Occupy Skagit

[_WW_]

What is Occupy Skagit?
•A gathering on the Skagit River, April 6th in support of restoring the C&R season. The activity will involve 'fishing' without hooks in as many visible places as possible on the Skagit and Sauk; from the bridge at Concrete upstream to Bacon Creek on the Skagit, and upstream on the Sauk to the bridge at Darrington.
•This is a 'Wade In' Our purpose is not to disrupt traffic, be violent, disrespectful, trespass, harass, or engage in illegal activity of any kind...you know, just like when you go fishing.
•This is a parallel action to mesh with attendance at the WDFW Comissioners Meeting the following week in Olympia.

Why is Occupy Skagit?
•At the time of the ESA listing of Puget Sound wild steelhead, it was generally acknowledged by NMFS that the most robust large basin population in the region was in the Skagit; in fact on its own it probably would not have been listed. After reviewing the evidence, it is our belief that a well managed, catch-and-release (C&R) season on the Skagit would not be inconsistent with the recovery of its wild winter steelhead.
•This will require a petition from WDFW to NMFS for a permit that establishes basin specific allowable impacts (as is currently being done with Puget Sound Chinook).

Who is Occupy Skagit?
•You are. If two people do it, no one will notice. If two hundred people do it, we hope to garner some attention. Sometimes you have to dump a little tea in the harbor to get noticed.

[Smalma]

WW -
Doesn't seem to much interest.

We'll see who shows up; suspected as often is the case that angler apathy could be an issue.

Curt

[Nelly]

WW -
Doesn't seem to much interest.

We'll see who shows up; suspected as often is the case that angler apathy could be an issue.

Curt

There is indeed interest!
As April 6th approaches, we'll hear more rumblings about this important event and I will just bet the response -and attendance- will be significant!

[_WW_]

Nelly,
I don't know if you've seen this but I'm going to re-post it below. This is a posting by a certain federal biologist posting elsewhere as Salmo_g

It's pretty clear to those of us who fish that no fish ever benefited by being hooked and caught by an angler. Complete preservation, of fish and their habitat, is the perfect solution from a fish's point of view. But OS is not about the fish's point of view.

OS is about steelheaders who would rather fish than see their favorite river closed to fishing forevermore. Realistically, that is the present outlook simply because there is no plan, and only a vague intent to plan, to ever open the Skagit to fishing for wild steelhead again. OS is about developing such a plan, as soon as possible, so that anglers may fish the Skagit again in their lifetimes.

The talk about recovery and letting the fish recover before fishing again is a discussion based on false assumptions and unrealistic expectations. Wild Skagit steelhead are a population in no particular need of recovery. What, you say, it's consistently produced runsizes lower than the escapement goal. Therefore that must mean the population needs to recover to a higher level, and must do so before any fishing can resume. Enter the false assumptions and unrealistic expectations.

Wild Skagit steelhead are the most abundant in Puget Sound. Since 1978 the runsize has averaged 7,822 fish, ranging from a low of around 2,600 to a high of 16,000. The spawning escapement has averaged 6,857 steelhead after harvest, both incidental and directed. As far as anyone can know for certain, this variation in population size is completely normal. There are good years, and there are bad years. Freshwater floods and droughts limit the outmigrating smolt population from year to year. The freshwater habitat has not really changed much in the last 30 years. Some parts have degraded further, and some parts have improved. On balance it would be hard to quantify any significant change. And marine survival factors limit the percent of smolts that survive to adulthood and return from the ocean each year. Given what we know about run sizes and escapement over a more than 30 year period, there is no logical reason to believe that wild Skagit steelhead runs will ever in the future consistently average above the present spawning escapement floor value.

The escapement goal is an artifact of uncertainty. The aggregate model that escapement goals were developed from in the 1980s calculated a Skagit spawning escapement goal far above 20,000. Since that seemed impractable and unrealistic, so biologists rather arbitrarily picked 10,000 as an escapement guideline. In the 1980s when marine survival was higher than it is now, that value appeared realistic. As more data were collected and analyzed, it was apparent from spawner - recruit analysis that the MSY/MSH escapement goal would be much lower, slightly less than 4,000. That seems low for such a large river basin, so the co-managers settled on 6,000 as a buffered escapement floor for some interim period. The take home message in this paragraph is that no relationship exists between the Skagit wild steelhead spawning escapment goal and the actual productivity and capacity of the Skagit River basin to produce steelhead. Please re-read the last sentence and be certain that you understand it.

The last paragraph means that the Skagit wild steelhead spawning escapement goal is arbitrary, and possibly capricious. It's meaning is primarily make believe then. This leads me to the question of for what purpose are Skagit steelhead managed? Is it strictly species preservation, like a petting zoo, except you can't actually pet the animals? Or is the purpose to conserve the population for the mutual long-term benefit of the species as well as human social and economic benefits. If the purpose is the former, then the present course is the one to stay on. If the latter, then a change is required.

OS is an evidence-based approach to steelhead management. Studies show that incidental mortality is significantly lower than the 10% value presently used by WDFW and NMFS. Skagit steelhead productivity shows that CNR seasons from 1981 through 2009 have no measurable effect on population size. Even the combination of CNR incidental mortality and the limited directed harvest indicate that fishing mortality has had no measurable effect on wild steelheaad population abundance over the past 30 years.

OS does not propose CNR fishing the Skagit run into extinction. The evidence strongly suggests that isn't possible. OS is simply pointing out that, above some arbitrarily selected threshold runsize, mangement regulations could permit CNR steelhead seasons to be implemented with no measurable risk to future population abundance. And during that period, anglers can obtain the social benefits associated with CNR fishing, and the local economy can benefit from added fishing activity. These benefits can be enjoyed while simultaneously conserving wild Skagit steelhead for as long as steelhead habitat is also conserved. It's just about that simple, but for the way the PS steelhead ESA listing aggregates Skagit steelhead. Just because change is hard does not mean change is not possible.

Sg

Personally I think Curt is being conservative in his approach. (Please quit saying it will take 3-5 years! It's gonna break me down. ) As for me, I'll be happy to just go fishing again whether the premise is conservative or otherwise.

[Nelly]

Thanks for posting that and I sincerely believe that raising public awareness to this issue is the only way we'll ever make any progress toward getting C & R seasons back on my beloved Skagit!

[_WW_]

One of the things we'd like to do on April 6th is collect names of those who support the movement to regain our C&R season on the Skagit. It will be something akin to a petition, but not binding, and will be carried to Olympia to help in illustrating how broad the support for this season is. For those of you unable to attend the Occupy or the Olympia meeting this is how you can still represent your support.

For this purpose we would like to get your name and home town – we do NOT need your full address.

To avoid duplicates, we ask you to reply by email and not to this thread. That way all the info is in one spot.

The email is: cr_skagit@yahoo.com

[_WW_]

A big thank you to those that have replied - and a reminder that we can't have too many names!
cr_skagit@yahoo.com

[_WW_]

Another item of interest:
I talked to Rich Phillips (WDFW enforcement) and he respects our right to free speech and has no problem with what we are doing - until a hook goes into the water. At that point he will most assuredly do his job. They will be there and will probably check a few outfits before they go into the water. One of their concerns is that someone not associated with us will try to take advantage of the "situation" and do a little fishing.

I've known this officer for over twenty years - he doesn't play favorites. One day, I even watched him write up a guy from National Geographic. As Mr T would say, "I pity the fool" that does something dumb.

Less than two weeks to go!

[_WW_]

A day and a half to go! We should be easy to spot up in Rockport, we'll be the ones with the signs!

[Nelly]

Hey WW and or Curt,

What time should folks plan on showing up and are we meeting in Rockport at Howard Miller Steelhead Park?