President Message
State Board Presidents Message for July,
Shrimping was pretty strange this year. Some of the mid Puget Sound did not do well and eastern MA 9 did not open per WDFW And tribes test fisheries. MA 8-1 and 8-2 did not do well either. What is going on with the biomass? Iceberg in the strait but labeled as MA7 was on fire and other areas in the strait and San Juans did very well. Why the big difference. I would say some of the areas not doing well will probably get their biomass or quota reduced in coming years until they rebound. WDFW test fisheries use ½” mesh pots so its not that the shrimp could have been smaller and getting out of their pots. They are going to use the WDFW ROV to take a look to see if they can find anything. Lets hope for a quick rebound. I have been a WDFW shrimp advisor since 2002 and have never seen anything like this.
Our salmon fishing returns are looking good. The ocean is on fire with kings and clipped coho per the trollers. It’s too bad that we took out our PS tool in the tool box to update fish runs. We would be fishing longer with these bigger fish runs.
When we took chinook and coho away from PS non tribal commercials in about 2000 and gave them to sports. They got pinks and chum in return. We lost the ability to adjust our run size that would have been updated and season lengthened if we still had them. We would also be making a lot more fish as they could be catching a lot of the excess hatchery fish that make it to the spawning grounds allow us to make more fish for all of us.
We have been living under for the past 30 years of HSRG and ESA has not rebuilt any fish runs and has decreased fish returns by blaming harvest and hatcheries. What about making more fish and catching more fish per our pHOS guidelines? Make more and catch more. With Trump in office there have been some major cuts to hatchery funding through his DOGE. I understand the cuts to much of the overspending but need to get to him to help him understand that these cuts could collapse the west coast salmon fisheries. Been working on this for a while to move the ball on this. At the same time remove some of the pinnipeds since he has access to congress to lessen the MMPA. Its time to change the way we manage salmon in Washinton because what we are doing is not working. Managing for a fish that no longer exists makes no sense.
I hope all of you get out and enjoy this summer while we have fantastic fish returns and especially pinks to get the kids and grandkids out fishing. Join your local PSA Chapter.
· Ron Garner President PSA