State considers rolling back ban on wild steelhead

BREMERTON – The state Fish and Wildlife Commission is nearing a decision on whether to scratch a two-year ban on keeping wild steelhead caught from some Western Washington rivers, most of them on the Olympic Peninsula.

The nine-member commission heard from scores of people at a hearing Saturday.

Opponents of the catch-and-release rule argued that stocks of the protected fish are healthy and that the peninsula’s economy will suffer if it can’t attract anglers – and their tourism dollars – to the area’s famed steelhead rivers.

Conservation groups say the moratorium, which took effect in May, is needed to help protect some of the last healthy runs of an important species.

The hearing came in response to criticism that followed the commission’s February vote to put the two-year ban in place.

The commission, which sets policy for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, is considering a department proposal to revoke the kill moratorium on 11 Olympic Peninsula rivers and the Green River, which flows into the Duwamish River and Puget Sound.

Steelhead have suffered in recent decades from habitat destruction and overfishing.

In the mid-1950s, sport fishermen took more than 60,000 wild steelhead in Washington. In 2003, they took 3,554, according to the Wild Steelhead Coalition’s review of Department of Fish and Wildlife data.

Jack O’Neil, a fishing guide from Quinault, said the decline does not amount to a crisis, noting that steelhead are abundant in many streams.

“We are having no trouble finding fish,” he said. “We have worked very hard getting people to release fish. But our rights are being violated not to be allowed to keep a fish now and then.”

Steve Fransen, a fisheries biologist, said steelhead are clearly hurting.