go but I know by being a commercial fisherman in Alaska for the past 20 years that gill nets don't descriminate on what they catch be it hatchery or native fish. Don't the natives make enough money off their casino's and from goverment subsideries. It's a joke and a dirty shame. Up in Alaska the indians have the same rights as the non natives when it comes to commercial fishing with the exception of subsistence fishing. Also where I fish if the fish are not there we don't fish, plain and simple. Enough said. All I have left to say is ban all nets and fish on to all!!!!!!!!!!

Steeli Dave -

The natives run the Coho hatchery that comes back into the Elliot bay .
I , once thought that this fishery was owned and runed by the Tax payers but it is actually set up by the tribal fisheries.
I don't like all the netting they did last year in elliot bay but even with the nets it was pretty good. lot of the hatchery Coho's died in the saltwater in november just washing up on the beach and crab bait. They have no river to spawn and alot of them were spawning in the salt.

I want to know where you were commercial fishing in Alaska , where non-natives had just as much rights as Natives when it came to commercial fishing? It may look like it but it is not the case. I find this hard to believe since I am in the industry (no longer on the boats but in the industry) , and has not been the case for the last 10 years. The natives have most of the boats comming from seattle in a headlock.

On a positive outlook.
As some of you may know that Sockeye prices were deeply affected this year for the the commercial fishermen. Average going for reds $0.40 cents a pound.

The reason for this drop was that the Japanese deceided not to buy Alaskan Sockeye and chums, (later on this seasonfor the Chums) this year , or very little.
Rather the Japenese who buy majority of commercial fish decedied to buy the Farm raised Salmon from Chli.
Whith this news a lot of guys are in finacial trouble and are forced to sell there gear and in some cases their permit.
But not the natives, majority of them will continue to fish regardless of the price.

Everybody on this board is wanting to ban nets, and this is one way of slowing down the nets. Buy the farm fish, and if you have the money buy the the permit for some of the S.E. alaska , because these permits are no longer issued (in sone zones and species) and a lot of them are grand fathered in. Destroy or not use the permit and it is one less net in the water.

[ 08-17-2001: Message edited by: Aerofly ]

Sporties had two whole weekends on Elliot Bay, six days, to fish while the tribes (Suquamish and Muckleshoot) had two 12 hour openings the last two Wednesdays. 18,000 sports fisherman catching only 600 fish? Come on.

jonnybull,

Well that IS THE QUESTION! How does the state and designated parties ESTIMATE what the catch is?

When this is made public, then we will know for sure what assumptions are being made on behalf of sportsman.

600? 6000? Don't know. Who does?

But clearly, if you've been following the Elliot bay saga over the last few years, the sport catch is not 50% of the allowable. NO WAY!

Ok, here's my understanding of it. The tribe and the state sit down during North of Falcon and estimate what kind of run there will be this year, and how many fish need to go up the Duwamish to make sure they is a healthy population in the next 4-5 years. At that point, they start deciding how when and how long each party gets to fish.

The state, this year, got several fisheries on the SDJ, Admiralty Inlet, Puget Sound and at the terminal at Elliot Bay that impact Elliot Bay Chinook.

The tribes got two days at the bay and river. Both openings started at 8p and lasted until 8a. The overnight fishery was to get the chinook when they run at night.

You're right, sports fishers did not get what the state expected them to last weekend, but that wasn't because the effort wasn't there, they just weren't catching fish. The first sport opening was also before the first tribal opening: sport on the weekend, then tribal in the week, another sport, then tribal. This means the sport fishers got the first crack at the salmon while they were nice and white.

Also, every fish in the tribal catch is counted, because they're sold. Commercial catch is always easier to account for because someone has to sign a fish ticket to legally sell. Sport on the other hand, is estimated by the state through spot checks.

Jonny, Jonny, Jonny. Having spent 15 years as a commnercial boat owner/operator I am here to tell you the commercials don't report all the fish they catch. I know this is hard for you to believe but it's true.

Now are they counted before they even leave the boat or are they counted by the paperwork that gets filled out before they are sold legally... now I'm sure they are all honest and wouldn't sell them out of the back of a pickup or on the black market.

[ 08-17-2001: Message edited by: The Bremalo ]

This comes as no suprise, Govenor Locke and and the WDFW are all on the tribes payroll, it is just phucked up for all us sportee's. The NWIFC will continue to do business and resource miss use and abuse until it is all gone. I am sorry!!!
Peace Superfly :

Hey AeroFly-

Do you know if the natives build the hatcheries with their own resorces, or are they all handed over to them to "manage"?

[ 08-17-2001: Message edited by: SlabQuest ]

Slabquest, rhetoric at it's best. Indeed, the casinos didn't pay for them.