This is a "heads up".......WDFW Director, Philip Anderson in a letter sent to Steve Allison, Hoh Tribe...August 17, 2011 talked about "financial challenges the state faces"....bottom line on this letter....while many hatchery programs will be cut back, many not at all, Grays Harbor has the largest percentge of cutbacks, 19%. The REAL scarey part is the following:

Humptulips hatchery.....Current program has the following:

Chinook now 500,000 ........ this number reduced to " 0 ".....I say again, ZERO....no Chinook raised.

Coho now 970,000 ...... this number reduced by 730,000......that is a 76% reduction.

Grays Harbor is getting picked on...big time!!!!! Don't know what to tell you..........

Let's see........no Salmon fishing in the Wynoochee River, now......Humptulips hatchery being cut.....guess better buy a big boat and fish the harbor..............grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Yikes

Also, in the past it always seemed like the Humptulips hatchery was right on the brink of major cutbacks, one of the times it had to come true, hopefully there will be a way this time..
Also what about the steelhead program. If there are this big of cutbacks to salmon I can't see how they can continue to support that.

The State's budget woes have gotten nothing but worst since that mid August letter. Have to expect more serious discussions about various hatchery and other painful cuts.

Tight lines
Curt

Wonder what the Quinaults will have to say about this.

Salmon fishing has become a joke in Gray's Harbor county over the past 10-15 years.Now this,along with the winter & summer steelhead cut's that has happened.Is it finally time to actually take the $$$ and time up north or down south!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.Good luck,
SZ

"Wonder what the Quinaults will have to say about this."

I don't know but what ever it will be it's going to anti-fisherman.

Curt:

I understand budget woes have gotten worse.....I'm just having a real problem, with the % of cuts from hatchery to hatchery, and region to region.......and why pick on a region that is having trouble making wild escapements in many of the rivers??????

The hatchery king production has never been that great to begin with. I'm guessing that is why the wild stocks are doing so well. I can only hope the coho's wild stocks will reboost because of this, assuming it is long lived.

The wild kings will still be there!

I have been expecting this. Every one of "our" GH hatcheries is bound to be ruined. You never get back what you lose either. Bastages.

Well, if it happens then there will be one less river to fish in Grays Harbor in 4-5 years. Coho will close completely. Chinook, not sure but last year it was 50:50 marked:unmarked fish I saw caught so I don't how good the actual "Native" numbers could be.

Grays Harbor has a ton lot of habitat restoration and culvert replacement. Guess there was a bigger reason than just native spawning grounds. Oh well, had to happen somewhere sooner or later to see if there was a chance that any local rivers could recover on their own.

Again, if the cuts happen.

Drifter -
I don't know the particulars of the GH hatcheries but a factor that has had a huge role in the past decisions about closures is the funding sources of the various hatcheries. Some of the hatcheries have relied more on State $$ for funding, others are funded by private funds (PUD's etc) and others by the feds (Columbia Mitchell act hatcheries).

As a result when the State budget ax falls those hatcheries that were funded with State dollars are the ones lost. The end result is that hatchery production (whether trout, steelhead, or salmon) cuts have hit western Washington harder than Eastern Washingotn and Puget Sound/Coast harder than SW Washington.

The State in general and WDFW in particular have been facing and will continue to face some hard decisions. The end result is that the fishing landscape in this state will be changing dramatically. It is the unfortunate reality of today's world that politics has been and will be the driver in many of those decision.

Tight lines
Curt

Depending on your perspective, it might be the best thing that could happen to the struggling wild fish?

Perhaps they could stop wasting money on harassing the recreational crabbers and save some of that LE money to raise some fish for there to be some enforcement on!

Just sayin!


Fishy

I hope that the native run is a big one and gets even larger quickly. Will be a shame not to have a single chinook fishery in Grays Harbor.

Oh well, budget cuts make Hump Hatchery prime target and unless the Quinault decide to pay for it it sounds like a done deal. If there is the intent to try and guage the wild Chinook run and restore it then that won't likely happen.

Here's to fishing the hump hard for Chinook and Coho the next 3-5 years or until they make changes because of the lack of planted fish. I can see hatchery Chinook only being in the regs really soon.

But the Hump hatchery will be run at current steelhead levels for the foreseable future.

You know some days. Two things come to mind, first Lynn Kessler retired or she would have shoved this proposal up Phil guys you know what. Second Jim Scott laid out what would happen on the Humptulips when he held another position a few years back so some of this crap be run up a tree here is just crap, so knock it off state guys.

To the oh this might help the struggling wild fish bit. You need to learn the history and rationals that go with it. How the Hump production mix came about and what it means is much different than PS or OP rivers. Then you have the QIN and one might assume the target of this proposal. They are going to fish so you can assume the Coho fishery will be history for sports. Knowing how things go I think you will loose the Chinook also as to keep the bay and Chehalis mainstem fishery something has to go.

Washington....the sportfishing capitol of the world!

It's inevitable that in the short term the fishery will go to [censored]. The removal of the hatcheries being good for wild stocks will likely be a long term process.

You need to learn the stock / hatchery history and mix before trotting that bs out. To be fare to you the discussions on the Hump are actually in minutes of meetings. Your not only in the wrong field, your in the wrong ball park and your not going to believe what is going to happen in that system if this takes place. The Hump has been the harbors dirty little secret for some years.

guys the hand writings on the wall. in 25 years or less sport fishing will go the way of hunting. we'll have to apply for a spring or fall salmon permit. the season will last 10 days. same with steelhead. a guy will have to pick what region he wants to fish and put in.

why you ask?

cause we'll need to protect the tiny resource called sport fishing.