Emergency Chinook Closure in A9, Change in A10.

[Nelly]

It looks like we as recreational fishermen must bear the burden to recover the Puget Sound chinook runs in the long-term.
It's a bitter pill to swallow but A9 & A10 will close to chinook retention at 1200 Monday, August 20th 2012.
Sunday August 19th, 2012 will be the last day for chinook retention in Puget Sound's Marine Area's 9 & 10.

Brutal.

[Sea Cradle]

I am not sure how much more the recreational fishermen can take and will not take this bitter pill laying down.

[Smalma]

I think it is important for folks to realize that even with no fishing Chinook salmon in Puget Sound will not recovery. The current seasons are based on allowing fishing on more abundant wild and hatchery stocks while staying within allowable impacts on the ESA listed populations.

Those imapcts have been carefully reviewed by the State, tribes and feds to insure that they do not represent a significant increase to the long term viability of the stocks. That means as long the impacts from fishing stay within those guide lines (allowable impacts) the risk of extinction of various Puget Sounds Chinook stocks is not significantly above what the risk would have been with no fishing.

The above of course why it is important that we do not exceed pre-season agreed upon impacts. As the collective impacts from all fisheries creep above those established allowable impacts the risks to the long term survival of thoe ESA listed stocks increases.

If we want to recovery those listed fish it will take society making much more painful decision than fishing or not.

Tight lines
Curt

[House]

WDFW NEWS RELEASE

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091
http://wdfw.wa.gov/

August 17, 2012
Contact: WDFW Fish Program, (360) 902-2700

Chinook salmon fishing will close early
in two areas of central Puget Sound

OLYMPIA - The popular fishery for chinook salmon will close early in two areas of central Puget Sound after a month of soaring catch rates.

Starting Monday at 12:01 a.m., anglers fishing in marine areas 9 and 10 will be required to release any chinook salmon they catch under a new rule issued by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).

The closure - 12 days earlier than scheduled - does not affect fishing for other salmon species, including coho, sockeye or pink salmon. Various piers in the two areas will also remain open to chinook retention.

State fishery managers said the early closure was necessary to hold encounters with wild chinook salmon within allowable limits. Although standing rules for the fishery require anglers to release all wild chinook, not all of those fish survive the encounter.

"Catch rates for hatchery chinook have been running two to three times higher than last year, and encounters with wild chinook are also way up," said Pat Pattillo, WDFW salmon policy coordinator. "It's a shame to close this fishery early, but we have a responsibility to protect wild chinook salmon in state waters."

As of last Sunday, anglers fishing in marine areas 9 and 10 had caught 8,728 hatchery chinook, compared to 5,006 at the end of last year's fishery. Those fishing areas include waters off Seattle, Edmonds, Bainbridge Island and Port Townsend.

Additional information about the closure is available on WDFW's website at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations/.

[Sea Cradle]

Those imapcts have been carefully reviewed by the State, tribes and feds to insure that they do not represent a significant increase to the long term viability of the stocks.

If we want to recovery those listed fish it will take society making much more painful decision than fishing or not.

Tight lines
Curt

Thats why they just increased the daily limit to 2 Kings off the coast because the recovery of the listed fish are in trouble ?
I call B.S.

[kurtmiller]

What’s really inane about this whole situation is that people will still be fishing coho so they will still be hooking and releasing kings, only now we’ll be releasing wild PLUS hatchery so the mortality rate will increase if anything. Our hatchery to wild ratio ended up about 80% so I’m thinking their stats are skewed. So if mortality rate is the reason it’s closing, then they should close it for ALL salmon fishing. But don't tell 'em I said that.

[Nelly]

Actually Kurt, I argued for exactly the opposite.
I wanted to keep A9 & 10 open for coho.
If you're truly targeting coho out there, incidental chinook encounters are uncommon.

Does it happen?

Heck yes,.. but, you could count the number of chinook hooked on my boat during the last 2 coho seasons on one hand and they all were released without losin' a drop of blood.

We need to guard and enhance our resource first and foremost but we need to protect our fishing opportunity and heritage as well.

Fish on, T

[J.D.]

Thats why they just increased the daily limit to 2 Kings off the coast because the recovery of the listed fish are in trouble ?
I call B.S.

One would imagine that the vast majority of chinook off the WA coast are headed south destined mostly for the Columbia, and have little to nothing to do with MA9/10.

On the bright side, that was some awfully good close-to-home chinook fishing the last 5 weeks. 5 weeks that wasn't an option at all 6 years ago. Looking forward to 7/16/13 already.