NOF-Hood Canal Chinook

[sequimdawg]

The following was in todays Peninsula Daily news. Nelly, what's the odds of this happening?

ANYBODY WHO HAS driven U.S. Highway 101 to Olympia or points south has passed the George Adams Salmon Hatchery, a state-owned facility producing (as of 2010) 3.8 million hatchery chinook smolts, and a smaller amount of coho and chum.

Looking at the state Department of Fish and Wildlife information (available at tinyurl.com/PDN-FishPresentation) that was presented at last Thursday’s annual North of Falcon meeting in Sequim, one will see a projected return of 50,764 chinook, 48,305 of which are hatchery reared — including a 25,773 hatchery chinook return to the Skokomish River/George Adams Salmon Hatchery.

Quilcene’s Ward Norden, a former fisheries biologist and owner of Snapper Tackle Company, has been pondering that number of hatchery chinook returning to Hood Canal.

“Think about that number — [nearly] 49,000 fin-clipped hatchery kings in a body of water the size of Hood Canal,” he said.

“That is potentially a six-week, world-class king fishery in a body of water with little public access.

“To someone who had recreational fisheries management 201 class at [the] University of Washington almost 40 years ago, that lack of boat launches means recreational anglers could never even make a dent in the non-treaty share, i.e. not catching over 7,000.

Asking questions

Norden attended the North of Falcon meeting. He came away even more certain there’s no biological imperative keeping chinook anglers out of Hood Canal from mid-May to July 4, in time to protect the Canal’s summer run of wild, genetically-distinct coho.

“At the meeting, I asked when the sport fishers will get their 20,000 share of the king run since Hood Canal is effectively ‘gill net only, no sport fishing allowed’ when those early summer kings arrive in May and June,” Norden said.

A precocious type, Norden also jokingly asked if recreational anglers could come to the Adams hatchery with bags in tow to tote away their share of surplus kings.

“Seriously, I recommended a May 15th through July 4th king season in the Canal with a two marked chinook limit,” Norden said.

“Ending the fishery on July 4 will protect the summer coho run. Since only five percent of the Hood Canal chinook are wild, impact on those wild chinook will be negligible. Such a fishery would be as good as any fishery for kings anywhere in much heralded fishing meccas in B.C. or Alaska due to the Canal’s small size.”

[Nelly]

To your question of a recreational season in Hoods Canal?

With those numbers coming back it's difficult to argue against until you consider the TOE or Time Of Entry of the troubled Hoods Canal wild stocks.

My question is to ask if a fishery that would end the first week of July would be too far ahead of the peak of the hatchery run?

Your question is fair and should be put on the table at the next NOF meeting!