Presidents Message for December is an Article written by Ron Garner
We haven’t seen fish returns like the last two years, in
many years. Great ocean conditions are the biggest contributor of healthy
returns. We were successful in bringing NOAA, Tribes, WDFW, and Federal Government
for funding, together to make more fish. We had a small meeting with NOAA West
Coast top officials on making more fish for the orcas. The starving orcas were
used as the driver. We came out with NOAA giving us the green light to make
more fish and would cover us. State, feds, and tribes all increased hatchery
production through this to make fish for the orcas and us all. Having a lot
more fish in the system has helped with bigger returns, I can’t think of anyone
that has ever done this before.
Butch Smith, tribal members, certain people, and I came
together to bring more fish returns back in Washington. We drove this bus hard,
hit a lot of curbs and guardrails, but always correcting. This was through the
previous WDFW commission and extending into the current commission, we were
successful in getting them to vote to make more 50 million additional chinook
for Orcas and us. With the help of our Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
with Lorraine Loomis, she provided us a letter to the Governor to remove HSRG
(Hatchery Science Review Group) from its budget. That letter was the basis we
used to remove HSRG from the WDFW Salmon Policy, that led to removing and
replacing that policy with a WDFW Commission Hatchery Policy. We brought the
tribes and state together to make the first ever Comanager Hatchery Policy.
Wild Fish Conservancy sued to stop the program we made to make
more fish in 13 hatcheries to feed the orcas. We came together for two years
with many organizations and tribes to save our orcas. We had people from all
over the world at these meetings asking us, crying, and pleading to us to save
our local orcas. We came together for over two years to save them and feed
them. So what is Wild Fish Conservancy’s message? Orcas should starve rather
than eat hatchery fish?
Why are our natural origin fish not making it? Honestly, I
cannot stand the term Climate Change. But the environment is always changing
and is not just because of man. It has been changing before we were here. The
Puget Sound was carved by a big glacier that is no longer here. That is change.
A recent NOAA study has revealed the loss of about 85% of historical tidal
wetlands in California, Oregon, and Washington. Columbia River is at 74% and
Salish sea is at 85.2% loss.
Take a look at the Skagit River picture that is only an example of what all
of Western Washington used to look like in the 1880s is when
industry took off in our area. They straightened and channelized rivers for
transportation, flood control, and made more use of the land for farming and
whatever else was needed. There was no looking back and no thought that there
could be an end to salmon.
The rivers were straightened and channelized increasing
velocity. Increased velocity tears trees and logs from the rivers and banks.
See Everett trestle picture. With this turbidity, salmon eggs will not stay in
the gravel and under rocks. Trees alone dragging down the rivers will disrupt
the bottom and eggs. Prior to rebuilding the rivers, water flow was slower.
Flood water simply overflowed the banks. Redds or salmon egg beds were not
affected as much. With channelizing the rivers, it increased speed and velocity
and 99% of the eggs get washed down the rivers. Only 1% of those 1% are what
make it back. But hatcheries are not as affected as the naturally spawning
fish. Hatchery workers can adjust the flow of the water in the hatcheries as
needed and clean sediment off the eggs to keep them from suffocating. This is
why hatchery fish have greater returns percentagewise. Realistically we need to
step up broodstock in hatcheries. Change to integrated from segregated hatchery
programs could help. This uses the broodstock from the rivers instead of the
returning hatchery stock. This is providing there is enough broodstock left.
This way it’s the same stock that is already in the rivers and a better match
for natural spawning.
We are fighting for more hatchery fish for all fishers and
orcas. These hatchery fish also provide protection from predators as well as
massive food for the entire ecosystem. When hatchery production gets cut, there
are less fish for birds, seals, sea lions, orcas, etc., to eat. The lesser ESA
natural spawners or “wild” fish are now exposed more than ever to higher
predation. This could easily finish off their runs. The preservationist’s
answer is to cut hatchery production. Washington state cut chinook and coho
hatchery production by 163 million fish annually since 1992 through 2016. If
chinook and coho were going to rebound by cutting hatchery production, wouldn’t
this have been the time they would have rebounded with such massive cuts to
hatcheries? In the graph, you can see the orca decline follows the hatchery
decline. They cut 63 million in the Puget Sound alone. With our terrible return
rate of ½ of 1%. That would be 315,000 more fish swimming in our waters for us
to catch and go spawn.
The Chasco scientific paper states that “by 2015,
pinnipeds consumed double that of resident
killer whales and six times greater than the combined commercial and
recreational catches.” We
also know that avians or birds eat massive amounts of smolts besides pinnipeds.
At least 30 million salmon smolts don’t make it to the Puget Sound saltwater.
The same with Columbia River. There should be some sort of allowance for this
loss, but isn’t. I was accepted to be in a WDFW Avian salmon predation work
group to figure out how many smolts are getting consumed.
I find it very irritating that judges award the wild fish people
money by using PHOS. We don’t even know if our fish are even making it to the
ocean. They could be dying before they get there. But these lawsuit decisions
are made from the lack of natural spawners on the spawning beds. It’s not the
hatchery fishes fault for surviving. One other fact that most do not know is
that chinook head to the river mouths when born. They live there for the first
1½ years. What else lives there? Seals and sealions.
The only reason we have fish is because of hatcheries. Rivers with
no chinook hatcheries, have had their chinook go extinct, with possibly the
exception of the Lewis River. Where are our mitigation fish that were supposed
to cover for the destruction of habitat?
Tribes were guaranteed
fish and game in trade for millions of acres of their land, under tribal treaty
rights. A Treaty Right- “inescapable conclusion is that if hatchery fish were
to be excluded from the allocation, the Indians’ treaty secured right to an
adequate supply of fish the right for which they traded millions of acres of
valuable land and resources would be placed in jeopardy.”
From Judge Orrick, US vs Washington, 1980.
Legacy of Mitigation for
Lost Habitat and Fisheries, “Hatcheries are intended to replace the production
of streams destroyed by dams, diversions, pollution, or obstructions, and to
build up the runs and streams that are not producing
at full capacity…” From Washington
Dept of Fisheries, US vs. Washington 1980.
This binding treaty was
all before ESA. Where are these fish? It’s time we start educating each other
and work to remove PHOS from policies. Some Hatchery and Genetic Management
Plans have started writing out PHOS that was installed by HSRG. While the
general public is blaming WDFW on the loss of fisheries, you should know it’s
the preservationist’s lawsuits forcing this. They force hatchery production
cuts and closures. Federal judges are forcing WDFW to do this. Hatchery fish
are what we catch! They fight to make us as many fish as they can. It’s a very
complicated mess overall. Just remember in your day-to-day job, if you have a
customer always complaining, calling you names, and talking down to you, how
hard are you going to work on their behalf. Will you stop answering the phone?
It’s time to take a good look at WDFW and you can build relationships within
and help them get to a better place for all of us. I do this. I try to bring
ideas to the table and it helps. Remember they are just people too.
If there were a simple
answer, we would have already done it. You need to know who your fishery enemy
really is and some of them are working over some of the WDFW Commissioners to
get rid of hunting and fishing. Tribes and us spent hundreds of hours working
with our new commission and got a 6 to 3 vote to make the new Comanager
Hatchery Policy. What does that say about the 3 that voted no?
Politics are not fun but if
we are not at the table we are on the table. I have lots more info and if we
don’t come together to save our fisheries, then we won’t be fishing anymore. Do
it for your kids and grandkids. We need for all fishers to know the information
I just gave you to build on. The more people know the easier we can move
forward.
Did you know that some
yelloweye rockfish that are here today were
Washington residents before it became a state in 1889? They have been and
continue to be an important part of our heritage.
Halibut and bottomfish fishing have also been a part of Washington’s
culture for hundreds of years. Many generations of fishermen have relied on
halibut and bottomfish for food and recreation.
Fishery Management
A recent stock
assessment indicates that the yelloweye rockfish
population has declined over 80% from its initial level. As a result,
immediate action must be taken if the stocks of these long-lived fish are
to be rebuilt.
To rebuild yelloweye rockfish populations, the harvest
opportunities for this species must be severely curtailed. In recent
years, the Pacific Fishery Management Council has set yelloweye rockfish harvest levels for all commercial, recreational, and tribal
fisheries combined for California, Oregon, and Washington of about 17
metric tons (mt). This number includes yelloweye rockfish that are discarded at sea.
The Washington
recreational harvest target is about 2.7 mt (fewer than 1,000 fish) in coastal waters. To put this in
perspective, in 2001, the Washington recreational fishery harvested 15 mt.
Halibut Fishery in Jeopardy
Yelloweye rockfish, in general, are harvested during the Washington
recreational halibut fishery. If the yelloweye rockfish catch is projected to exceed 2.7 mt,
then Pacific ocean waters adjacent to Washington outside 25 fathoms will be
closed to recreational bottomfish fishing
(including halibut).
If yelloweye rockfish cannot be
avoided when anglers are targeting halibut, then we may have to close
recreational halibut fishing in the future to protect yelloweye rockfish. Because the yelloweye rockfish
stock may not be rebuilt for over 100 years, the problem of managing the yelloweye fishery will continue through our lifetime;
however, you have the ability to help save the halibut fishery now and
preserve the yelloweye resource for the future.
Yelloweye Rockfish Facts:
· Live
to be 120 years old
· Range
extends from Mexico to Alaska
· Found
in deeper, rocky bottom areas
· Slow growing,low productive species
· Reddish-orange
in color with bright yelloweye
· Commonly
called "red snapper"
· Often
spend their entire lifetime on one rockpile
How You Can Help
· If you
are participating in the recreational halibut or bottomfish fishery, please avoid areas that are known to have yelloweye rockfish.
· If you
do accidentally catch a yelloweye, please return
to the water s soon as possible.
· Help
spread the word to others about the severity of the yelloweye rockfish depleted population and the possible consequences of not avoiding yelloweye areas
· If you
do not know what areas may have yelloweye rockfish, please consult a local resort, motel, or charter office or other
expert before fishing
