Looks like no winter blackmouth season.

https://wdfw.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2020-04/2020-21-chinook-coho-models-summary-040820.pdf

So we have gone from having opportunity 11 months out of the year in Puget Sound to being offered only 2.5-3 months in the key areas. And what measurable impact has this had on restoring our fisheries? Please someone show me how this is saving salmon.

Just. F*cking. Wow.

They've been gunning for our blackmouth seasons now for years.

This state is an absolute f*cking mismanaged joke.

And yet..only two stakeholders besides myself even bothered to speak to the Commission this morning about the issues in our fisheries.

I get it, people are tired of me “beating my drum” about the importance of transparency in the harvest decisions.

I also understand the thousands of stakeholders who have just plain given up. Resolved to let those who have the power, continue to take advantage. After all...nothing is gonna change.

What amazes me is how surprised fishermen still are at the end of the North of Falcon, where the secret deals are made, and the NWIFC coerces WDFW to accept reductions under threat. Really? Does anyone really think that all of a sudden they are going to be fair.

Insanity...

Stilliguamish chinook.

Welcome to the new Europe.

At least in Europe you can fish on private property and there are fish there to catch.

The reason for no winter blackmouth in Area 6-10 is Stilliguamish chinook. You can thank the Stilliguamish tribe. Also the reason for short summer chinook seasons.

Show me the science the winter blackmouth is killing off Stilly Chinook. I ain't biting on that crock of bull. Sub yearling encounters are nill in winter, and the majority adult encounters are marked fish. I'd bet my paycheck that over 75% and probably (likely even higher than that) of the "unmarked" fish making it to hand have CWT's in their head.

Enough is enough with the Stilly nonsense, this fish can't even sustain themselves and they're only even still around because of decades of unsuccessful broodstocking. Let it go!

GLU, you can ask the Stilly tribe bios about the science. Their model shows that the rec fishermen are impacting the wild Stilly chinook.Then, if they want to protect the chinook, then why do they clip Stiily chinook? Kind of strange don't you think? Their model shows that in Area 11,where I fish, we catch 7 Stilly chinook per year.

The clipped Stilly fish are coded-wire tagged. Most northern fisheries still only sample clipped fish for tags. These are an exploitation rate indicator stock in pacific salmon treaty fisheries.

If they are coded wire tagged then I can understand that. Sure makes it difficult trying to structure a mixed stock chinook sport fishery in the different marine areas.

Meanwhile, the preponderance of encounters on stillaguamish chinook occur in the mixed stock ocean fisheries. While that is the largest culprit it is the most difficult to tackle. It’s easier to limit recs. on Puget Sound and use this as the excuse to get recreational anglers off the water... the ultimate goal of WDFW and the tribes.

Actually, unless you’re talking about the Canadian ocean fisheries, not many of the Stillaguamish fish are taken outside Puget Sound.

That said, Canada does tend to catch more of them than the US.

It was pretty simple for the co-managers this year. Given the low forecast of Stilly Chinook, exploitation was limited to 8% on unmarked stilly fish and 12% on marked stilly fish as laid out in the Puget sound chinook recovery plan. In the past, the state usually took a higher percentage of the impacts for this stock compared to the co-managers. This year, they demanded they wanted half the impacts which forced the state to make up the difference. Advisors were asked whether summer or fall fisheries were more important and the overall concensus was summer fisheries. So, to meet the co-managers half way at 6%, cuts were made to most all winter fisheries. Unless the Puget Sound Recovery Plan is updated to alter these impacts or if Stilly fish start returning at a higher abundance (1,500+), we aren’t getting blackmouth back.

Amazing how the co-managers were able to use catch of ad-marked fish as the thing that ends winter fishing in Puget sound.

Coercion...works better than persuasion.

Want to get the best deal....make sure you have leverage over the other guy. (Permit process)

Want to steal a mountain....do it a pebble at a time.

Want to take rec fishermen off the water...keep the harvest meetings behind locked doors.

It's not rocket science....hell...it's not even fish management.

(don't trip running out the door to buy that license)

In case it has escaped notice, recovery of Chinook and SRKWs has not worked. They have decreased. There are lots of things to blame but the fact remains that close to 30 years of "recovery" have failed.

Time to change the game. Either show annual demonstrable increases in the populations or write them off.

Really too bad you guys didn’t catch these trends back in the 70s and 80s. Course you didn’t have to worry about natural-origin fish back then, as escapement was just seen as free harvestable production you didn’t have to pay for from the hatcheries and escapement goals were based on whatever made it passed good harvest rates....and the ocean would return whatever you put into it!

Good thing for 20/20 rear view mirrors eh?

In the 70s and 80s there were escapement goals for stocks managed as wild. At least thorough the mid-80s, most PS stocks were at goal or moving towards it. But, there were the hatchery-based systems that blew away the wild stocks. And, Washington's human population has significantly increased since the 70s.

Back in 1562 there were millions of unharvested fish.

We need to work on tomorrow and not be looking back so much.

One of the major reasons that we (Recreational fishermen) are failing is because we are so divided in our efforts.

Heck, PSA is fighting CCA, WFC is fighting hatchery. Hatchery is fighting...well you see.

A house divided falls. Unfortunately, there is too much ego and greed to overcome. The death spiral of the recreational fishermen will continue. Eventually the Federal government will step in a finally mess everything up for the salmon.

So, Stillaguamish Chinook. Imagine that. Again we have a PS Chinook management plan that pretends restricting recreational fishing in PS and in the Stillaguamish River will help save and recover Stilly Chinook. Even though the very best scientific evidence indicates that it won't. Stilly Chinook can't replace themselves even if all fishing everywhere is closed. Stilly Chinook are compromised by their natural habitat. Every informed fisheries person knows this by now. So the state and tribal experts, in their collective myopic wisdom have again selected a plan alternative that won't do a damn thing to improve the future condition of Stilly Chinook.

Just like that silly video WDFW and the Stilly Tribe and others released a few short months ago. Through cooperation and working together we can "make the pie bigger" and recover PS Chinook, including Stilly Chinook. Seriously friends, who among us is so blind they can't see how ludicrous this is? In my short history and experience in the fish business, politicians, state, federal, and tribal managers have been promoting this "make the pie bigger" concept, so that there will be fish for everyone through enhancement and recovery efforts since the mid-1970s. And even so, the pie has shrunk another 80% or more, depending on stock and location. Can anyone really be this blind?

The pie is small. And it ain't going to get bigger. At least not significantly bigger. Therefore, fighting over the last salmon is the natural and logical outcome. But I digress.

If saving Stilly Chinook is important - and I'm not ready to throw in the towel - then why in hell are state and tribal managers not adopting measures that actually will preserve the endangered population? And quit pretending that restricting PS recreational fisheries, and particularly, closing FW gamefishing seasons on the Stilly, has any measurable effect on the outcome. If WDFW and the Stilly Tribe really want to save Stilly Chinook, it is past the time to have begun a captive broodstock program for these fish. Why? Because that is the alternative that circumvents the two factors limiting survival of the population. We know that degradation of the Stilly FW habitat precludes natural production of enough fry and smolt to replace the brood population. And horribly low marine survival rates that are completely beyond anyone's ability to control (except Canadian fishing mortality) mean even the hatchery Stilly Chinook cannot return at a rate high enough to do more than maintain the population on the edge of extinction.

Do the captive broodstock program already! And then, and only then, if that cannot succeed then the prudent alternative would be to write them off. But not before giving it our best effort.

Now I'm going to join the conspiracy theorists for a moment. What if the goal, or desired endpoint, is not saving Stilly or PS Chinook. What if the goal is to continue the slide toward functional extinction - not complete extinction because that is harder to do - of PS Chinook? You know, and use Chinook recovery as a smokescreen while the real intention incrementally moves steadily toward the real endpoint? If so, then it is not an unreasonable conclusion that WDFW and the PS Tribes are diligently working steadily toward that goal. The billions of $$ in recovery spending notwithstanding. OK, that's enough time on that soapbox.