Hot off the WDFW presses.

You can read the full details at:

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/regs/wild_steelhead_moratorium_ces.htm

MB

I just got that e-mail also... In short, it says the tribes have you all by the balls so just live in it and like it.. Its one of the most pathetic cop outs I have ever read

It limits the take of Wild Steelhead which is a step in the right direction.

If I read you guys correctly, did'nt the tribes say they were going to go ahead and snap up what was left of your old share ??? So in effect, by recinding the moratorium... the fish you were trying to save are now going to be gill netted ??? Or have the tribes agreed to keeping things at past levels. Did you guys just spend a dollar to lose a dime ???

Actually, a dime was spent and the dollar was lost.

I may be incorrect, but my understanding is that the tribes have stated they will net the other 4 fish that the sportsmen aren't able to keep. Our take goes down, theirs goes up.

But that's just my understanding. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

MB

Mike and others, the Hoh tribe has reached a settlement with WDFW that certainly looks, feels, and smell like Foregone Opportunity. It only affects the Hoh River. However, this concept (FO) has never been judged by the Courts. If some of the other tribes claim FO, I would love to see it go to court. I'm tired of caving in to straw men. Let's get a decision and move on.

The tribal card was inevitable. In the debate preceeding this decision I brought up the tribal issue as the trump card which would essentially negate all the feel good aspects of the moratorium. I pointed out , as I do now, that the tribes essentially run our fisheries and we are so afraid to go to court that we cave every time. We do for good reason as we lose in court every time. So many here on this BB would rationalize by saying that we, the sportsmen, need to set the example and that after we did that the tribes would be so embarassed that they would follow our lead.
WRONG....In fact, Ed, I think you espoused that line of thinking if I am not mistaken. Good wishful thinking but not sound if you take history into account.

The tribes have been increasing their access to all of our fisheries for over 20 years. Each year the take is greater and the arrogance is more widespread. I say arrogance because usually the tribes feel they always have vetop power and do not generally discuss matters like we do. They wait until the end and do what suits them which means we adjust our policies to suit them. This goes in spades for the crab fishing,too. A super dismal season for sports crabbers and a 24/7 bonanza for the tribes.

All one needs to do is try to document how many salmon, steelhead, crab, geoduck, sea urchins, deer , elk and every other marketable species the tribes harvest. Go ahead...get the information and post it here. WRONG. Ask WDFW for the information. They won't go near that issue. So the tribes see all of this way differently than the sports folks. To them a wild steelhead is big bucks. To you it is a beautiful thing in danger of extinction. So they will net every last one of them on every river with no regard to the extinction of the species.

So go ahead and do your feel good part and leave it at that. You did what you could do and that is all that counts. WE did the right thing. The problem is that the end game is not saving the steelhead. The end game is that some day the tribes will be the only ones fishing. You thought they were entitled to 50% of the harvestable fish, right? Well who says which ones are harvestable? NOT YOU...NOT WDFW...the tribes do.

What is the answer? Accountabilty is the answer. Not sure how to get there but it has to be figured out. That is where the debate needs to go in the future in my opinion. Oh and by the way don't even start with the racist crap because it has nothing to do with that. If a run is not harvestable then 50% of nothing should be nothing....It is not that way right now.

rite on grandpa

and the cigerettes
and the fireworks(a native tradition?)
and the casino's(another native tradition?)
and the lack of taxes(ok i'll give em this one)
but the government subsidies?

must be nice to be a "SUPER CITIZEN"
i wonder how the non tribal native americans can survive?
oh yea
just like everybody else in the "21st" century
what a croc
racism my @$$

It seems appropriate to add to this thread as well..

Something to ponder and think about: If the two year moratorium went through there would of have been minimal doubt that the state would of had to take the Hoh tribe to court to settle this issue once and for all.

Why do you think the tribes were so against the mortorium? Fear of public resentment, the possibility of going to court and looking greedy going after the sports anglers 50% when we are trying to put the conservation hat on. But since the state caved to a one fish limit it let the state off the hook going to court.

I am surprised that the opposition to the moratorium were not PO'd that the tribe had the power to bully us and tell us what we are allowed to do with the sports share. Instead they choose to make strange bedfellows. In short, the fish lost.

So It seems that all this made the situation worse. Last year I had the opportunity to take 5 fish out of all the op rivers. calawah, bogie, sole Duc, hoh and clearwater. That's 25 fish. However I always never keep one so that was ineffect saving 25 fish. Now because of this moratorium you guys pushed the result is I'm not saving 25 fish any more but killing 25. Sounds like you guys should have left well enough alone.

I realize this only works for those of us that practice some restraint. The guys that don't, thier fish now goes to the gill nets. Even though most of monies for this resourse come from the sportsmen. Hgh? The Natives pay for part of the management but isn't that money from the BIA and that's tax money???

That's some classic thinking RonBob---- the comanagers were already taking more than their 50%------- where does it stop? Does it stop when all user groups feel that they got their fair share and then close the fisheries because the fish are way under escapement.

I think if all as in 100% of sports fishers were to be kept off all those rivers all season we would not save but LOSE more wild steelhead to the tribal nets. The more you save the more they take. Simple math.