Sport anglers could benefit from new salmon agreement

JEFFERY P. MAYOR; THE NEWS TRIBUNE
May 29th, 2008



Last week’s salmon fishing agreement between the United States and Canada is good news for Puget Sound recreational anglers. The new 10-year agreement is no guarantee for more or expanded fishing seasons. But officials estimate 1 million more wild and hatchery chinook could return to Washington waters over the life of the agreement.

The proposed change to the Pacific Salmon Treaty, announced a week ago by the Pacific Salmon Commission, calls for reductions in chinook salmon catches in southeast Alaska and Canada.If ratified, the plan calls for Alaska to reduce its catch of wild chinook by 15 percent over the next 15 years, and Canada would cut its catch by 30 percent. In exchange, Canada would get $30 million from the U.S. and Alaska would get $7 million. In addition, Washington would get $7 million to improve chinook habitat.“We’re making a down payment on saving these fish.

We’re going to put more fish on the spawning grounds, fish we normally could not have gotten under the current system. It’s a great opportunity,” said Jeff Koenings, director of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. Koenings also is the chairman of the salmon commission and heads the U.S. negotiating team.State officials have argued it is difficult to improve endangered Puget Sound and Columbia River wild chinook stocks because Alaskan and Canadian fishermen catch many of the fish as they migrate north.Koenings said as much as 70 percent of the fish caught off the west side of Vancouver Island and 50 percent caught in southeast Alaskan waters come from Washington and Oregon.Tony Floor of the Northwest Marine Trade Association, a longtime recreational fishing advocate, praised the proposal.

“This is the best news we’ve had in the recreational fishing community to get our chinook salmon back to Washington in a long, long time,” said Floor. “If we are seeing 100,000 king salmon come back to Washington each year for the next 10 years, that’s like building two super-hatcheries.”Where recreational anglers may see a direct benefit is an increase in the number of hatchery fish returning to Puget Sound.

Current hatchery reform principles call for keeping hatchery fish from spawning at the same time and place as wild fish. One method is to increase selective fishing opportunities, where anglers can keep hatchery fish only, an option the state has been pushing the last several years. “There will be hatchery fish coming back, and we’re going to have to figure out a way to catch them,” Koenings said.Puget Sound treaty tribes, however, have been reluctant to allow expansion of selective fishing. Tribal officials argue more research is needed on selective fishing’s impact on wild fish.

Even if additional selective fishing opportunities are slow to develop, putting more wild fish on spawning grounds will benefit everyone.This is a huge step toward helping us to accelerate the recovery of a number of our depressed chinook stocks originating in Puget Sound,” said Phil Anderson, Fish and Wildlife’s deputy director