Sockeye season still pending
A decision on whether to open a sockeye salmon fishing season in Lake Wenatchee could be made this week.
A record run of sockeyes up the Columbia River almost assures that the sixth sockeye fishing in history will be opened on the lake later this month, but federal endangered fisheries criteria must be satisfied first.
Although state fisheries experts had expected 75,600 fish to run over Bonneville Dam this year, they have been pleasantly surprised by an inexplicably immense run that doubled the forecast by June 26 with the probability of hitting a revised forecast of 210,000 — the highest since 1959.
The record run since record keeping began was 238,000 sockeyes in 1955.
The first Lake Wenatchee sockeye season was in 1984. The most recent was in 2004, when 130,435 sockeyes were counted over Bonneville. The fishery is immensely popular with anglers.
“I’ve had hundreds of calls. Oh my God, it’s just unbelievable,” said Art Viola, a state fisheries biologist whose territory includes the one-by-six-mile lake northwest of Leavenworth — and that was just days after the record run was identified in the third week of June.
“I’ve even had people call me from Florida.”
Staff and wire reports
MARINE MAMALS
Orcas protected
A new Washington law went into effect this month to protect orcas from boating disturbance.
The new law, approved during the last legislative session, requires all boaters, including paddlers, to stay at least 100 yards away from southern resident orca whales.
“Orca whales are vulnerable to human disturbances, including boat traffic,” Department of Fish and Wildlife Deputy Enforcement Chief Mike Cenci. Orca’s also are protected by federal laws, but the new law gives state wildlife officers more enforcement control.
The majority of orca whales found in Washington from early spring to late fall are among the 90 or so members of the endangered southern resident orca population, which mostly travel the waters of northern Puget Sound, Cenci said.
Under the new law, boaters who unexpectedly come within 100 yards of southern resident orcas are required to stop immediately, put the engine in neutral and allow the whales to pass. The law also makes it unlawful to feed the whales.
Info: www.bewhalewise.org.
Rich Landers