If anyone's looking for another "cause," QFC (at least in Port Hadlock)is advertising whole steelhead at $2.99/lb! Damn cheaper than we can C&R them for, but that's not the point, of course. A few years ago, some of us did some educating of a grocery chain in King County and got results. Once they realized that they were selling "game fish," they stopped doing so. Legal or not, they need to know how offensive it is to us! Even if they were pen raised, which I doubt. (This one's not a rumor, Knophish; saw it myself on the parking lot marquee. In fact, I'm going back to check for adipose fins.)

sorry to break this to you Scaly, but Fred Meyer in Puyallup has been selling them all season. When queried, the butcher told me they were farm raised in Idaho. I went no further as I felt the need to shout expletives and did not want to unload on anyone other than the buyer. I did not think to look for adipose fins, but I will go back tomorrow and check.

I checked adipose fins today (they are intact)and noted that they are labeled "farm fresh" (like a dozen eggs!). Then I asked the butcher if they are farmed fish (yes). I thought they were too expensive to raise to market size, about 5-6#, but apparently not. Sure sends a bad message, though, and the management of these stores might drop the product if/when they understand our concern. Maybe the Wildcatters could buy up the surplus!

I know for a fact that there is now a steelhead farm in the Wenatchee/Leavenworth area, and I have heard of several in Idaho. I don't understand why selling farm raised fish at the supermarket would be offensive. Wouldn't flooding the market with farmed fish reduce the market for wild steelhead? Look at what the Chilean coho farms have done to the global price of commercially caught coho.

I like your theory, Robbo, but the average shopper doesn't know how special REAL steelhead are, and I think could become more accepting of tribal wild fish. A knowledgeable friend told me today that the steelies sold at Pike Place Market are the real (wild) thing.

Pikes Place Market sold native steelhead, from the Olympic Pennisula l;ast year. $3.99/lb. if I'm not mistaking. Its true! I saw intact adipose fins, and some fish were truely trophy fish of 20lbs.(fiberglass repo) Summer steelhead everyone!!!!!!!!!!! Write!!!!! Some of the best summer run fishing in the NW will be history!!!

I agree with you and have been to Pike Place on numerous occasions when there have been 15-20# nates sitting on ice. I just know that most of the supermarkets are selling farmed steelhead when they can get them. If they say "farmed" fish, there's a good chance they are "farmed" fish. Not many steelhead coming in this time of year that are exactly 5-6#. I hear you about the public, though. The ordinary Joe wouldn't know the difference. Nuf sed.

Best thing to do is; If you don't like it, Don't shop there and tell them why. Personally, the farm raised fish don't bother me, just the wild fish being sold.
I think the farmed fish will save the natives
(salmon/steelhead)in the long run.

[This message has been edited by Bruce (edited 03-22-99).]

I like the idea of farmed fish, if you can reduce or eliminate the waste that it produces. Raising them in ponds in Idaho is probably a lot cleaner than net pens in Puget Sound, with no chance of an accidental release putting inferior fish into the gene pool.

The Pike Place Market does indeed sell river caught steelhead. I think that they are from Quinalt Tribal Enterprises.

By the way, I heard a rumor that the Quinalts do NOT clip their hatchery steelhead (the ones in the Quinalt, as opposed to the ones in the Salmon and Raft Rivers, which are clipped), so fish caught in the lower Quinalt, though having an adipose fin, may be hatchery fish. Does anyone know about this? Is it true or not?
If it is true, would this be so their clients could keep a pig on the off chance that it is a hatchery fish? I guess their hatchery fish are pigs, too, anyway.

Anyone have any facts about that?
Thanks.

Fish on...
Todd.

Todd,

I've also heard from a fellow that used to work for the Quinault Tribe that they don't fin clip their hatchery steelhead. For the most part they use native steelhead broodstock and selective hatchery techniques to minimize the differences between the hatchery and wild fish. They feel the program is successful, with hatchery raised steelhead that escape the fishery spawning in the wild and some wild fish added each season to the hatchery brood stock supply. The long term implications are unknown yet, but it's probably at least as good, if not better, than the WDFW policy of planted Chambers Creek hatchery steelhead throughout western Washington like Johnny Apple-trout-seed.

I've asked fish vendors at Pike Place, and they do sell steelhead they get from Quinault Tribal Enterprizes. The vendor didn't act like he knew native from motorcycle mufflers. Many of the grocery stores sell farmed steelhead from eastern WA and ID. Farmed salmon and steelhead are probably a good thing. They allow the marketplace to aid in conservation. Remember how treaty caught steelhead were getting $2.50 per pound to the fisherman from the commercial buyer in 1979? Now they're lucky to get $0.75 per pound. That is probably attributable in large part to fish farming and reduced purchases by the Japanese. I have heard of treaty fishermen on the Skagit who stopped fishing steelhead because they couldn't make enough money to cover their gas and net expenses.

So let the stores sell all the farmed fish they can. But we should tell fish buyers that we won't shop in their store if they sell native wild steelhead. They need to be educated enough to understand the difference if they are going to be in the business.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Salmo.,
Sounds like you have the same info. that I have. Thanks for the confirmation.

Fish on...
Todd.

I'm in agreement with the comments above, that farmed steelhead may be a benefit, so I'll save my picketing for the natives. I also looked into a rumor that farmed steelie food is dyed red to give the fish some color. A fish bio friend tells me that is not legal and that they get the colored flesh from ground shrimp shells, etc., the "natural" way. Sooo... guess we should just worry about the natives. Somewhere, the tribal sales to retailers should be "public information" at WDFW, eh, Todd?

I'm not sure if WDFW has that information or not. If they do I would guess that it would be subject to the Public Disclosure Act. If you're interested you should contact the department's public disclosure officer.

Does anyone know who is raising farmed STEELHEAD? I would like to know. I hope it's true and just not another lie the stores are telling!

I don't know who may be raising farmed steelhead, but I do shop at a local COOP that is very environmentally concious. The steelhead they sell are farm raised and I am positive of that. Having eaten hatchery brats from the Sky, Sol Duc and the Green, the store bought fish have a higher fat content (measured by the smoke my grill gives off while cooking). This observation leads me to beleive that the store fish has not tried to run a river yet. In fact, I tend to favor the store fish due to its higher fat content and thus a better flavoring.

I've had the the pleasure to fish the Quinault now for the past 3 yrs. in the Creek and the main river, I'm self-employed and have had the opportunity to fish the system when the hatchery fish start to show at the begining of Dec. till Mid-March on the avg . of 2 1/2 to 3 days a week or as long as my 33 yr. old elbow can take and in the Creek alone I must have hooked close to or over 1000 fish, not all landed of course, I use a IMX 1082S's w/8lb sometimes 10lb test & Shim. Stradics', by the way in my opinion is the best setup a man can evenly test his skills against the O-Mykiss, this is not a setup for the faint-hearted, (8'6" to 9' mag-med. 12-17lb test,"Oh I hope my leader doesn't break" pool cue totin' guys,) cuz you will break off! These hatchery fish are big 29" to 35", don't own a scale, rod tip to 4th eye is 30". Anyways to get to the point 90 percent of the fish I've landed are clipped and I have been to the hatchery 2x when they circumsized the little fighters, they actually pay these people to come in and do this. The sponsor I fish with the most in the creek works at the hatchery, and in the 15+ yrs he's been working there can verify that with the exception to a couple of early releases due to fear of contamination or some other circumstance that might have endangered the young fingerling in the rearing ponds. I don't know about the Salmon river hatchery or the Lake's hatchery but he claims that they are because they supply the Salmon river also, all the hatcheries' work close together, so I assume they do, he has shown me how to distinguish the non-clipped hatchery and wild fish, although not scientific there is distinguishing consistiency to his method.
But to get back to the topic at hand, I catch Steelhead with great consistiency all yr. long not just in the Steelhead paradise of the Quinault, heck that just 4 months out of 11. So I don't buy fish from the market, its there for a reason,,, non-fisherpeople, if it bother's you let them know, and if you can't catch I guess your gonna have to buy it. Later