I like the checking account analogy FNP......
Quinaults exceed steelhead catch 2 months early
02/25/05
With two months left in the winter steelhead run, members of the Quinault Tribe have already caught more steelhead than preseason forecasts estimated prompting fears from local anglers that the fishing season on the Chehalis River would close early.
According to local angler Francis Estalilla, the chatter on Internet bulletin boards frequented by sport fishermen says the catch so far is a couple thousand fish more than predicted.
But state Department of Fish & Wildlife officials say, while it is true the tribe has caught more fish than expected in the Chehalis River Basin, there is no truth to the rumor the fishing season will be closed.
"Right now we have no plans to close the sport fishery on the Chehalis, Wynooche or Satsop rivers," said Bob Gibbons, state freshwater fish program manager.
Just how many fish the tribe has taken was not available this morning.
Representatives of the tribe could not be reached for comment
The department's staff has been fielding a deluge of phone calls from very unhappy, nontribal anglers for the past couple of days.
The preseason forecast estimated the Quinaults would harvest 4,000 steelhead from the winter run of 24,000 fish. Tribal members use gill nets to catch fish.
The run starts in November and ends in April.
"I think it is something we are going to work around," said Ron Warren, the department's Region 6 fish program manager. "Everybody involved is paying close attention to the issue."
He added the state and the tribe have been talking on a regular basis about it.
Gibbons said officials plan to hold a meeting next week to examine the impact on the fishery.
Last year, nontribal anglers took about 6,900 steelhead.
The department wants about 8,600 wild fish to spawn naturally on the rivers and another 410 hatchery-raised fish will be recaptured for the departments hatcheries on the Satsop River and at Lake Aberdeen.
For Estalilla, an Aberdeen ophthalmologist, the issue highlights the shortcomings of the state's co-management of its fisheries called for in the Boldt Decision and harkens to the Makah Tribe exceeding the preseason forecast for its catch of Chinook salmon that came to light earlier this month.
"There seems to be no oversight when the tribes are approaching their quotas," he said.
He added information about the tribes exceeding the forecast comes out after the fact, and usually is leaked to the public instead of in an official statement.
Estalilla likens the co-management of the fishery to a bad financial arraignment in a marriage.
"It is like a financially dysfunctional married couple with a joint checking account," he said.
Both are writing checks without telling each other what they spent and end up overdrawn, he said. "That is my frustration and I would say anglers across the harbor share my frustration."
He added that right now "the spin doctors at the Department of Fish & Wildlife are still creating their press releases that make it look all rosy," and still no one knows how many steelhead the Quinaults have taken.
It is a fairness issue between tribal and nontribal anglers and the health of the resource is at stake, he said.
http://www.thedailyworld.com [http://www.thedailyworld.com/articles/2005/02/24/local_news/02news.txt]
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