This will be the picture from now until Christmas. They net Mon-Fri each week until there isn't anything left to net. Any silver, chum, or steelhead that makes it to the Duwamish will be caught unless they time it right and make it from the salt to fresh water in a weekend.

How does netting 5 days a week, with such efficiency that nothing gets through, come anywhere near 50% of the harvestable fish? I've been watching them net the same schedule for at least 5 years and it just makes me ill!

all the blood just went to my head and I got a friggin headache now! I know we all hate any netting but seriously, how can they get away with THAT in a navigable waterway???

A few bails of straw floating down river would "help the cause"...

That picture is just above where anybody but a recreational fisherman would take a boat. This is right at Delta Marine, they have the last business upriver. They net the mile or so below this spot but usually only at night.
Sometimes they sleep in though, I think it was two years ago that they blocked a cruise ship in the east waterway for over an hour while they waited for a native to come pull the net. It made the news but I'm sure there was nohing that ever came of it.

I know for a fact that 90% off these guys gillnetting have employment at the casino on the hill in Auburn. Must not be making enough $$$ dealing cards?????

And then they use the word "Native Pride"? Where's that in this picture?

That sight sure hits one hard in the stomach. I sure don't know near as much as most anyone else on this site, but I have a question. How many fish of this run are being/going to be taken by the tribes in this system, and what is the "NET" amount of fish taken and incidently killed by non natives sport and commercial fisherman for the last two or so years of this run in the Sound, Straights and ocean and then back again? If we could condense all of that into a couple of weeks and put it in a single picture, what would that look like? Did anyone see how many people fished the river this weekend on low tide? I couldn't even get to the water in any of the good holes. It made shoulder to shoulder squid fishing on the dock look civil.

I guess my point is if things are working as they should, half is half. Does anyone have data that natives are getting more than half of the harvestable number of this run? What does it matter if they get them all in a couple of weeks in the river while we get them 360 days a year? I'm a sport fisherman, and I don't like nets either, but I believe in fair, and as someone who sport fishes the river, I would rather they get their "share" in a couple of days and the get the nets out of the river. Then we could get the rest of them. I also have seen pictures of fish caught just upriver today! I have not heard that the run we are all fishing in the Duwamish/Green is endangered. Did I miss that somewhere?

For those that are truly concerned about saving the natural genetic stock, I bet we could work with the tribes if we weren't always ready to blindly condemn everything that is not done exactly as we do it.

I am no one to judge and I surely don't mean to cause any trouble, but how about some balance guys? What is the percentage of the run that is even returning?

I just flew over their tonight and I could hardly believe my eyes. It was a total blockage. How any fish makes it past is beyond me. I hope that the state and that tribes can come together and develop some management plans that will work to prevent this.

thats just not right

They catch THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of silvers and god knows how many of everything else. I think it was last year I heard they caught 6000 in the first couple days of netting. It's likely they probably catch more silvers in just this one river than we catch recreationally all season in the WHOLE Puget Sound.

The picture in Shilshole in front of the locks looks almost the same except for a travel lane they keep open during daylight hours ( which they block every night!)

I really don't know how they get away with this year after year. We bitch, we moan, but it happens again and again. I'm pinning all my hopes on the CCA. Just imagine the fishing we'll have if they sink their teeth into this!

As a perfect example of retribution against Whitey for the sins of their great, great, great, great, great, great greatgrandfathers. The legacy of Boldt......in perpetuity.

Talk about reparations........when does that mortgage get paid off?

Remember its not harvest its the HABITAT why we have no salmon. Read Carlson's quote below...so true...so true...still to this day.

I'm glad people finally get to see this, I've been seeing this sad disgusting site for the past eight years every fall.

BD

Dolphin.....the problem is the sport catch is scruitinized by the state , which is the way it shoukd be. there are meetings apon meetings to allocate a proper # of fish for sport and it is watched closely.The coastal sport fishery usually runs about 10 weeks...not all year and it closes early if the quota is caught.

The tribes commercially troll the ocean too. i cant imagine how many silvers i could catch in a day when your in em thick off the coast with 8 rigs out , never stopping fishing to reel in a fish.I'm guessing they get as many as we do out there and then this happens. The count? I don't think there is one. It's whatever they catch within the net schedule they set for themselves.They may have some #s for you but if you think there accurate......

It really comes down to mother nature. If theres a good rain at the right time you get some good excapement. if not they get alot more of the run. Praying for rain Fri night isn't what i'd consider solid fisheries management!

In the "total Blockage Pic" what happens when commercial traffic suc as tugs and barges need to get through the waterway? When anchor fishing on the Columbia below Bonneville we as sporties have to pull or anchors and move out of the way of the Tugs and Barges.

Do the tugs and Barges wait for the fishery to be over or do the nets get pulled? Neither I think.

Castnblast, you can go down there in the mornings after the fishery is over and look at the numbers. Mostly fictious numbers cause they have no idea.

The BIGGEST problem we face on this fishery is Muckleshoot Seafood Enterprises sells most of these Coho to Safeway and Vaughns Corp both Here and in Oregon and California. Perhaps this photo needs to be emailed to Safeway Corporate offices in Bellevue and partially blame them for "raping of the resource"

The nets in the river a bigger problem, than trollers. Granted that a good troller may be able to catch severl hundred fish a day. But at least the fish can elect to not bite the lure.

The poor fish just trying to return to it place of birth to spawn, dosen't have much chance with that guantlet of nets.

The main problem with the whole thing is not that they are netting it. But that the public is buying the fish . If there was no market for river caught salmon. They wouldn't be catching them.

Sick....ever thought of requesting a meeting with the governor, what about everyone contacting and requesting a meeting. They have to respond within two weeks of the request. I just requested a meeting with her. Maybe a stupid idea, but maybe irritating too. Here's where you do it.

http://www.governor.wa.gov/event/meeting.asp

J and L, I hear what your saying about safeway, but where does that end? Do we blame people for buying fish there too? No, thats dealing with a symptom and not curing the problem. Someone is going to buy the fish...at the right price cause it's money in their pocket, if Safeway doesn't do it someone else will. Solve the problem....don't treat the symptoms.

Addicted, good luck on the meeting with the governor thing. she is a big supporter of the tribes!

Interesting..... I really don't know how this works, I know I have talked to Slim and Pete the fish checkers at Alki launch, (Don Armeni) and they tell me that WDFW checkers work closely with the tribe and basically mirror the checking that takes place at the launches. I have often questioned the way numbers are tabulated using the statistical models and extrapolation etc.

I strongly support Native fishing rights because I believe it's just fair and right, but I am a sport fisherman and believe that we should get our half. So if the numbers are clearly wrong, then our opportunity needs to be expanded some how. I have never heard any numbers that say we don't get ours though , and the anti native arguments just make me think that its whining.

I know, not really a reality, just attempting to bug her, or her staff. If I'm irritated, why can't they be. Probably completely pointless, but ya know, I feel like being a pain in the ass right now since that pic is a pain in my head and ass. And they've got the system set up to request a meeting, so might as well use the system they created, seems those nets are using the system they created.