Olympic National Park Closing Queets, Salmon, Upper Quinault To Steelheading

https://nwsportsmanmag.com/olympic-natio...o-steelheading/

Steelhead fishing will close on sections of three Olympic National Park rivers ahead of the arrival of the vast bulk of winter-runs, federal managers announced this week, citing forecasted returns.

Park sections of the Queets, Salmon and Quinault will close to all sport fishing from November 27 through May 31, 2024, a move that may presage similar steelhead season actions from WDFW in the coming weeks on state-managed stretches of those river systems between Aberdeen and Forks.

“The sport fishing closures are due to low forecasted returns, anticipated commercial harvest outside of the park, and declining trends in total run size with chronically low escapements of wild steelhead. The park and State escapement goals are 4,200 and 1,600 wild steelhead in the Queets System and Upper Quinault, respectively,” the ONP press release stated.

Late last month, WDFW announced forecasts of 4,150 and 1,870 wild fish to the two. The agency’s statewide steelhead management plan limits fisheries on runs that are predicted to be below escapement goals to no more than a 10 percent impact from all fisheries, and while some sport impacts are available on the Queets and Upper Quinault under that scenario, looking to recent history, last year’s predictions of 3,958 and 2,376 saw both WDFW and ONP ultimately shut the rivers down.

The long-term steelhead trends that ONP officials point to show Queets run sizes declining from as high as 13,000, 12,000 and 10,000 from the 1980s into the early 1990s to as low as 3,000 in recent years. Upper Quinault numbers show a similar drop. Park officials say Queets wild steelhead haven’t reached state and federal escapement goals in eight of the last 10 years and six of the last 10 on the Quinault.

“Given the low numbers, we are compelled to use the one remaining tool to minimize impacts on wild steelhead – pausing sport fishing inside the park. We understand that these closures affect sport anglers and fishing guides, and we appreciate their cooperation in helping to protect these precious wild resources,” park superintendent Sula Jacobs said in the release.

ONP’s release pointedly noted in its first paragraph that Olympic Peninsula steelhead have been petitioned for listing under the Endangered Species Act. The National Marine Fisheries Service announced in February that one “may be warranted,” kickstarting a year-long fact-finding process on whether a listing is in fact needed.

WDFW is expected to announce the state’s coastal steelhead fisheries by early December at the latest.

The Quinault Indian Nation, the other comanager in all of this, manages tribal commercial and recreational steelhead fisheries on the Queets, Salmon and lower Quinault Rivers as well as Cook Creek where they flow across the Quinault Indian Reservation. They have used a much lower escapement figure for Queets winter steelhead than either the park or state, 2,600. Under last year’s forecast of 3,958 wild winter steelhead they’d planned 46 days of netting through mid-March.

On a separate fisheries front, QIN closed fishing on the lower Queets for another species, coho, through November 30 and has called on WDFW to do similar on that system and Grays Harbor rivers, exciting quite a bit of media coverage. WDFW maintained that various indicators didn’t show a need to close the state’s salmon fishery.

the QIN will also use this when they announce they will be netting 5-6 days a week when we wont be able to fish at all, because we didnt close the rivers for Coho...

it will be their excuse to fish it, and if irrepairable damage happens, they will blame it on that as well...

oh, plus get FED money for hardship....

Like Evo said, this closure is a complete waste of time if the tribe(s) continue to net wild steelhead.

You guys are both right. The tribe will net again this year while us recs are on the sidelines. Its the lack of any backbone from the state to do something about it is what drives me bananas. There are dispute resolution processes beyond the terse letters the tribe and state have been exchanging the past month over coho or during previous steelhead seasons. But our current leadership in the fish division, nor the director, will do anything about it. Spineless guys just collecting a paycheck and probably waiting for that state retirement pension. At least Unsworth had the cojones to take a stand, even though the strategy beyond that wasn't really thought out. Susewind and Cunningham are puppets for the tribe. And I'm sure Kelly c is probably feeling burnt by the tribe since he was instrumental in helping pass the comanager hatchery policy they all wanted, including QIN, Lummi, upper Skagit and Tulalip. It is pretty clear how much he's in their pocket if you attended the final commission meeting or watched it online. After that policy was passed by the commission, it was hard to miss the huge hug that Lummi leaders gave Kelly before he could even stand up from his seat at the front of the room. But to me its a good thing that the tribes are taking over or helping with hatchery production though. WDFW, with all of the money they spend on hatcheries, still cant seem to produce any harvestable fish for us. Or the ones they do, we can't fish for, like here in Chehalis or up at George Adams. Yet in the case of steelhead, they applaud themselves for tossing them into lakes and saying: See? Here are some hatchery fish for you.

I'm not sure what the WDFW has to do with directly managing steelhead in the Park. Not defending them, but it's not their lane.

That said, this is totally heart-breaking.

fb

At least ONP recognizes that the runs will be overfished and closes their area to get as many one the grounds as possible. Somebody practices conservation rather than recreational eye-poking.

Feds/state and the QIN need to get on the same page regarding escapement goals.
fb

That would likely involve the Courts, especially since QIN was specially identified as self-regulating from the beginning.

An additional aspect of Boldt, unless WDFW negotiated not away, is that a Tribe can't cork the sports. They have to allow escapement goal plus the rec harvestable above their fishery so it there are forecast to be "surplus" Upper Quinault fish then at least half that harvestable needs to arrive there, at least on paper.

CM, to think that the QIN would cut back their netting enough in the lower Quinault to allow enough harvestable fish to reach the upper Quinault is kind of a "pipe dream" don't you think?

And I forgot to mention the QIN cutting back their sportfishing guides also is also a "pipe dream"

It is the law, the ruling of the Boldt Decision as affirmed by the Supremes. But the State would have to take them to court. As long as the State doesn't care, they'll fish.

Yes, it is the law but the chances of the State challenging the tribes on anything is wishful thinking. The State was going to take the Skok tribe to court years ago after the tribe closed the river to sportfishing. State thought they had a good case. What happened to that?
Is it that the State doesn't care or have they been told by the higher ups not to challenge the tribes?

Just to pile in the State has opted to abrogate its responsibility by not challenging the Corps of Engineers' decision to not issue a permit for work to finish the Point No Point ramp. Been two years and crickets despite a very well written opinion by the office of the State Attorney General. This fits into the failure to take the DOI to court over the Skok which was closed based upon a DOI AG opinion. As with the Corps' this was the bureaucracy speaking not a Federal Court.

I think that the State has decided, at the highest levels, not to challenge the Tribes. It is my opinion that this is based in large part on Boldt II, Habitat. The State not only lost the Culvert Case, all the way to the Supremes, bit it has dragged its feet for so long that the price tags to meet the Court-mandated removals is Billions (like maybe 4+) that must be spent now as 2030 is the deadline.

The State, at least at the top where the purse-strings are held, realized that maintaining and restoring habitat was not only expensive but would limit growth and development. They made a choice; give the Tribes what they want and we can grow or limit them and we can lose in Court.

I understand that some in the Leg want to re-fight the idea that the Tribes actually have a right to put fish in the boat rather than just drag nets in fishless waters.

This whole issue of just how much of the natural world are we willing to save is being fought, and generally lost, around the globe. But we humans keep on breeding.

The state / feds didn’t give into to the tribes because of human breeding and not saving the planet!

Try DEI and closed door non legislative reparations as give back to the tribes for all the sins of your colonialism...

The State has been caving to the Tribes since the 80s, well before DEI became a favorite target. The risk to business in WA by having to consider natural resources was too big to ignore.

According to the United Nations, the current fertility rate for the United States in 2023 is 1.784 births per woman. Anything under 2 is a population reduction. That hasn't been the case in America since 1973. The breeding issue has nothing to do with Boldt/Steelhead.

The State caves to the tribes because the tribes are major contributors to political campaigns so they control our representatives and they control the tribal representatives. For example, the top donors to Jay Inslee's campaign is full of tribes donating. Jamestown S'Klallam, Swinowmish, Spokane, Suquamish, Muckleshoot, Tulalip, Lummi, Nisqually, Coville, Puyallup, Squaxin, Skagit, Quinault, Chehalis and Yakima tribes all gave Inslee at least $10,000 just in the last election cycle. In fact the total amount given by the tribes is more than his paid salary, so who is he really working for?

https://www.followthemoney.org/entity-details?eid=2912405&default=candidate

And yet, the US population continues to increase. Somebody is breeding. And, they are moving. And the increasing human population has everything to do with our fish resources as the demand increases on a decreasing resource. How many of our fisheries provide product for overseas? Loss of all those resources damages the ability of steelhead and salmon to recover.

But it is true that WA government is the best money can buy. I am reminded that the third Gregoire/Rossi recount was paid for by Tribes. They may be a lot of things but dumb isn't one of them. And we, collectively, let that happen.

Spot on! Glad to see Inslee go. Problem is another Gov. coming probably means the status quo, unless the Republicans can come up with a moderate, level headed, non wacko, non Trumpanzee, that can appeal to the middle. An uphill battle all the way. Especially with all the tribal casino $$ flying around. I wish PC Exec. Bruce Dammeier would run. Bottom line is rec. Steelheading is toast in Boldt Case areas, and maybe state wide unless things change. Sad state of affairs for our state fish for sure.

I wouldn't put much stock in a new governor changing things. The favorite to win the next race is Inslee's A.G... and we know he hasn't been exactly pro-sport fishing.

Even if someone else wins, that person will be lobbied just as hard by the Tribes, and it won't take long to bring them in line.

It is worth noting that the amount of money coming from the Tribes is not a huge sum, and if sport fishers could unite around this issue, a couple thousand of us throwing down $100 each could outspend the Tribes. If we assume that lobbying is the only force at play here, that could solve our problem. Unfortunately, it is far from that simple. The Tribes have the benefit of public sympathy and treaties to bolster their position. No politician wants the Tribes calling them out as anti-Indian, and indeed, the threat of being sued by the Tribes makes these issues of the sort not to be touched with a 10-foot pole. Essentially, the law and the numbers aren't on our side of the issue, so we're pretty much along for the ride.