Smelt, to require a License--Yes or No???

1/30/2023

Smelt, a license needed???? A Bill requiring a license to dip Cowlitz smelt heard in Olympia.

There are many persons from Washington and Oregon that descend on the banks of the Cowlitz River to dip smelt. At this time there is no license required but its gotten to be so popular that during the short opening, its impossible for WDFW LE to control.

I like smelt, have dipped them on the Cowlitz, the Wynoochee, and along the Washington coast. I remember the days of the 80's and 90's, when the Cowlitz season ran 24/7, all year long.....as all good things, more people, more commercial time, Mt. St. Helens, the run got less and less. WDFW was slow to react, way to slow.....kinda like with Native steelhead, so now "a smelt season, for sports, might be only 6 or 7 hours......commercial netting time is much more.

Reason for this post "Should smelt be licensed for all"?????? Should all person have to dip their own limits, except for those with WDFW handicapped license?????

What do you think?????

What's the argument for having it different than any other type of fishery? Limited opportunity?The size of the fish? If that's the case then we shouldn't need licenses at all.

Historically, the food-fish fisheries were free. I believe that this was a cry-over from the agency funding sources. Game fish (WDG) was license fee supported while food fish were Genral-Fund (general tax revenues). As time change and we get more into the pay to play we create licenses. Kinda makes no sense to put on a fishery for free but require management and enforcement. A simple, but not money-grabbing solution, is to just add smelt (and all other non-licensed species) to the list of license-required. No need to creat a license or add a fee.

should be added to current license. Consistency

Yep. If ya' got a fishing license, you can fish for . . . fish. And shellfish too. Keep it simple.

Absolutely. To f4b's and Sg's points, make it simple; you want to fish and are non-native, you need a fishing license.

And seaweed. I think your fishing license covers seaweed. Although, for the life of me I don't see seaweed as "wildlife" or "fish"

This has been a pet-peeve of mine for almost two decades. I usually post a rant on this BB every February.

There is no reason to allow folks to catch and keep an important fish species such as smelt without a fishing license. That should be the bare minimum. WDFW could establish a 'smelt only' license if they were concerned about it. I certainly hope they require a fishing license for all smelt dippers. It's long overdue.

And....... recall that smelt are ESA listed. It's really difficult comprehend that anyone from anywhere on the planet can harvest about 10 pounds of this ESA listed species, daily, in the State of Washington without a license. No limit on the number of people who can participate, and no way to know how many people are actually participating.

WDFW doesn't set hunting and fishing license requirements and fees. That is done by the Washington Legislature. Several times in the long past, WDF/WDFW has requested that the legislature establish some sort of license requirement for taking eulachon/smelt. It was mostly rejected by SW WA legislators that felt it was simply another money grab by the agency and there should be a freebie for some family fun .....and General Fund contributes to this food fish anyway and there are no expensive hatcheries and large scale management costs (at the time). Of course things are different now.

Seaweed is covered under a Combination License and/or Shellfish/Seaweed license. As best I can tell, seaweed license requirement was first set in 1994 under Senate Bill 6125.

To the original question - YES!

Without getting deeply into the issue of free participants not understanding or wanting to understand rules there is the reasonable concern about availability of LE to oversee different fisheries.

Maybe a better question would be to ask why shouldn't it require a license?

Yes to license.
But i don't think it should take 6' of paper receipts like our salmon licensing. Smelt seasons are measured in days now. Wdfw pulls enforcement pessonnel from all over to work the smelt day/ days. The smelters should have to pay to play...$10??

With runs rising, state questions how to manage Columbia, Cowlitz river smelt

The Colombian

The public is being asked to give their opinion on an environmental analysis focused on managing Eulachon in the Columbia River basin.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife drew up a draft management plan for Eulachon, also known as smelt, in the Washington and Oregon populations.

“Overall, this updated plan is not a drastic departure from current management strategies,” said Laura Heironimus, Columbia River smelt lead with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, in a news release last week. “The updated plan is meant to help us continue to put conservation first while still offering flexibility for strategic harvest when the population can support it.”

Commercial and recreational smelt fisheries once thrived along the Lower Columbia River and its tributaries, WDFW said in the news release. The Columbia River mainstem averaged anywhere from 200,000 to 1 million pounds of fish every year.

The Cowlitz River before 2010 accounted for the largest returns when it came to smelt, according to the Washington and Oregon Eulachon Management Plan. Smelt returns from the Cowlitz River alone could reach 2 million to 3.7 million pounds of fish on any given year between 1938 and 2010.

Abundance soon changed due to overharvesting, bycatch in shrimp fisheries and climate change, the report said.

By 2009, the Cowlitz River on average saw a startling decline of only 100,000 pounds of fish. Poor returns spelled bad news for smelt, and the fish is listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

ESA’s listing led to the closure of most fisheries in the river basin between 2011 and 2013. A conservation-minded commercial fishery opened in 2014 to monitor smelt returns but saw such poor runs that even that fishery closed for a year in 2019.

In 2014, 18,600 pounds of smelt were commercially harvested in the mainstem of the Columbia River. In 2018, only 100 pounds were commercially harvested in the mainstem.

The only recreational fishing opened after 2014 did so only on the Cowlitz River and the Sandy River in Oregon with a limit of 10 pounds per angler, and only by emergency rule.

But the fish have made a cautiously promising comeback, according to a 2023 state report on sturgeon and smelt management.

The silvery, bright-eyed fish started to grow again in population around 2020 between the Skeena River in British Columbia and the Mad River in Northern California.

About 10,300 pounds of smelt were commercially harvested in 2020 in the mainstem of the Columbia River, then 11,000 in 2021 and 27,400 pounds in 2022.

A new management plan

The Washington and Oregon fish and wildlife departments are using this data to draft an updated plan that seeks to open recreational and commercial fisheries once again — with a few caveats and lots of caution.

The plan includes an updated monitor system focused on public outreach, environmental DNA, developing a publicly funded “test” fishery and acoustic surveys. These surveys, used in studying Pacific hake off the Oregon and Washington shores, sends a ping into the river to “listen”




Smelt, also known as eulachon, were classified in 2010 as at a moderate risk of extinction. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is planning to find new ways of managing the populations across the Columbia River basin. COURTESY PHOTO / WDFW

for echoes off objects in the water. The louder the echo, the bigger the fish.

Applying fishery management means a flexible, abundance-based approach that divides harvests into stepwise phases, the draft plan reads.

Under lower phases, only the Columbia River mainstem could open commercial fisheries. Recreational fisheries would be limited to the Cowlitz and Sandy rivers and with narrower windows for anglers. If the population trends upward, both commercial and recreational fisheries on the mainstem and in tributaries could open.

When population is high and increasing, harvest rates are set at 10% maximum based on data from the year prior. Commercial fisheries on the Columbia River and its tributaries could have 60 open periods for 24 hours per period. Recreational fisheries could open for up to 15 periods at 10 hours per period.

Depending on whether abundance grew or shrunk in the last two years and what trends predict, commercial and recreational fishing will vary. Harvest would be limited to percentages: about 13 million to 20.4 million pounds at 6%, 6 million to 12.9 million pounds at 4%, or 1 million to 5.9 million pounds at 2% based on the different designations.

Most open periods follow smelt return patterns, with the best fishing from February to April.

Anonymous public comments posted on WDFW’s website show some support for regulation.

“Recreational dippers should be required to have fishing licences (sic) like in Oregon,” one commenter said. “Also since the commercial fishery has very low participation it should be eliminated.”

“Many people take part in the recreational smelt dipping that don’t do any other fishing throughout the year,” another wrote. “It’s a family friendly activity and should not be required to have a full fishing license to participate. Maybe a 1 or 3 day license, like for clam digging. ALL commercial fishing in the Columbia should be eliminated, especially smelt.”

No reason they couldn't include smelt under the current standard license; no need for anything extra. Currently a 1-Day Combo can be had for $11.35, for the folks that would only do smelt I think that makes sense.