The Washington state salmon co-managers - the western Washington treaty Indian tribes and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) - establish salmon-fishing seasons using strict conservation guidelines that shift harvest away from weak stocks and onto healthy natural and hatchery origin stocks.
The seasons are set through an annual public process that includes federal participation and review to ensure rebuilding efforts of salmon stocks that are listed under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) are not jeopardized.
Fisheries co-managers establish preseason incidental harvest limits for Puget Sound stocks that are protected under the ESA. These limits are set at levels so that ongoing recovery efforts for these stocks are not compromised.
Some fisheries are managed under catch quotas, while others are managed as seasons. Fisheries that are managed by seasons include Puget Sound recreational fisheries and the Makah Tribe's winter troll chinook fishery, Oct. 1, 2004 through April 15, 2005. Fisheries co-managers anticipated a winter troll chinook catch of no larger than the average harvest during the past six seasons (1,600 fish).
Recently a higher-than-expected chinook catch in the winter treaty troll fishery of 19,559 fish was reported by tribal fisheries managers. A joint technical review of the impact of the Makah winter troll fishery, using the Fishery Regulatory Assessment Model, indicated that more than 94 percent of the fish harvested were hatchery origin or healthy natural stocks.
This review indicated that two ESA-protected stocks - Puyallup and mid-Hood Canal - had higher impacts than forecasted in the preseason plan. The additional impact to these stocks appears to be low - around 4 to 5 percent, which represents an estimated 109 chinook from the Puyallup River stock and five fish from the mid-Hood Canal stock.
The Makah Tribe has indicated it intends to close its winter troll fishery as part of its ongoing conservation efforts with chinook salmon.
The actual impacts of all fisheries, including ocean and Puget Sound seasons, are subject to a full postseason technical review.
Based on recent years' postseason reviews, actual chinook numbers often exceed the modeled preseason forecasts, giving co-managers some confidence that the final actual impacts to the listed stocks could fall within the co-managers' set limits.
It is too early to determine what adjustments - if any - will be made to future fisheries that impact chinook salmon.
"The department values the long and successful co-management relationship we have enjoyed with the Makah Tribe, and we will continue to move forward as co-managers with scientifically sound treaty and non-treaty fishing plans that meet our joint conservation goals."
