Great! Just great!

The dept is just hoping enough escaped so they start Atlantic salmon license drive...bet that'd be a better earner than a record shattering flounder

It'll probably sell more licenses than the record blue shark announcement too!

"Hey Nevis, this lookin like an Ayetlantuck Shalmon to you?"

"Yessm, they all Atelantucks round here. I hear it on da radio."

Years ago, 15ish, a bunch got free and according to Fisheries they were all sterile fish and had no way to spawn with our local stocks. I noticed nothing of the sort was mentioned in the current article, is this not the case anymore? At that time I watched a guy land a nice size one about thirty to forty miles up on the main Nooksack during the Coho season. Being these are so close to the Nooksack, I wonder how many will head that direction again?

a ton went into the Green too, there is still signs along the river to kill and report them....

Seattle Times headline prediction for 2020:

"Changes in Pacific Salmon Behavior and Appearance is a Mystery for Washington Fish Biologists"

They have great difficulty in labs to successfully cross Atlantic and Pacific salmon. With all the efforts over the last 150 years or so to introduce Atlantics on the Pacific Coast I don't believe there is a single established population. A few have been reported to have successfully spawned, in BC I think. But it came to nothing.

These highly domesticated Atlantics are probably the least reproductively competent cultured salmonid. Most, even, don't appear to have been very successful at feeding in the wild as the majority I have seen are rather thin.

Funny though, the number of Atlantic Salmon in the north puget sound right now may be greater than the pinks.

And they'll both probably smoke up just fine.

Can't wait to see the first boot Atlantic pic online, bet it'll be epic with a spinning reel on a casting rod in the background next a sixer of natty ice.

Farmed atlantic salmon: the McDonalds of the ocean

So how many nw fish will be impacted by this great escape, when they have been treated for disease (and they were already in the water anyway),don't reproduce well if at all, and have a low survival rate,

Versus

What is the mortality rate of gillnets

And

How much money will "those that are damaged" sue for and win based on hypothetical damages.

They directly compete with commercially harvested fish in the marketplace. They are generally less expensive, more available, at consistent sizes, always "fresh" (no real season). They are an economic competitor with netters.

Interestingly, at least when I was involved, Europeans preferred AS, even farmed, over Pacifics-even wilds.

the netters can get way more per pound with Atlantics than Chum or Pink meat...

The netters don't care about the meat, the money is in the eggs

I'd love to help out catching them. I caught several back in the nineties when steelhead fishing. Of course, the Skagit was open back then...

Good point about the rivers. The rivers are closed, or will be when they come in. And yet, we want them removed. Interesting management conundrum. We'll see how they respond.....

There was an escape of about 18,000 Atlantic salmon in the Cypress Island area in 1995 or 96. A friend of mine caught 16 of them in the Skagit River that summer. If only the Skagit were open this summer . . .

Been seeing quite a few pics popping up around various locations. The interlopers are hitting the deck in droves.

I caught one by hand, around Thanksgiving, in a little creek that I think was a Samish trib. Probably a grilse as it was only about 50 cm. And skinny and weak.

On the other hand this will allow the river-fishing tribes and opportunity for a few more fish to sell. Proving that gill nets are an effective conservation tool by removing all those damnable Atlantics. A win-win. Good press for nets, good press for saving our wild fish.

Having seen people rave over chum when they were told it was a "white king" I have little trust in what the public really knows is best tasting.

I was already planning to go up and fish the Straits on Friday. I'll make a run over by the pens and report back what I see.

Really? White King? Last laugh I had over the commercial market's nomdeplume for chum was as "Silver Bright" which, as I recall, came after Keta.

But I can understand not wanting to spend money on advertising Dog Salmon for sale to the consumer.

Anyway, if they like it at market price more power to both seller and buyer.

Why not just raise pacific salmon in net pens release them, then let the tribes take 50% of that.. not a bad way to improve fishing

That'd mean the tribes wouldn't be able to blur their harvest numbers or over fish on years were the predicted numbers don't pan out. I doubt they'd give that up lol.

You are making my night tonight with your spot on comments! TY for shining lights on truths here with your withering insight in your posts!

Hoping for at least an Atlantic Salmon season on the Upper Skagit this year after getting pushed aside this year SMH... One can always hope.......

Will the nof herring meetings be open to the public? And will there be a sanddab advisory board included in the restructuring? Got my fingers crossed those flatfish hatcheries get started up soon

pretty hot huh? he knows more about fishing than pretty much most people on these boards.....

Yeah...IF ONLY...

I live on the Skagit, and saw the first of the seasons humpies rolling yesterday morning. Hard to wonder if there's not a few Atlantics in there was well.

Can they cross breed?

"Can they cross breed?"

No.

I think that Atlantics are less reproductively competent than the average Chambers Creek steelhead. And that bar is almost on the ground.

Originally there was nothing wrong with chambers creek Steelhead.
Then man planted millions of them for decades. Now they are a mess and have harmed native runs.

An expert is what collects at the end of a rubber.
Good Luck.

["Lummi fishers were incensed at the Atlantic salmon intruding in home waters of native Washington Pacific salmon. “It’s a devastation,” said Ellie Kinley, whose family has fished Puget Sound for generations. “We don’t want those fish preying on our baby salmon. And we don’t want them getting up in the rivers.”]

I laughed out loud after I read this statement. An outfit which participates in the indiscriminate killing by gillnet of threatened/endangered NATIVE stocks of fish is worried about a few thousand non-native introduced fish which probably can't interbreed anyway and wouldn't know how to kill a native smolt even with a manual? Smells like the statement of someone looking for compensation for perceived damages indeed!

Cooke's excuses for the failure are pathetic BTW and I believe those net pens have no place in the puget sound. Raise the f'ers in giant land based pens. I know we have the technology.

Like I said, Atlantics problem is that they directly compete for sales. Each AS sold is one Pacific not sold.

There real problems with the pens themselves and the discharges, problems with the spread of disease and parasites. But when they get loose they really don't do much but die.

Absolutely! The shrill cries of anguish from tribal interests (and commercial fishers in general) has ALL to do with being undercut at the market place and nothing to do with conservation.

As mentioned by others if the tribes are truly concerned about the future of our wild stocks they need to quit gill netting and get on with selective harvest methods.

If I remember right, the best way to catch these last time was to load up a garbage can with dog food or other pellets. you then start beating the water and throwing in the dog food. As the fish come up, you then net them. I remember hearing it actually worked fairly good in the beginning before the schools break up and the fish move away from the location of the pens.

That would make a great Youtube video.

Oh, and the WFC is now front and center on this.....as recaptured AS are compared to the desired hatchery Chinook. WFC giving positive strokes to hatchery fish?? Really?

Anything to get rid of the commercial AS operations is good. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Saw a few pics of them being caught at Sekiu.

Joe

Sorry, that would be a "friend" whose slime you could never rid yourself of.

While I dont agree with all of WFC's past actions, Im 100% behind their goal of stopping the current aquaculture (filed suit today) and future expansion of aquaculture in Puget sound. The media has explained that Cooke plans to expand to Ediz Hook, but that is only one of a dozen or so sites that they wish to develop. Cooke been lobbying hard in Oly the last several months....and WFC is the only group leading the charge to stop them.
We dont need a repeat of the BC fish farm issues here in Puget sound.

I'm off to bouy 10 for four days to chase some real fish, have fun and for the love of god dont eat any of those pieces of trash!

Talking about the Columbia R.,

It is interesting how negative press varies between comparing the Columbia R. holding net pens that benefit sport, Tribal and Cowboy commercials to the big bad commercial farm for profit in direct competition with commercial fishing industry.

Both net pen operations are regulated by the same strict standards due to food and defecate waste and medical treatment etc.… ----but it seems like only the net pens that don’t benefit the commercial fishing industry are the devils work.

I was up there yesterday afternoon. There are a metric sh!tton of fish along the shoreline around Cypress. We anchored in 20 FOW just inside the pens. Took a while to figure what they'd bite on but a traditional Dick Nite river setup did the trick. There were several native boats in there setting gill nets amongst the 100 or so anglers anchored up. We hooked roughly 30 fish, landed and killed 10.

PS They fight HARD. Nice aerial displays also.

We anchored up behind pens with all the rest around 11 and after many ratsnests on Bantam 50 with 30yo line and a friend that's never cast one, we bailed to troll for chinook. I brought the 9 wt, but the crowd was a bit thick for flinging flies. We went across channel to Indian Village(Guemes). At south end in shallow bay saw 5-6 boats anchored and splashing all around. Think every boat had one on. Bite was red hot for hour or two...lost track of fish hooked/killed 6. Floored by how powerful and how hard they hit. Right about when I was gonna pull out the 9 wt, bite died. Full of pellets,not a baitfish in theyre bellies,egg sacks the size of a dime. Had a blast

Like speyguy said... nothing in the bellies and tiny immature gonads.

Maturity is not just, or even primarily, a size thing. It is an age thing. Most agriculture programs try to get the product as large as they can as fast as they can. Having them mature diverts energy from salable flesh to gonads, types, etc. That is why they are looking at ways to modify and/or sterilize the production fish so that they will be the finny equivalent of Cornish Cross.

That is exactly what I was thinking when they announced this fishery.

Sure seen a lot of pictures of them dead on boat decks lately.

As was expected, the nets are having a free-for-all up there. Bellingham channel seems to be wide open to netting. There are set-net gill nets strung all over the beach from Indian Village south to about 2/3 of the way down Guemes, and secret harbor is a gill net mecca. Gill netters were setting nets right in between sport boats on anchor, I even heard of one collision between the two user groups. Also a large round haul seine boat pulled up and anchored in secret harbor, my guess is they will be round hauling all night long after the sport-o's have cleared out.

From what I can gather the sport fishing by-catch is next to 0. The target technique and locations are not conducive to catching anything other than the stray atlantic salmon. I am very disturbed and concerned to think of all of the bycatch that is hitting gillnets all throughout Bham Channel, especially knowing that it is going to go 100% unreported. WDFW had a strong presence with two large boats out, but they were all just standing on the decks and taking picutes of the madness.

Most of the fish at this time in Secret Harbor have moved on, or been killed, my guess is primarily by the netters overnight.... the majority of the remaining "school" up in the area seems to be up off of Guemes now.

That was my first thought when I heard the netters were out doing their public service of scooping up all those Atlantics.

I can just see them. Whoops darn it keep catching these peaking Kings and Coho oh well got to pay for my gas.

It's too much to hope WDFW is on top of this.

Went out yesterday with 3 flyfishers + casting gear as I was really pumped to hook up on the 9wt. More boats/more jumpers, did not see a fish caught on a rod/checker saw 0 at 5:30pm. 1 jumper hit the boat and we saw a fish swim right at the pink clouser near surface and went right by it. I threw the same pink hoochie/spoon that was hot a few days ago, nothing. Stunning blonde woman next to us, apparently bored with the guys not catching, almost caught one mid air with landing net....Highlight of the day. They just took the day off biting. Went across to pens and saw lots of boats,no jumpers(3 ish?). If gillnetters/seiners are out there day/night, eventually samish fish are gonna be caught. Not sure if anyone noticed in the early pic(seattle times) of seine boat....guy in fish hold had a lot of samish hatchery kings at his feet. Go get em...Tom

Interesting stuff...

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/salmon/atlantic_catch_map.php

They are all over area 9 right now... hopefully wdfw will give us a day to take them out

I believe I lost one trolling the beach South of ayock. Hit a gibbs, 33207- hans spoon @ 15ft on the 'rigger.