and why do we continue to tolerate it?

****


I got on the Pacific Salmon Commission's website (the body which oversees the treaty with Canada) and this is the latest exploitation data available.

http://www.psc.org/pubs/TCCHINOOK09-3.pdf

Scroll down to page 121 in the actual document (page 129 in the Adobe Reader)

The index stock in the PSC database for coastal WA is the Queets River, about an hour from my house. Exploitation is currently (1999-2007 dataset) running about 60% of adult production. Of the total fish harvested, nearly half are taken in SE-AK (46.3%), 99% of which are troll caught. Between AK and the Canadians, they take more than 7 out of every 10 fish harvested.

Now let's talk ESA. Puget Sound chinook are ESA-listed and comprise a diversity of small local stocks susceptible to outside exploitation. How much of the catch is taken by the outside AK/BC fisheries?

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/papers/ps_chinoo...an_11-25-09.pdf


Hoko: 96%

Elwha: 75%

Skagit: 77%

Stillaguamish: 68%

Nooksack: 90%



Bottom line.... 100% of the burden for chinook production, conservation, and recovery falls squarely on local shoulders.... only to have the lion's share of the benefits squandered in distant outside fisheries.



HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!

untill the cowardly politicians stand up and put a stop to this, we will all take it in the shorts.

Wowsers.......................................

Keith

Alaskans:

"You can't tell us how to fish. It's our waters and we'll set our seasons as we see fit!"

OR

"Prove it!"

OR

"But curtailing our fisheries will send our fishing-dependent communities into an economic tailspin.....we need to fish"


I've heard all 3 of these arguments made in the past. B.S. or not, they must carry some weight because the commission(s) still allow this crap to happen.

Pathetic.

Welcome to one of the real problems Doc. Keep educating yourself. You'll understand someday.

Time and Place is always the first step in Selective fishing, gear type is last.

Your genuinely enouraging remarks are always welcome, y'eye.

Just doing my part to help educate the masses on a well-known issue.

The problem is just so much more tangible for everyone when the officially documented numbers are brought to light.

Fawk!

That's simply aweful!

I want to fish, so I tolerate it.

What I want to know is HOW they know where these fish are heading?

I assume they are going off wire tags from hatchery fish retained in those areas.

Actually I think this treaty was renegotiated with the 30 million WCVI troller buyout..Not sure if it all went through but there predicting alot more kings off the Washington Coast and Columbia this fall.

Our latest pay-off to the Canadians was supposed to buy about a million extra kings over the next 10 years.... about 100,000 per year.

When spread over the many drainages contibuting to chinook production up and down the west coast, the impact to any one drainage is pretty small.

It would be nice to allocate those kings to the gravel rather than just exploit them as a simple transfer of harvest from northern fisheries to southern US fisheries. I believe that was the original intent, but the PFMC might eventually have other ideas.

Baby Steps I guess, now back to that new dam..

Thanks for noticing one of the real problems. And, the savings from the new chinook annex are real, and discernable, although not enough. And yes, we are passing most of those savings through to escapement.

Don't get me going again.

The lower 48 states salmon were traded to the Canadians in exchange for taking the Canadian heat off the S.E. AK netters for pounding the hell out of salmon bound for northern B.C. rivers. Backroom deal it was.

Canadian trollers just finished catching 24,000 kings off WCVI north. I would bet the vast majority of those fish were american bound fish.

Doc, don't let some dumb azzes dissuade you from doing what you do as there are lots of people out here that look forward to your comments, suggestions and fact finding.



Fishy

I've heard that the treaty with B.C. intends for the B.C. commercial trollers to intercept WA/OR bound chinook in exchange for an allowance for the WA non-treaty commercial fishers to get a wack at Fraizer River bound sockeye.

Beezer

In the 20 years I've fished S.E. Ak. I've seen quota's go from somewhere around 450,000 kings in the early 90's to 222,000 this year, I didn't check but I'm guessing it was even lower in 2008 when the AI was really low, around 1.09. The sportfish limits have also gone from 2 a day every day for everyone down to 1 a day 3 for the year for non residents. Two years ago during the low abundance year they completely closed king retention in the middle of the season.
As for the commercial troll fleet, and I'm just speaking on what I've witnessed off POW Is. not all of S.E. (outside POW seems to be a popular place for people to point fingers) the actual king fishery can usually be counted in single digit days, starting July 1st and most years, closed within a week.
If you think its a free for all and everyone is out to rape and pillage the resourse your sadly mistaken. Imo, ADF&G has alot better handle on whats going on in their state then WDFW will ever have.