i drove over to the skok today and watched the tribal netters taking male chinook salmon(beutiful fish)and throwing them in the brush,leaving them on the bank ect.ect.i counted 18 in 1 spot females stripped of eggs and left the males untouched.i can't believe they would do this to such a great fishery,hell the least they could do is give them to the needy.1 lady asked if she could have 1 and the tribal netter threw it in the middle of the river and laughed.lots of white fisherman keeping fish with mouths on funny places also.least those fish will be eaten and not left for rot.i saw the tribal officer come down and pull a net for some reason and when the net owner arrived he threw his fish in the brush and took his net and left.needless to say i left speechless.scott

Through wednesday at noon.

Its not just the Skok. A tribal (tulalip I think) fisherman was arrested this week fishing closed waters for crab. In his possesion was a bunch of crab plus pots and gear. According to the news paper (Herald) he was turned over to tribal enforcement (joke!).

OK Now, I'm gettin ready to puke here-
What can I do?

Lets get the shotguns out! If anyone knows where the sunyside road is out highway one there is a dumping spot where an old bridge used to be just a little ways up from the pavement I dont know if they have started to dump there yet but you can always get some good pics of rotten salmon there.
Dances out

The media loves dirt and appalling stories.

Get the ba$tards on film performing the act of waste in the midst of the ESA, one of the big 4 will surely eat it up. Be sure and zoom in on them stripping the eggs and throwing the perfectly good meat in the weeds to rot. Seems like KING likes to do alot of the investigative reports. Might want to touch base ahead of time and see if their reporter will join you, along with a cop...

Are you kidding Saltine? The media is way too liberal to even consider depicting the tribal "fishermen" as anything but noble. Mark my words... They will ignore any and all evidence to the contrary

If a nontribal fish buyer is buying from the indians it is illegal for him to buy just the eggs this year. He MUST buy all buck and hen carcesses also to alleviate this exact problem. Usually it was a white guy buying the eggs in Hoodsport out of a red refrigerated van. If this is so call WDFW and report the fish buyer and he will get fried. WDFW seems to take commercail violations more seriously than recreational.

Jason

Hi Jason,

I talked with folks in the WDFW fish program today, and they said that there is no such regulation for the native american netters. (Notice that I didn't use the word fishermen.)

The regulation that I had read, and posted info on this board, only applies to fish buyers who buy Chum eggs, not any other species. The buyers who buy eggs from commercial netters must buy both the hens AND bucks. This also applies only to the first purchaser of said eggs.

Here is how the loopole works.

The native netters catch their fish, any species, and strip the eggs which is perfectly legal. They sell the eggs to an egg buyer in their tribe, who is exempt from the "egg buyer regulation" and then they sell the eggs to a guy named Franko, may he rot in salmon hell. Because Franko did not buy the eggs directly from the tribal netter he too is exempt from the regulation.

This means that we will be seeing piles of rotting chum on the banks of Hood Canal once again.

The real tragedy in all of this is that all of the fish that hit the banks, and are not brought into a buyer don't count against their catch quota for whatever run they are fishing. They end up taking many more fish than their alotment. It is really quite a shame.

Andy

So in other words the law put in the regs to prevent the waste does nothing at all. Well except for the white man. Sounds like discrimination against us if you ask me.

Jason

Not so much as discrimination, just "bend over and open wide." That is if you are a sports fisherman.

Andy

....and the politically correct look the other way.