Look no further than the FN lawsuits in Pudget Sound that ultimately lead to unprecedented total season closures. Maybe some of the fellas across the line can chime in with more on those issues.
Meet the future, no salt fishing and no Fraser except for pinks every other year in between a gauntlet of commercial nets, Vedder for a month of manufactured fish and that's it 😠
It isn't as simple as that. The Tribal lawsuits that set the current salmon regulation scheme in Washington were a result of treaties signed with the tribes which granted the tribes the right to harvest salmon and shellfish "in common with" other Washington harvesters. Based on an interpretation of common usage of that phrase at the time the treaties were made - in the 1800s - Judge Boldt issued a series of court decisions in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington which held that the tribes were entitled to 50% of the total harvest, and were not restricted to tribal lands and waters for their harvest, but rather could fish their traditional waters. I believe it is the treaties that is the major difference between the Native American tribes in Washington (together known as the "Treaty Tribes"), and the FN people of BC, at least as far as fishing rights go. Under the scheme ordered by the US Federal Government, Washington's Department of Fish and Wildlife must co-manage the salmon resource with the Treaty Tribes. After drafting a joint plan, the plan is submitted to the Federal government for approval (basically they have to ensure the plan doesn't jeopardize any stocks listed under the Endangered Species Act or "ESA").
First, there are several stocks in Puget Sound that have been listed as Endangered or Threatened under the ESA, including most spring and summer runs of Chinook, a special summer Chum run, and many steelhead runs. So the fisheries have to be designed to avoid these stocks completely. That is why nearly all hatchery Chinook in Puget Sound must be fin clipped.
What happened this year was unprecedented, but it was caused in part by a recognition by all parties that coho and chinook returns to Puget Sound rivers are going to be dismally low. The negotiations broke down over the right to hold a very limited sport fishery, or a very limited tribal harvest, in the Pyuallup river (I believe for fall chinook). There was a lot of heated rhetoric, but it came down to each side saying 'why should they get to fish when we can't touch that run'? Basically, the Treaty Tribes don't trust that anglers will release the wild chinook and coho (all coho) that they are not allowed to harvest themselves. Similarly, (and just like we heard in response to FN harvest on the Fraser river) anglers in Washington were left how Treaty Tribes were allowed to conduct ceremonial use fisheries on runs that were dismally low.
I can't say I entirely blame the Tribes for feeling this way - every fishery has some impact on the stocks, even when all the rules are followed, and I think fishing regulations are like traffic laws - most anglers obey most rules most of the time. But ultimately the reason for the closures is that there aren't enough fish in specific stocks for ANY harvest. Many hatcheries are concerned they won't meet their broodstock requirements, and nobody wants a repeat of this problem in a future year. At the same time, I hope in the next decade that all parties start to come around to the idea of more selective fisheries. Gill netting may, optimistically, be able to target one species of salmon fairly well based on mesh size, but gill nets can't distinguish between hatchery and wild fish, and that is ultimately the level of selectivity that is needed if tribal harvests are going to be maintained at their current level without wiping out some stocks of wild fish.
The Capilano FN harvest is one example of such a selective fishery, and if more harvest could be done in WA with weirs and dip-nets, I think that would go a long way toward solving the problem.
Author
Topic: FN Lawsuit to Stop Ocean Sport Harvest of Fraser Spring Chinook (Read 4735 times)