WILD Steelhead Sales - Seattle - Puget Sound

While I was up in Seattle last weekend we toured Pike Street Market. All 3 fish shops had Oly Pen Indian gillnetted native steelhead, purchased for around a dollar per pound, on sale for $4 per pound. The one I'm holding up in the pic was about a 20 pounder. Lots of them were big nates! I talked to the owner/managers of all 3 shops to make a case for boycotting the buying/selling of wild steelhead. They ONLY care about the large profit margin. Area fishers should organize a protest march with TV news cams present! If we can reduce the market for these nates the netting likely will be reduced some too.

[img]http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/aol?imgid=1752703[/img]


Other things up there are much more positive! We took a floatplane flightsee - below is a photo of member Jim fishing for blackmouth Kings in his Fish4Fun boat in south Elliot Bay (around 12:30 pm Saturday - unless someone has an identical looking boat like his out there - when I realized it was F4F right below our plane I got the camera out but by then had to shoot back at them).

[img]http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/aol?imgid=1752671[/img]

Seattle Center below. The colorful architecture at the foot of the Space Needle is the new Experience Music Project rock museum - a must see!

[img]http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/aol?imgid=1752755[/img]

And of course below is the Dog House (aka - Husky Stadium), where the upcoming 2002 scene of the 2 Oregon school's big victories will be . (Just teasin you Dawg hounds ).

[img]http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/aol?imgid=1752786[/img]

We also took the ferry over to tour the Kitsap Peninsula. Highly recomend it! I saw a blackmouth fishing hot spot looking north from the Boedel Reserve called Jefferson Head. I glassed a few boats for a bit with no bent rods/nets. Poulsbo has close access to fishing Hoods Canal; and a nice view of the Olympic Mountains from the town's upper road. Port Townsend has some of the best fishing access around Puget Sound, and great scenery! A short ride over to Vancouver Island too. - RT




[This message has been edited by Reel Truth (edited 03-30-2001).]

RT,

Guess ya busted in the bay on Saturday. Good guess buddy that is the "Fish 4 Fun" Weldcraft sliding across the bay looking for another fish to go with the 1 we had in the box.

I'm a Seattle resident and I would love to organize a stand against Pike Place Market. A market with their visibility selling wild steelhead is a huge problem. Are there any other locals who would like to join me and figure out a way to fight this? I'm talking about bringing the media in on it somehow. Any ideas out there??? Stopping this illicit trade at PPM would be a big step. Thanks for the report, Reel Truth. Sadly, it's not a surprise.

Sorry RT, but the Dawgs play at OSU this year and are in that 2-year no-play rotation with U of O.

Nice presentaton, though.

Parker

flyfisher1066-
Good luck man!
This has been brought up many times in the past, with a few people willing to pitch in.
But you will find that most people are a bunch of blowhards. They say they want to do something, but will not follow through.

Some months back I offered to help organize a peaceful protest against our local market for selling wild fish. 3 weeks after posting I had only recieved two emails of people willing to help.

<I>Right now I am too busy, with work and a wedding, sorry!</I>

------------------
"Just Say No To Sovereign Nations!"

I get your drift, riverswild. Unfortunately, you're right, most people are lame. But I still have hope, maybe in vain, but I'd like to do something, even if it's nothing more than getting an electronic petition going or maybe jamming the markey with e-mails just to get them thinking about it. I doubt it would work, but maybe if the media took notice........I mean, none of these are original ideas, I just don't see that as an excuse to give up. Well, my offer is still good to anyone out there!!!! Riverswild, sounds like you've tried before. Still up for it?

Flyfisher, I personaly would love to march on the market with you and I'm sure I could get others to join in. Let's make a date and do it!!! I challenge all you other readers to join in.If the media would cover this, just maybe we could make a differance.Lets put a stop to this #$%& now!!! Flyfisher, you can reach me
@425-576-8789.

Did any of you read the 03/16 post on the bulletin board part of this site from "Can't believe my eyes" he/she was talking about the wild steelhead being netted at LaPush and sold for $1 a pound... I don't know where else this is happening, but here's my thoughts on this subject...

The reason this is happening is MONEY... lets face it. LaPush, especially is a very depressed place. If we took the money out of the equation, or proved to them that they could make much more money from the same fish (and let those fish live) then this netting wouldn't happen. What I'd like to see is someone teach the Native netters down there that if they instead turned to guiding, like has happened in other places (Queets, Quinault, isn't it?) then they could make more money off the fish AND let the fish live and go up river and spawn... for future years.

Barring this, maybe some people (ie. guides that use the Quill system, fishermen that love to fish there) should get together and put some money together and pay the Natives NOT TO FISH... somewhat like the U.S. Agriculture subsidies... if the Natives are only getting $1.00 a lb., it sounds like they're only making a couple of grand a week at the peak of the run... not all that much money in the scheme of things, especially if we're talking about decimating a wild stock.

-Norm.

Yes, this has come up before and as a fellow Seattleite I also find it offensive when I stop in down at the market for some fresh goods to have to see all the nates on ice. The problem I see with getting any media outlets to cover something like this is a reluctance to appear negative about anything having to do with the tribes. Remember Brando on the Nisqually?

It is perfectly legal for the tribes to sell their products to the guys at Pike Place. I think we should first look at how other groups have managed to change the public perception towards practices that are accepted without a second thought by the general public. Look at the way 696 was portrayed by the general mainstream media. Grubby, greedy, redneck sportsfishermen trying to take away the poor Ballardite's way of life. How can we not come across in a similar way or worse, looking like a PETA-type group opposed to eating fish. I'm just playing devil's advocate here.
You're preaching to the choir if you try to convince me that it's repugnant to see so many of these fish on ice.

Reducing the market for wild steelhead through education should be something for the WSC to look into. Speaking of the WSC, when are we going to see the WSC website? The mention in STS could be drawing a lot of traffic to a big "under construction" sign right now. But I've gotten off the point.

Didn't someone find some contact information for the fish markets the last time this came up. Another good contact would the committee/council that runs Pike Place. Let me do some poking around for different people we could be flooding with email and letters. I should have done this before. Better late than never. Gimmie awhile and I'll post some contacts. Anyone else who comes up with names and addresses please do the same here.

And thanks, RT, for bringing this up again. Picture's worth a thousand words. Glad to see recent events haven't dampened your interest in being a part of this strange virtual fishing community.

Bruce

[This message has been edited by B. Gray (edited 03-30-2001).]

Bruce,

The commercial sale of wild steelhead is a topic that will be tackled by the Wild Steelhead Coalition and is outlined in the Action and Business Plan distributed to members. We will discuss the Action and Business Plan at our upcoming general meeting on April 4th in Bothell. For more information, please see the thread advertising the meeting. Hope to see you there!

Jim Starkes

Regarding the WSC website. Nobody is more anxious to get it up than the Board. We met for five hours on Wednesday night and a good portion of it was devoted to web issues. As it now stands, the site should be up by the middle of next week. I've spent some time today going over the prototype and it looks like the bare bones version will soon go public.

Duggan Harman

Flyfisher and Craig. It is a challenge to get appathetic fishermen out to help the cause. Unfortunate - but this attitude may have to change soon if they want to continue getting fair opportunities to fish. If you guys get something organized, let me know by post or e-mail (which will change on the 11th when I get rid of AOL - Almost On Line - and get cable net at home here). I will bring a sign up to protest and will try to get some NW Oregonians up there too. And post to a number of fishing websites about it also. Bruce, as far as media not covering this at a place like Pike, I disagree. They covered the Makah whaling scene extensively w/o concern of offending the Indians or others. I doubt they would be overly concerned that filming a story on protests against Indian netting of dwindling irreplacable wild steelhead stocks might be misconstrued as anti-Indian. It's an anti-gillnetting of nates issue, regardless of who's doing it. And it's both a good and proper news story. Also, there is a % of the OP Indians that don't want the nates netted either. Thanks for your efforts to get numbers and addys to send protests to Bruce. As for trying to persuade more of the Indians into guiding instead of netting, it would help a lot to first reduce the market for dead nates. Also, most of them aren't hook and line fishing experts like Letty Potter is. But a gradual change-over is worth promoting. ..... Hey Parker, go back up and read I had posted "2002" for the Oregon schools victories at Husky Stadium . - RT

Glad to hear the WSC is looking at commercial wild steelhead sales. I only recently sent in my membership check so I'm looking forward to seeing the plans for that. The recent "get off your a$$" posts mustve prompted me to finally get more involved...

Bruce

This is a sad situation for sure. I just emailed Craig Harr and told him that if it is arranged for a Thursday or Friday, or say 5pm on a Saturday or Sunday I can be there. I work a Sat-Wed schedule. In the mean time if someone will re-post those contacts for the PPM we can for sure email them with our displeasure.

would help the cause out a lot if some native americans showed up and spoke of the same topic=========damn they would make a killen at guiden---parden the (they)-------all would make a killen----businesses --guides---fishermen----its amazing how the fishen dallor is dispersed--goes along ways----been workin 14 16 hr days but would love to stand in on a protest --just need the time fram to let the boss know that ill be gone

way cool constructive thinken goin on keep it up lets get these rivers shiney again
will

Bringing this thread back to the top in conjunction with the Nets On The Chehalis thread, particularly the latter posts there. Also to support the WSC April Meeting thread. ....

The WSC (Wild Steelhead Coalition) April meeting is this Wednesday evening the 4th at 7:00 pm in Bothel, WA (between Kenmore and Woodinville off the northest end of Lake Washington) at the Bothel American Legion Post, 19213 Bothel Way NE. Any questions can be directed to Duggan Harman at either dharman@onemain.com or (425)-481-7537. And site owner here, Bob Ball, is involved with the WSC and you can ask questions herein. This is finally a well organized group that will soon have clout to fight to save our native fish runs. Good numbers of caring anglers at these meetings, and joining the organization if you are able, will start to make a difference in our NW fisheries; so spread the word and let's try to get a good turnout. I am going to try to make it all the way up there from the west side of Portland; if I can get thru all that traffic on up I-5 by 7:00 pm. No easy task, but worth a try . Are there any small airstrips near that area that will allow small planes to fly back out at night? Thanks. - RT

RT-
Hope to see you there. It is wonderful to realize that we are making such large waves that we are bringing up people all the way up from that there state down South for our meetings.

BTW-
Martha Lake which is not very far from Bothell, about 10 minutes has an airfield where you could very possibly land a small plane.

------------------
Ryan S. Petzold
aka
Sparkey and/or Special

I posted these about a month ago and I'll do it again. These are the addresses of some of the people at PPM who deserve an earful over their wild steelhead sales. While we all figure out a way to fight this officially, I think we should all take a minute or two and e-mail them our concerns. It can't hurt, can it?
Daniel Lieberman, Executive Director, execdir@pikeplacemarket.org.
Media Relations
Contact Andrew Hanson-Krueger at andrew@pikeplacemarket.org.
Shopping Information & Customer Concerns
Contact Cheryll Davis at cheryll@pikeplacemarket.org
I agree with you guys. Education of the public is the most important thing to focus on. That's why media coverage is so crucial. I also agree that media coverage is a possibility. If you have noticed, several tribal-related stories have run recently in the Seattle daily papers. I recall, vaguely, some coverage of wild steelhead sales a few years back. Does anyone remember this?

Flyfisher, If you set up a protest at PP MarketI will be there with as many people as I can bring - if you do it on the weekend I wil bring the whole family That might be cool as I have little ones and they ask very direct questions - if it is during the week I will bring some of my coworkers with me.

Stadle, sounds good. Thanks for the interest. I'm going to start a new thread on this to see how many folks we can band up. Please keep spreading the word, everyone. The more the merrier. Once we have a good group committed, we can make plans. We'll have to act soon, though, while the fish are there. Everyone: please let me know EXACTLY when you are available so that we can accomodate everyone's schedules. Either e-mail me or I'll check the forum daily. flyfisher1066@hotmail.com Please reply on the new thread I'm about to start right now...

Thanks for posting those contacts flyfisher. Let's get those letters flowing...

And RT, you have a float plane? You could practically pull up to the meeting...

Bruce, no floatplane. We took a flightsee out of Kemore Air. My brother has a small plane he's teaching me to fly and thought maybe we could just fly up to a small close airport and back out at night. Guess none close though; and that I-5 traffic is too much to go thru from done here. Let us know how the WSC meeting goes with a post for us. Thanks.