Occupy Skagit III

The last couple of springs we have gathered at Howard Miller Steelhead park in Rockport to show support for changing the management paradigm for wild Skagit Steelhead. Currently, all of Puget Sound Steelhead are considered by the ESA as one Distinct Population Segment (DPS) and as such are listed by them as threatened to become an endangered species.

The decision can be read here:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2007-05-11/pdf/E7-9089.pdf

The decision covers all of Puget Sound from the Elwah to the Canadian border, every piece of fresh water between these two points that dumps into the sound is affected by this listing. The health of each individual run is not considered on its own merit, but instead the entire area's steelhead are tainted with the aura of “nearing extinction”. While this may be true of many streams affected by the listing it is not true for all of them – the Skagit in particular continues to return healthy escapement numbers. These numbers can be seen to be fluctuating up and down in what many consider to be it's carrying capacity zone.

Scientists can argue over the numbers, their validity and what they mean but here they are in ten year increments:
1978 – 5,757 (the first year that I can find for WDFW escapement numbers)
1983 - 7,732
1993 - 6,900
2003 - 6,818
2013 – 8,800

Last season, 2014, the escapement was 8900+
The projection for 2015 is 9130.

The goal of Occupy Skagit is to restore the Catch and Release Steelhead season on the Skagit that used to run for Feb 1 – April 30.

In order for this season to be granted by NOAA and NMFS, a basin specific Steelhead Management Plan agreed upon by all parties, WDFW and Tribes, needs to be submitted and approved.

Is it possible?
Very much so!
Is it being done?
Well, not exactly. Although the major stockholders are all in verbal agreement that a C&R season will not impact the future of the run, apparently, no one is spearheading a mangement plan. This has to be unacceptable! We started this conversation with them two years ago!

Our goal this time around is to get this Skagit Steelhead management plan officially started. We need to have a WDFW employee attached to this plan. And we need it to happen now.

There is a new director in Olympia, and he needs to hear from Occupy Skagit. Send him and the Commissioners an email.Ask them who is in charge of writing the management plan and how to contact them/him about its progress. If you know how to contact any of the Commissioners personally, ask them the same questions. Push, push, push. Email: commission@dfw.wa.gov
Commission Website: http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/
We've never pushed an email campaign before but I think we need to now. Having met the commissioners several times, I know that a hand written letter to them will also go a long ways. Take five minutes out of your day and communicate with these officials.

The Commission hearing from you is the single most important thing you can do at this point.

There are two events scheduled; Rockport is fun, but the real deal is in Olympia.

Occupy Skagit III - April 4th 2015
Howard Miller Steelhead Park in Rockport

Occupy Skagit Commissioners Meeting - April 10th 8:30 am
Natural Resources Building
1111 Washington St SE, Olympia, WA - First Floor, Room 172

The biologist that covers the Skagit River is Brett Barkdull and he can be reached at 425-775-1311 ext 270.

Decided to bump this before tomorrow....

I see there are 2 scheduled events, if anyone here know what time is everyone meeting on April 4th at Howard Miller Park? Thanks



(There are two events scheduled; Rockport is fun, but the real deal is in Olympia.

Occupy Skagit III - April 4th 2015
Howard Miller Steelhead Park in Rockport

Occupy Skagit Commissioners Meeting - April 10th 8:30 am
Natural Resources Building
1111 Washington St SE, Olympia, WA - First Floor, Room 172)

Around 9am Craig.

I believe the big risk here is that since it will be THE only game in town in greater Pugetroplis, how do we keep Mother Skagit from being raped.... even if all mortality is limited to just C&R?

One of the big IF's in this whole thing is a way to limit individual encounters with steelhead.

The Forks experience is proving that recs are unable to limit themselves.

What makes the Skagit any different?

Eyefish

The are a number of area in which the Skagit and the management of its steelhead differ from that which you are familiar with on the OP.

First while the MSY escapement level is the touch stone for management the difference on the Skagit is that its escapement goal has a substantial buffer. Best estimates of Skagit MSY is something in the 3,000 to 4,000 range (depending on the time series used). The basin goal is 6,000 or 150 to 200% of MSY levels. While it still is not known what the approved fishing levels will be as a Skagit specific plan is developed most assume it will be at least as conservative as what was in place pre-2010. At that time not only was there a buffered escapement goal there was a cap on the total exploitation on the wild run.

What that cap meant was that on large runs the run was not fished down to the escapement goal. For most of the last 20 years that exploitation cap rate was 16%. On a large run say 10,000 the managers instead of fishing down to the escapement goal of 6,000 the total impacts were limited so that at a run of 10,000 the management expected to produce an escapement of 8,400.

In short with a buffered escapement goal and the cap on the total allowed impact rates the wild steelhead regardless of run size would be allowed to demonstrate what it can do.

In additionally unlike on the Fork area rivers the season on the Skagit does not carry well into the spawning season. Again pre-2010 the CnR season ended the end of April well before the peak of the wild winter steelhead (mid-May). Finally the traditional spring Skagit/Sauk CnR season covered only approximately 25% of the 290 miles of steelhead spawning habitat found in the basin.

In short for decades the Skagit/Sauk steelhead have been one of most conservatively managed wild winter steelhead populations in the State. Perhaps the only real danger with re-establishing the Skagit/Sauk CnR season is that folks might expect such conservative management elsewhere in the state.

Curt

Eyefish- alos there are sections and tribs not open giving some relief.

Doubt exploitation on the mighty Skagit will be a problem at all. BK's correct, lots of tributaries, big water, no catch and keep, and steelhead don't bite all the time as many of us can attest.
Thanks to all that attend!

This...



...and this...



With a very late "true spring" spawn timing for the bulk of the run, and so much of the watershed completely off limits to fishing, the Skagit is a unique steelhead fishery.

We *used* to be able to fish over ocean fresh fish right into the end of April.

With no fishing under power, no fishing with bait/barbs, and no directed sport kill fishery, the Skagit system is also unique when compared to west end streams. While the overall amount of fishermen on the west end has skyrocketed for a few reasons, it's amazing the amount of anglers who have to fish below 101 because they feel they can't catch a fish without bait, or may want to kill one. Those anglers won't find any solace in the Skagit opening other than to see the pressure on the west end streams lessen some.

Fish on...

Todd

Todd or whomever, why everytime we talk about this topic, does it have to be "no fishing under power"?

I have no bias as I have a drift boat and a sled. It just seems like the Skagit in particular is a large river and could handle sled traffic even in a selective gear rules season?

There are lots of sleds on the Skagit, and they can be used for transportation, or fished out of while drifting...just not while the motor is running.

I have buddies that have long oars on their sleds and row to keep the boat straight as they side drift...looks like a lot of work to me

My last post was just outlining what the regulations were last time the Skagit was open in the spring, not a recommendation or comment about what they should be or what others might want them to be...just noting the longstanding and last standing regs.

Fish on...

Todd

The "no fishing under power" rule has long been in effect during C&R season on the Skagit system. This needn't even be a topic of discussion, especially if WDFW enforcement officers would have actually done their job in enforcing it.

As for the potential re-opening of the Skagit/Sauk C&R season - it will absolutely be short lived if even more stringent rules than the ones that were already in place, aren't adopted.
No fishing from any floating device on the Sauk, limited guide participation, and individual pay to play permitting with all collected monies directed to in-basin restoration efforts and additional enforcement presence, would be ideal places to start.

We'd all like to see the leisurely spring days of racking up numbers by dragging drift gear or bobber-cating out of the DB or raft in the Mill Drift returned to us. But it isn't going to last without a little restraint, either self-imposed (or most likely), state implemented.

I'm not at all attempting to wet blanket OS efforts. It just seems that through those efforts an opportunity now exists, for the steelhead fishing fraternity as a whole, to have a say in what a long lasting, quality angling experience will be. Or we can continue nitpicking to suit our own individual agendas, and resume watching the Skagit go the way of every other lost steelhead fishing opportunity in PS.

Thank you WW and all others actively involved in the OS movement.

Really hoping for a new C&R season on the Skagit. It sounds like the previous regulations were sufficient to protect the fish. My hope would be that the fishery would be popular and that it would prove that C&R fishing is an effective management tool for maximizing opportunity. It would be nice to see something similar on a river that doesn't get netted, so we could get an honest figure on C&R mortality (one that isn't skewed by "foregone opportunity" harvest).

Just to step out of character for a minute, you guys spouting that pay to play bull$hit had better watch out or you're going to get what you're asking for. When you realize that "pay to play" actually meant you'd simply have to pay more for the same experience, you might not be so glad you suggested it. I know we're Capitalists, but come on people, money can't fix everything.

FF2,

Paying to play along with actual, competent enforcement and angler involvement pertaining to how and what rules will be implemented and enforced, absolutely will not yield the same experience as the current one, because there isn't a current experience being had on the Skagit...

I'm not asking for money to fix everything, I'm asking for it to help to stem the tide of further degrading everyone's steelhead fishing experience, when and if the fishery is reopened.

Regardless of the rhetoric that is being spat forth on internet forums presently, in regards to how there is no indication that the Skagit system will see any increased pressure, than what was experienced prior to 2009, is total BS.

I think you're right, What - if they re-open the Skagit, it will probably be more crowded than before, and that's actually what I would hope for, not because I want crowded conditions, but because I'm interested to see some good evidence that C&R is an effective way to manage an endangered resource. If that success story happened on the Skagit, we'd likely start seeing proposals to manage the OP rivers (and others) in kind.

I guess the main reason I don't think we want pay to play management (besides the fact that it promotes elitism) is that there are an alarming number of people on these same Internet boards chirping about how they'll be willing to pony up. If they do pony up in the numbers being threatened, you'll find yourself fishing in the same crowds, and you'll have about $300 (per fishery) less beer money to drown your sorrows after yet another skunking.

The other problem I see with limiting access (no matter how that's done) is that it punishes the wrong people. Did sport fishing contribute more to the decline of wild steelhead than the tribal and commercial user groups? More than development in the critical watersheds? If not, then why should we always be the ones whose opportunity gets reduced or becomes more expensive? Oh... I just remembered... those other users (at least the non-tribal ones) are doing their pay to play thing in the halls of the Legislature. I guess that explains it. Carry on....

When was there a non tribal commercial fishery on Skagit steelhead?

Good catch, Keta. I don't know of any non-tribal commercial fisheries directed at steelhead. I'm making an assumption that chronic, prolonged overharvest of salmon (by interests both tribal and non) has depleted stream nutrients to levels that make it impossible to sustain large populations of steelhead (or most anything else). While I can't be sure that's true, I am pretty sure it wasn't hook and line fishing that wiped them out, hence the assertion that limiting sport opportunity punishes the wrong people.

I have a tenancy for nitpicking statements for being factually correct even when I agree with what is said in general. The opposition usually jumps on false statements presented as facts and blows them way out of proportion. Sorry for going OCD on you.

My bad, I had a temple expander and thought I was talking to myself earlier today.

My apologies to _WW_ for temporarily hijacking his thread. The best of luck to OS.