The Olympic National Park is proposing several changes like wild Salmon release and wild steelhead release these proposals will be on there web site friday March 21 and I will try to post a link then. Please make any comments to them by April 18th before they are put into effect May 1
PS... I did not know they cliped salmon so we can tell wild from hatchery?

They may used the Dorsal fin, if it is frayed and not larger than a credit card it could be considered hatchery. I believe that was the criteria for wild steelhead.

Here is the link:

http://www.nps.gov/olym/regs/proposedchg.htm

I'm for most of them ... although if forgone opportunity is an issue, why do we shorten the season (even C&R) for sporties to lessen their impact??

I believe it's close to 90% harvest on Queets by the Quinault tribe ...

Foregone opportunity is the issue,and a Catch-22. Queets is a perfect example, now upper Hoh, etc...We need to scour the reg's and find our favorite "special" rules, then fish the sh#t out of them, for me it would be the fly water and C&R only. Also mark your cards. If we don't fill our cards, we lose the opportunity. In addition the park has a policy of "don't ask-don't tell" in regards to fishing opportunities in the park. I tried unsucessfully to work with the Park management for an unnamed flyfishing show. The top official said the they did not want to promote fishing in the park. And of course with less fishers on the water, the catch rate goes down, and therefore, foregone opportunity rears is ugly head. I used to release nearly 100% of my fish. Now, I feel that I have a mark my card on all the rivers that have reg's that I support. Crazy.....or is it just me?

can you be a little more specific of what you mean by foregone opportunity? I guess I don't understand the problem with the proposed changes, at least from a perspective that seeks to maximize ecosystem health within a National Park.

Steeliegreg, I would like some elaboration and clearity in your quote; What kind of fishing show were you trying to work with in the park? If you were trying to do some commercial "show" in park waters maybe it was not part of the park's policy, it appears to me some of the information is missing to promote your agenda to not support ONP's proposal. And I find it hard to believe the "top official"(name please) would bluntly say that without good reason.

Why should the ONP endorse harvest of wild salmonids? The ONP should endorse conservation minded fishing practices that provide opportunity and preserve the park's species. Look at Yellowstone National Park when it proposed and enacted C&R for wild cutthroat, people were drug into the proposal kicking and screaming, including Yellowstone's own staff. Look at Yellowstone now, it is a destination to go and fish for wild native cutthroat trout and the park knows that it is an important opportunity.

I urge others who believe that releasing wild steelhead is the right thing to do should work and send letters and emails to support this important proposal.

Some day the Queets won't have any fish. It is such a shame that a river with such a pristine watershed produces so little.

And this forgone opportunity is a bunch of crap. I honestly beleive that sportsmen have never come close to harvesting 50% of the fish.

So, when a C&R of native salmon and steelhead is instituted, does that mean the lovely Native Americans get our 50% (they get most of it any ways).

I am in favor of C&R for all native species in the National Park. And our 50% needs added to the escapement numbers not to the indians nets.

I would like to believe that sportsman don't harvest 50% of the fish but unfortunately my experience has been different. I watched 14 native fish get pulled out of a run about a month ago on the Queets without a single fish returned to the river. On the next day, I watched 9-10 more leave the river. On the third day, boat after boat didn't catch a thing...

Did sportsman take 50%? Hard to say, but undoubtedly what was taken will have an impact on returning adults that could have spawned.

Twig

In 1999, 350 natives were harvested in the queets, 97 in the Clearwater. In 1998, 79 Queets, 153 Clearwater.

Now, how many fish do you think the indians take yearly???????? Honestly 1000, 2000, 3000?????

I am not a supporter of native bonking. But, with a C&R initiated in the Parks, it would give the indians our 50%. Look up the Boldt decision and educate yourself on Forgone Opportunity.

Hypothetically, if the harvestable numbers on the Queets were 4000, that is 2000 indians, 2000 for the bonkers. With catch and kill of course.

With a C&R imposed, it would become 4000 indians and a big fat Zero for the sportsman.

Do you think the indians will let the 2000 we give up for C&R past their nets? Not to likely.

I don't think "forgne opportunity" works that way. If no harvestable fish are allowed up the river then sportsmen have no opportunity, period. So they have to let some up the river. If they are not all bonked by "sportsmen" the first time they are landed, eventually some will be killed or weakened by C&R so they can't spawn - depending upon whose data you look at that's between 7 and 40 times before they die. So enough fish need to be let up the river to allow incedental mortality plus the spawning escapement, which in the Queets I believe just about equals the indian's average kill. So we get to C&R all those, plus those that have to be sent up to replace those killed by C&R. Not a bad deal if every fish is released - remember those released fish continue to bite over and over.

What's cool about this is the tribal biostitutes are always whining about the excessive mortality from C&R. That's just fine, however, as under a C&R only scenario they have to let way more fish head upstream to account for all that "mortality". So we get more yet.

I wholeheartedly support total C&R in the Park as it means I get to catch more fish. The Queets is where I caught the same hen 3 times in one day. I'm sure someone else caught that fish too, and I'm sure I've caught many fish that others have released. Now that is the way to manage a fishery