All, If you believe the two year moratorium is the right direction for declining wild steelhead, please take the time to get involved. The two year moratorium is the right thing to do, it will allow a time out and develop a real conservation management strategy for wild steelhead. Or we can continue to go down the road we have been taking, waiting until the "deemed" healthy rivers are not meeting escapement, close them down and look for next non existent place to fish for wild steelhead.

NEWS RELEASE
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife

June 25, 2004

Contact: Susan Yeager, (360) 902-2267

Fish and Wildlife Commission schedules hearing

on wild-steelhead retention moratorium


OLYMPIA – The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission will hold a meeting Aug. 28 in Bremerton to hear public testimony on the statewide moratorium on wild steelhead retention enacted earlier this year.

The public hearing is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Kitsap Conference Center, 100 Washington Ave., in Bremerton.

Commission Chair Will Roehl said the citizen panel scheduled the hearing after the City of Forks and hundreds of individual anglers asked that commissioners reconsider the two-year moratorium they adopted in February.

Roehl said the hearing will provide an opportunity for members of the public to comment on whether the moratorium on wild steelhead retention should be rescinded, amended or retained in its current form. Commissioners will consider those comments along with written testimony when they discuss the future of the wild-steelhead moratorium during a conference call Sept. 2, he said.

“Right now, all options are open,” Roehl said. “Given the amount of interest we’ve seen in this issue, we decided to open it back up for public discussion before considering any future actions.”

Roehl said the commission, which sets policy for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, has received hundreds of calls and letters – both pro and con – since adopting the moratorium on wild steelhead retention at its Feb. 6 meeting.

The moratorium, which took effect May 1 and runs through March 31, 2006, requires anglers to release any steelhead that is not marked as a hatchery fish by a missing adipose or ventral fin and a healed scar. Since retention of wild steelhead was already prohibited on most rivers in Washington, only about a dozen rivers – most of them on the Olympic Peninsula – were affected by the moratorium.

The commission will consider written comments on the statewide moratorium submitted through Aug. 26. Comments should be addressed to Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission, 600 Capitol Way N., Olympia WA 98501-1091 or sent via e-mail to commission@dfw.wa.gov

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Could not attend, but did send a letter in support.

I be there with BELLS on!

How did this manage to not be a 200 + post topic ????

Sorry, could not help myself... WSR, its the right thing.. what works in Idaho could work in Wa state also.. If you don't believe me , call Oregon and ask them.

B-Run, How about a letter to the Commission to let them know how well WSR as worked in your neck of the woods and how it hasn't hurt any of the small town economies in Idaho.

What good does it do especially since the Indians can put their Gilnets accross the mouth of a stream staggered in such a way that no fish could get past them if they wanted to anyway and the nets can't tell if it's a hatchery or wild fish.

B-run -
Aren't all wild steelhead in Idaho ESA listed? In my book that is not working?

Sorry, could not help myself.

Tight lines
S malma

That would be correct, ESA listed and increasing in numbers every year. They were almost gone at one point.

And not only are the numbers on the upswing for the ESA listed fish, WSR has made it possible to have yearly fisheries for the numerous runs of hatchery steelhead and salmon that make their way up the Snake, Clearwater, Grande Ronde, and other rivers over there.

Fish on...

Todd

I'll be there. Wonder if WDF&W wil release the latest steelhead return numbers prior to the hearing...

A very good question ctflyfish ... I'd be especially interested in what the final numbers from the Hoh this season were.

Anyone have any word on when these are supposed to be released?

I was thinking the same thing. I'll bet that the tribes love that. More fish for them....

The tribes are putting alot of pressure on WDFW and the Commission to lift the moritorium. It makes them look bad if they are the only ones harvesting wild steelhead.

Jerry, That is indeed an interesting fact, many complainers of tribal netting, if they are not, embracing the two year moratorium, should, here's an opportunity to make the tribes concerned about public opinion.

A wild steelhead moratorium on sport anglers for two years to give tribal members an inside lane at the grocery outlets to sell wild fish. Sounds like a subsidy program to me, I am in favor of the moratorium all together but would be ecstatic to see the tribal netters with their hand in the cookie jar and the blood on their front door steps when it comes time to answer questuions that I believe are covered up in responses of 2% honest traditional bs. What a bunch of molarky, thanks for gettin me fired up.

Mmmmmm. Cant wait to get the first wild steelhead a Safeway

Call me naive but I still can't believe the “Ban all nets” thing didn't pass a few years back. Question, What went wrong with that campaign? What can be done to end all netting in WA including tribal nets in all waters? I understand the argument against WSR when people are frustrated with the netting that does/will continue. I'm just wondering if there isn't something we can do to pool our voting power instead of divide it like I'm seeing with WSR. Attending this event is a good cause as far as I can tell but WSR will only be successful if the resource is left alone by everybody.

A.) Most steelhead caught by sport anglers are caught upstream of the tribal nets. Those fish have already made it.

B.) How does anyone expect to put pressure on the tribes to change their methods, if we don't make changes ourselves?

I can't make the meeting, but I got my letter in support of WSR off last night via email.

Banning the nets, what went wrong? Money is went wrong. Hard to compete against a very organized political group with money, when we as sports fishers are not organized and worse yet are fragmented on many issues. Organization and money is what gets initiatives passed, not a good idea. Sad, but true.