FISHING -- The next phase of the Washington's reform policy on Columbia River salmon management, including updates to provisions for fall chinook salmon, was approved by a 7-2 vote Saturday by the state Fish and Wildlife Commission during its meeting in Vancouver.

Kim Thorburn, commissioner from  Spokane who represents Eastern Washington, was one of two "no" votes on the matter.

The updated policy builds on a joint plan by Washington and Oregon to restructure recreational and commercial salmon fisheries on the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam.

Here are details from the meeting by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife:

Adopted by the commission in 2013, the policy was designed to promote conservation of salmon and steelhead, prioritize recreational salmon fishing in the lower Columbia River, and transition gillnet fisheries into off-channel areas by Dec. 31, 2016. The policy also calls for increasing hatchery releases in these areas, while expanding commercial fishing opportunities through the use of alternative fishing gear.

The policy included a four-year transition period, with full implementation scheduled for 2017, but also allowed for modifications to the plan.

The commission, a citizen panel appointed by the governor to set policy for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), voted to implement most of the key provisions of the current policy but modified the allocation of fall chinook salmon between the recreational and commercial fisheries.

The modification increases the recreational fishery’s share of fall chinook from 70 to 75 percent for the next two years, before increasing to 80 percent in 2019. Originally the policy called for the allocation to increase to 80 percent in 2017. The updated policy also would explicitly allow a mainstem commercial gillnet fishery for upriver bright fall chinook upstream from the confluence of the Lewis River in 2017 and 2018, but requires improved fisheries monitoring.

“While we have made a couple changes to the policy for the next two years, we are committed to full implementation, meeting conservation goals and transitioning gillnets into off-channels areas,” said Larry Carpenter, vice-chair of the commission.

The commission approved fully implementing the current policy’s planned allocation shift for spring chinook, increasing the recreational fishery’s share of the stock from 70 to 80 percent beginning this year. The allocation of summer chinook for the recreational fishery also would increase from 70 to 80 percent this year.

In addition, the commission directed staff to move forward with developing and implementing the use of alternative commercial fishing gear by 2019, and aggressively pursue a buyback program for commercial gillnet licenses.

The updated policy, which will be available in the next week on WDFW’s website at http://wdfw.wa.gov/, was approved by a 7 to 2 vote.

In other action at the Jan. 13-14 meeting, the commission:

• Voted to keep woodland caribou, western pond turtles and sandhill cranes on Washington’s list of endangered species.
• Adopted updates – mostly housekeeping changes – to the North of Falcon policy, which provides direction to fishery managers in defining annual salmon fishing seasons in Washington’s waters.
• Approved several land transactions including the purchase of 1,280 acres of Department of Natural Resources land in the Stemilt Basin in Chelan County for $1.95 million. The purchase allows the department to preserve habitat for numerous fish and wildlife species and provide public access for outdoor recreation.

Columbia River salmon management is, of course, a big deal that involves recreational anglers and commercial fishermen along with the established tribal treaty rights.   Here's a report on the commission action by Al Thomas of the Vancouver Columbian:

VANCOUVER -- The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission agreed here Saturday to implement in 2017 the most sweeping lower Columbia River salmon fishing reforms in decades, including the elimination of gillnets in the main stem of the river during spring and summer.

By a 7-2 vote, the commission decided to go ahead with implementation this year of reforms first adopted in early 2013 and phased in during a four-year transition period.

Oregon’s Fish and Wildlife Commission will address the issue Friday, and there are indications it might not agree with Washington’s position.

“Sometimes, you have to provide leadership,’’ said Larry Cassidy Jr. of Vancouver, former chairman of the commission and former chairman of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, in urging the commission to implement the reforms.

“There’s nothing, that I know of, that swims into a gillnet that doesn’t die,’’ Cassidy said.

The commission’s new policy does allow for gillnetting during the fall chinook run in the main Columbia between Woodland and Beacon Rock during 2017 and 2018.

In a nutshell, the reforms allocate more chinook salmon to sportsmen in the main Columbia and restrict gillnetting to off-channel sites like Youngs Bay, Tongue Point and Blind Slough near Astoria.

The reforms also call for any commercial fishing that remains in the main lower Columbia to be done with live-capture methods — such as purse seines and beach seines — designed to harvest hatchery stocks and release wild fish.

Specifically, the reforms do the following:

• Change the allocation of spring chinook salmon from 70 percent sport-30 percent commercial to 80 percent sport-20 percent commercial. Washington’s policy does not include an Oregon proposal to allow the commercials potentially to fish in mid-May with tangle nets depending on the size of the upper Columbia run.

• Change the allocation of summer chinook from 70-30 favoring sportsmen to 80-20 favoring sportsmen. Although the commercials have a 20 percent allocation, there is no gear available currently that would qualify to allow a fishery, although eventually a method might be developed.

Summer chinook are intermingled with protected summer steelhead and sockeye, making commercial fisheries difficult. Unused commercial allocation can be transferred to sports fishing upstream of Bonneville Dam or go uncaught to increase spawning escapement.

• Change the allocation of fall chinook from 70-30 favoring sportsmen to 75-25 favoring sportsmen. Gillnets would be allowed in 2017 and 2018 between Woodland and Beacon Rock to allow the commercials to catch fall chinook from the abundant population headed to Eastern Washington, yet avoid weak populations destined for lower Columbia tributaries.

The Woodland-to-Beacon Rock fall fishery is critical to the economic viability of the commercial fleet.

Washington’s commission also called for aggressive pursuit of a program to buy out commercial license holders and a big push in cooperation with Oregon to develop alternative fishing methods to permit elimination of gillnets in the fall by 2019.

In 2019, the fall chinook allocation shifts to 80 percent to sportsmen.

Heath Heikkila of the Coastal Conservation Association called the Washington commission’s action a “90 percent win’’ for sports fishermen.

About three dozen sport and commercial fishermen made their cases before the commission.

Darren Crookshanks, president of the Columbia River Fisheries Protective Union, said he spent 242 days test fishing seine gear for the states.

Seines are four times as expensive to operate as gillnets, only about 30 percent of the salmon are marked and can be kept, there is a high handle of steelhead and they conflict with sports fishermen, Crookshanks said.

“Consumers deserve access to these fish,’’ said Lori Steele, executive director of the West Coast Seafood Processors Association.

State Sen. Lynda Wilson of Vancouver and state Rep.Liz Pike of Camas both supported adopting the reforms.

“I want you all to be bold,’’ Pike testified. “I want you to have a spine. I want you to do the right thing.’’

Cassidy called the decision by commission difficult, but labeled it a “watershed moment’’ on the Columbia River.

“How about we give the fish a break?” he said. “If you do that, the people will follow.’’

 

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