Someone Emailed this to me today, Thought Id share.

FACT SHEET
WASHINGTON DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE
600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091
Internet Address: www.wa.gov/wdfw

May 1999 Contact: Public Affairs, (360) 902-2250

Washington salmon recovery and the state's fisheries

Guided by the state Wild Salmonid Policy, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is working to protect and restore wild salmon to healthy levels while providing sport and commercial fishing opportunities on plentiful wild and hatchery stocks.

While some wild stocks, such as Puget Sound chinook are in trouble, many stocks are healthy. For example large runs of chum, pink and (Fraser River) sockeye are expected to move into and through Washington waters this year. These stocks form the basis of most commercial fishing.

Sport and commercial fisheries in 1999 feature innovative fishing techniques and restrictions designed to protect weak wild stocks.

A 1992 state-tribal study found 187 of Washington's wild salmon and steelhead runs were healthy; 12 were in critical shape; 122 were depressed and the condition of 113 stocks was unknown.

More recently, the federal government has provided Endangered Species Act protection to the following wild salmon stocks: Puget Sound chinook, Hood Canal chum, Lake Ozette sockeye, Upper Columbia spring chinook, Lower Columbia chinook and chum and Snake River sockeye as well as spring/summer and fall chinook.

In addition to implementing the Wild Salmonid Policy's fish restoration directives, WDFW is playing a major role in working with Gov. Gary Locke, legislators, local leaders and citizens from across the state to ensure salmon recovery is carried out at the local level using the best science available.

The federal government is expect to allow continued fishing to harvest fish from health runs. To continue to protect the stocks in poor condition, fishers should expect restrictions in areas, such as the Strait of Juan de Fuca and northern Puget Sound, where salmon from weak wild stocks mix with abundant stocks. Those restrictions are designed to protect the weak wild runs.

Steps taken by WDFW in recent years to protect and restore wild runs include:
o Reducing the ocean chinook catch by 96 percent in the past 25 years
o Reducing the Puget Sound sport chinook catch by 70 percent over the past 25 years
o Reducing the number of commercial fishing licenses by 55 percent (3663 to 1654) in the past 13 years
o Using 36 WDFW hatcheries in wild salmon restoration programs now compared to two 20 years ago

WDFW has found that returning more wild salmon to the spawning grounds has not been enough to restore these runs because much of their river and stream habitat is in poor condition due to flooding, dams, siltation, excessive water withdrawals, pollution and other habitat factors.

For example, poor river conditions, such as scouring floods and high water temperatures, kill an estimated 97 percent of the eggs laid by salmon. In that case, one million eggs would produce only 30,000 young salmon ready to go to sea. An estimated 600 would survival life in the ocean and produce about 1.3 million eggs if none were caught by fishers.

In another example, in river conditions were favorable to salmon, a million eggs would produce an estimated 220,000 young salmon ready to go to the ocean. An estimated 4,400 would survive life in the ocean and, after some fishing, produce 3,100 spawning fish that would lay 7 million eggs.

Therefore, WDFW scientists are using the habitat principles in the Wild Salmonid Policy to educate other state agencies, local governments, landowners and other decision-makers about the life needs of salmon.

WDFW also has other science-based programs, such as Priority Habitats and Species, which attempts to assist urban planners direct growth away from important salmon habitats. Another program, Landowner Landscape Planning, helps to develop forestry plans that protect fish and wildlife while improving landowners' ability to manage their property.


Despite these education efforts, many of these decision-makers, as well as the public, do not fully appreciate the serious condition of some salmon stocks, such as Puget Sound chinook, because salmon seem plentiful in the grocery stores.

In fact many of these fish are harvested in Alaska (1995's harvest was 994 million tons of salmon) or grown in fish farms in Norway, Chile or other countries. The National Marine Fisheries Service reported the following salmon shipments were imported through Seattle in 1996:
o Canadian fresh farmed Atlantic salmon: 24.9 million pounds worth $63 million
o Canadian fresh farmed chinook salmon: 14.5 million pounds worth $38 million
o Canadian fresh farmed coho salmon: 689,220 pounds worth $1.4 million

The Washington Farmed Salmon Commission in 1996 reported farms produced the following amounts of salmon (measured in metric tons): Norway 290,000; Chile 150,000; United Kingdom 72,000; British Columbia 26,000; New Brunswick 15,000

24.9 million lbs. what test line do you use for one of them?