When you see a place offering steelhead for sale, ASK if it is native or hatchery and how it was caught. Show them that their customers care about such thing.

The problem is that the retailers and resturants don't know the difference between hatchery and native steelhead. In fact they would rather market it as "wild" since this sounds better to the uneducated consumer. Who wants to buy a fish labled hatchery or farm raised if you can buy a fish labled wild.

Even if the retailer knows the difference, there are no guarentees unless they have the whole fish, and can determine it's oirigin. I would not trust the fish wholesallers as far as I can throw them. They will tell the retailer anything to make the sale. Trust me, I was in the resturant industry for several years, and have alot of experience working with the major fish wholesalers.

I've often thought about creating a web-site listing the retailers that are selling steelhead, and asking consumers to boycot those establishments. Done properly, this could motivate the retailers not to carry steelhead.

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Steel-Addicted

Educating the common consumer about the negative impact of supporting a native steelhead fishery is a task that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

Not that this makes it any less necessary.

When I was going to my high school junior prom we ate at Anothneys in Seattle. I asked the waiter if it was wild or hatchery salmon and we looked at me like I was a dumb a$$ or something. He replied "wild of course" in his english accent. I ended up trying something new. My date was so embarressed she couldn't even look the waiter in the eye, when she ordered. She told her friends once we got to the dance and they gave me so much crap for it. Now she is used to it and even asks it herself. I guess I picked a keeper.

I've heard that wild steelhead tastes kinda like bald eagle!

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Steel-Addicted

There is no non-tribal commercial harvest of steelhead in Washington State. Game fish are not supossed to be harvested commercially. All the steelhead in grocery stores are farmed raised. It clearly states this on the label. I would assume that steelhead sold in resturants is the same. Now if you want to see wild steelhead for sale go to the Pike Place Market. This time of the year they always have tribal caught fish from the OP. Unfortunately I do not think the average consumer really cares where the fish comes from as long as it is available!

the last time i was at Anthonys i noticed that too...they have "wild king salmon" on the menu, although im sure it is probably farmed atlantic and no one can tell the difference after cooking anyway, it did seem kinda odd...i wanted to ask the waitress if they could whip up some spotted owl cobbler for dessert

I just got back from a trip out around the canal with my wife and noticed that the skoke indians had fresh steelhead for sale!I wanted to stop and cause trouble but my wife is on vacation and would not apreciate it!This is one of the reasons that I am getting to be against hatchery fish.If there was no hatchery smolts being stocked in the river would the indians be able to net?I would geuss that maybe 200 hatch fish return to the river and how many nates get clobered? It also does give the wrong impresion to people that are not in the know!

Back in December my wife had lunch at McCormicks in Seattle. Mentioned when she got home that there on the the blackboard of lunch specials was "Hoh River Steelhead."

Wild steelhead is sold regularly in the spring. Pike Place market sells Quinault and Hoh wild or used to if I remember right. If a restaurant advertises it is wild it is wild. Wild caught anyway. Meaning it wasn't scooped from a net pen. I went to college in Bellingham and it wasn't unusual in the taverns to be asked to purchase a native steelhead from a native american which is sad in many ways. Last I remember they were getting eighteen cents a pound but I am sure the price has gone up over the years.

the price is way up to 50 cents a pound. if people buy less then the price will go down and they will just catch more steelies to make the same amount of money.
steel-addicted, where are you getting your information about little or no enforcement of the fish regs in regards to native netting? have you seen a few examples and decided that all native fishers are totally unregulated? i spend close to a hundred days a year on the quinalt and have never seen anything like you are saying. in fact, last year the quinalts shut down their entire summer fishery, because the sockeye run was way down.i believe the tribal authorities are more concerned about the resource than the white guys are. keep in mind , that before the white guys came into the picture ,that the indians had an almost unlimited supply of fish and this lasted for thousands of years. then along comes the white guys and within a hundred years , the fish are just about gone.is it really the indians that are to blame? commercial sales of fish and netting are issues that get a lot of people upset, but in reality, the fish decline is a complicated problem with many contributing factors ( most of which are beyond the natives control)

Bardo,
I agree that the whiteman has succesfully wiped the fish out.I do not blame the indians for that.
You keep refering to the Quinault Indians but I think they are a little unique.How about the skokes?They are your next door neighbor.How do the skokes justify the netting of steelhead?I am right that it is because the state puts hatchery fish in there?How many of those fish sold for 50.lb are hatchery and how many are nates.?I just don't see how it can be in the best interest of the tribe to continue to kill off that river to spite the white man!I ask you only because I think you can answer not trying to pick on you!

the skoks are a different story. they dont target nates. ( there aren't many left)people dont understand the skok saltwater fishery. all those chums that they strip the eggs from and throw overboard, are their hatchery fish that they raised. they all die in the salt water, because they have nowhere to go. on any given day. i can look out of my window,and count over a hundred seals on the mouth of the skok. these seals are responsible for a lot of the fish decline.( i think high levels of pcb's are contributing to a large amount of fish , seal, and bald eagle mortality.) look back only 50 years ago, and you will find a large skok run with monster steelies. the biggest culprit on the skok is the commie pinko skumbag tacoma city light dam up at lake cushman.the only people trying to do anything about that dam is the skok indians.the skoks are not the problem. take out the dam,plant back the trees,get rid of the nets and the fishermen, and then you will see a great fish run on the skok

Thanks for the reply Bardo I am just trying to understand more not flame
I agree with the seal situation it is even worse over in front of the Dose!Old timers blame the bridge.They say that the killer whales do not come into the canal and do there thing anymore.Some thing has to be done but god look at Hershial!

I understand the chum situation to.The chums spawn in the bottoms of those streams and end up back out into the canal anyways.I have no problem with that fishery.Chico creek fishery is mostly plants people don't realize that either!The sport fishermen out there for the chum fisheries do our sport no better!
I would love to see that damn dam come down!There are still andromonous fish in the lk. that could return with the native genes needed to realy bring a river back after the dam.Are the skokes realy fighting to bring the dam down? Or are they looking for money because of what they have lost because of that damn.I see bits and pieces when the license comes up for renewal but that is it.I personaly think that tacoma city light does owe them greatly.I am going to do some research tonight.
Logging in the past was done with no regard for the river habitat but I think that the logging practices have improved greatly.They are definately guilty of filling that river with sediment and warming it up in the past.I do not feel sorry for the people living down in the flood plain though.They try to say that the river is filled with sediment from logging and that is why there yards get wet.I think it is just an attempt to justify dredging the river for there own gains instead of returning the river to its original state.That is why it makes good farm land,it floods.It floods because it is the flatter of the canal tribs.
I guess the argument could be made that native fish are not targeted.Making the argument on the basis that the nates do not return untill march aprill?I do not know when the skokes do net exactly but I am guessing that it falls in with the sport fishing and cuts off somewhere in Feb?I still would love to know the ratios of hatch versus nate in the nets even that early,which is not early at all as far as I am concerned.I do not figure but a couple of hundred hatch fish return at present at .50 a lb what would the gain be?It seems more harm than good is done.I often wonder how many of the netted steelhead are bought and eaten versus just being thrown away.
I know nothing of pcbs and the skoke?Are they a by product of the dam?Used to keep the turbines cool or such?
This is a very complicated issue all the way around the point!I am just sick of getting dizzy every time I Poke my head into the whole picture and am trying hard to understand more.I am also very interested in what is best for the east side of the oly mts!Even if that mean shutting the canal down!