Ron Garner State Board President Puget Sound Anglers

It certainly has been an interesting year. 2018 has been ground shaking and there are some big players that have helped us start to change our fisheries future for the better. The fires have been so hot and frequent there has not been time to bring people up to speed before grabbing the fire extinguishers and jump head first into the next fire.  We have a new WDFW Director that I personally is one of the best in some years. Kelly Susewind. I did not know much about him in the beginning but can tell you I feel he is the stability that the department needs. This position is a thankless position but Kelly took the position to try to fisx our fishing and hunting problems. I have met with him quite often and like his views.

You should be very happy with our WDFW Commission as they have made some really big strides to bring back fishing for you and help the Orcas at the same time.

They have done 3 very big things this year.

1. Suspended Hatchery Science Review Groups experiment.

2. Made a Policy Statement to make more flexibility for WDFW to deal with Pinnipeds.

3. Made a huge commitment to push for a 50 Million Hatchery Chinook increase.

WDFW Commissioners Larry Carpenter and Jay Holzmiller's terms are up at the end of 2018 and are key players in returning our fisheries back to catchable numbers. We need to see them reappointed and Larry become chair, to keep building on fixing our fisheries. Dave Croonquist with the East Jefferson PSA Chapter is in the process of working on our Washington State stocking records to paint a picture for us on where our planting of Chinook and Coho have been cross planted. So far this picture has shown that Washington State has diluted salmon gene pools all over our great state for the last 100 years. Our Commission had two of the HSRG group members that work for WDFW give an updated  presentation on our old hatchery reform or Hatchery Science Review Group. Did you know that it will take 500 years for Washington natural stocks to rebuild if we had picture perfect Bristol Bay conditions., i.e., Cool clean water, ample healthy food sources, and unaffected habitat? This is preposterous. We need to continue this mission to make sure that we bring back our fisheries.

The Orca Task Force was an overwhelming amount of work to not let our fisheries shut down. This was 10 times more work than I thought it was going to be 18,000 comments before the last meeting. We were successful in getting the target off of our backs blaming fishing and also to increase hatchery production. There was a huge amount of opposition to the increases in production. I want to thank these task members that were instrumental in keeping our fisheries open and helped to educate the task force on the truth of what we have been saying for many years. We cannot thank these TF members enough to steer this for a gigantic win for you: Butch Smith, Phil Anderson, Rep Brian Blake, Lisa Wilson and GI James (Lummi tribe), Jeff Dickerson (Squaxin Tribe) Cecilia Gobin and Terry Williams (Tulalip tribe) Kathy Pittas Port of Anacortes, George Harris NMTA, Amy Windrope WDFW, Paul McCollum Port Gamble S'Klallam tribe, Tom Wooten (Samish tribe). If we had not had these key people to help us educate the non fisheries people on this task force you would have certainly seen pushes for complete fishery closures to all. WE all brought some very big information to the table. We built some great friendships at the Task Force and learned a lot from each other. When you run into any of these people above, please thank them as they were key in our win at the Task Force. There were calls for complete closures of central sound and San Juan Islands. Each and every one of the members listed above are responsible for making it known that we are not the problem that goes far beyond the Task Force Recommendations to the Governor. We have built a growing coalition with the tribes to rebuild our salmon fisheries with no nonsense approaches. We were not able to get the pinniped issues acrossed the goal line but it is on the table and PSA and others are going to continue to work with the tribes and others to fix this problem as it cannot be left unchecked.

While there is a big push to get rid of gillnets, many do not realize that under current day that they, the commercials and tribes are a part of rebuilding our fisheries and provide the clean up necessary to increase our hatchery fish that were mitigation for loss of habitat and dam building. It's time to stop fighting over the last fish and start producing them again and we all win. I am asking you to open your mind and understand we cannot go back to the 1800s habitat. With 30,000 people a month moving into the Puget Sound, habitat is being lost faster than it is being rebuilt still. So remember that when you go to battle the gillnetters on the Columbia River, NOAA and Alaska are the unseen players. Take fish away from the local commercials, and it goes straight to Alaska because the recreationals cannot clean up those fish. If we cannot clean up those fish then you are going to see the increased hatchery production output get shut down and we will continue to watch our fisheries crash. So I ask you this, are you fishing more now than you were 10-15 years ago. Do you want to return to fish for all and all of us go back on the water? Tribes and Commercials fishing alongside us?  Are you ready to put down the pitch fork and torches and realize just as our federal government is now realizing that what we did was wrong? As one of our tribal friends said to the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission meeting that recreationals sitting beside the tribes to fix our fisheries is a "Gamechanger" and has never happened before.  I can tell you what we have been doing is not working. I can tell you that there is going to be a lot of opposition to what we are doing as there is a lot of money in recovering fisheries, but no money in recovered or rebuilt fisheries. Keep that in mind when you join PSA, tribes, and commercials to start a new chapter in saving salmon for all to catch.

Ron Garner President PSA

Pod cast on Ocra Whales with Butch Smith from Coho Charters    

Protecting Washington’s Yelloweye Rockfish

Rockfish Identification Flyer    

Video - Rockfish are back!!

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.