Salmon People

I read an article on the famous Boldt decision of 1970 which gave seven western native American tribes the right to harvest 50% of the Columbia river salmon.
After years of being basically kicked to the curb by the white man this ruling, which was subsequently upheld in the U.S. Supreme Court, the tribes were getting some portion of what was theirs for centuries before the white man came west.
Some may argue that this is not right and that what was done by our trespassing forefathers of a hundred years ago is not our fault. I would simply say how can a huge injustice ever be adequately repaid. The native Americans of centuries ago relied on the returning salmon for every aspect of life. The salmon were their ancient heritage and in every way as important to them as the bison was to the plains tribes.
Their whole social structure revolved around the salmon along with their spiritual beliefs. To say that they were not entitled to what Federal Judge George Boldt ruled is either selfish, greedy or just ignorant. In my opinion the injustices that were inflicted upon the native American tribes throughout North America can never really be fully repaid or understood by the white man as to the magnitude of the wrong done.
Of course the Boldt decision is not without it's flaws. A very large one is the allocation process, as far as who gets what, has to rely on fishery biologists estimating what the future runs will be. This process has proved to be a failure in these recent lean years as the estimations of run sizes has fallen flat on it's face once again in 2011. However it is what it is and until something better comes along it's the best way.... I guess.
That being said we sports anglers are not owed fish to catch. The non-tribal commercial netters, whose greed in the past is one of the main reason we are where we are in the first place, are not just automatically entitled the salmon.
With hydro-electric dams, spawning habitat degradation and poor hatchery processes we all own some of the blame. Whether it be our generation or the generations of our fathers we basically ripped off the tribes and got greedy. The notion that the fish will always return in the huge numbers they once did is just plain stupid and to fight like dogs for the scraps of what is left is a very disturbing commentary on where we are as a civilized people.
Yes the tribes deserve what they got with the Boldt decision and a whole lot more as far as I am concerned.
I like going to Sherars Falls on the Deschutes to watch the people of the Warm Springs tribe net returning salmon and steelhead. With impossibly long handled nets these graceful fishermen try to intercept the salmon that are held up in the violent water beneath the falls.
They put up with the white tourists that stop along the road and snap their pictures and who cannot begin to understand the symbolism of what is taking place.
I deeply admire these people in that they have stubbornly held onto the ancient traditions of their ancestors despite losing nearly everything due to the encroachment of our ancestors.
I understand their mistrust of the society who took their land and their salmon. They did not invite us here and that makes us invaders.
Along with the theft of their land we also introduced disease and alcohol to them.
So if you ever get the chance to observe this fishing ritual at Sherars Falls take a moment to realize all these proud and noble people lost and how, even in this day and age, tenaciously they cling to what is left of their ancient heritage.

Put Your Faith in ODFW

Well I'm kidding of course because once again the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has dropped the ball on estimating returns on Columbia River Spring Chinook.
Even Bill Monroe of the Oregonian and ODFW's de-facto cheerleaders has touted the big returns years after year.
Well guess what folks. Someone forgot to tell the fish! Once again ODFW has fumbled and once again gullible spring salmon have been gypped as the Columbia is set to close on April 4th.
ODFW bases it's run predictions on previous year jack returns so I am wondering if what they are counting?
Shad maybe?
Once again commercial fishing has duped ODFW because they are smarter and more united but even this year they are cut short.
Do I feel sorry for the cheated sports guys? Not a bit! Too many times these anglers in organizations like CCA and Northwest Steelheaders have put their own selfishness above what for is best the fish. They deserve the "screwing" that ODFW hands to them every year.
What really irks me is they try to make the native American tribes that harvest salmonids above Bonneville dam the scapegoats. Sorry fellas but that just doesn't fly with me. The tribes deserve every fish they get and more. Look at the long and sad history of the treaties that have been broken over the decades and you will see why I feel this way.
It's not only the Columbia river where ODFW has dropped the ball either. ODFW predicted that the Tillamook bay rivers were going to have a return of 114% of normal this last fall and so accordingly did not do anything to change bag limits etc. Well you can probably guess what happened there. As one who spends a lot of time on the north coast I can verify that the 114% did not show.
Wonder what kind of excuse we will hear when the whole emergency closure meetings this fall are held.

Do the Math - Why Steelhead Broodstock Programs Hurt Wild Fish

I've thought a lot about the steelhead broodstock programs over the years since it's inception and it, along with the harvest of wild cutthroat trout, are the main focus of my wrath against the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Being that I am not a fishery biologist I rely on the wisdom of others that are educated in fish biology, specifically anadromous salmonids like steelhead and I've asked both Bill Bakke and Spencer Miles to help me with this post.
Let's go with some simple mathematics. I'll use females as my examples since one wild male steelhead can "service" several females.
A typical wild steelhead female will produce about 3-5 thousand eggs so for this example I'll go with the bottom end number of 3,000. Out of these eggs let's conservatively estimate that out of these eggs 2 adults will mature to return as adults 2-3 years later. ODFW takes about 30-35 pair, each year, of wild steelhead. So if out of those 30-35 pairs of wild steelhead, that are used to make hatchery steelhead, were to produce, let's say 60 returning adults and then multiply that by the number of years these broodstock programs have been running and then multiply, if you can the lost progeny all the generations of wild eggs that were turned into hatchery steelhead I think you may be surprise at the cost to wild steelhead populations. The offspring of these wild steelhead are taken out of the equation and will not spawn naturally. Instead they are made into a hatchery product. The potential of each and every one of those wild into hatchery eggs is lost. How many wild steelhead would those "borrowed" eggs produced.
On the Nestucca and Wilson rivers this broodstock program has been going one for about 10 years. Do the math! I used conservative numbers and percentages to make my point but even at that the numbers really add up.
These two rivers have declining populations of wild winter steelhead. Redd counts from the last two years were alarmingly low yet ODFW still does their take of wild steelhead to populate their hatchery needs.
Who benefits most from this program?
Very simple! Professional bait guides do. They lobbied hard for this program and they all march lock step in advocating it. They claim the wild populations are healthy enough to sustain the removal of the wild spawning fish every year. I have my doubts about the numbers they come up with on their creel and spawning surveys.
Do I think they are deliberately inflating their creel counts of wild steelhead they've encountered? Well let me put it this way. They are the user group who benefits most by having this steelhead broodstock fishery.
They have guided trips with paying customers at a time of year that in the past they did not. Their customers are able to harvest the hatchery broodstock steelhead at a time of year when there should be only wild steelhead present and less angling pressure
There are other pitfalls of these programs besides just the numbers. I think all other arguments about the negative effect of steelhead broodstock programs aside the sheer numbers of wild fish removed, over a period of years, should be the most alarming.
One bait guide says these wild eggs are just being borrowed! Borrowed? How so? The potential or recruits of all those offsprings are multiplied and lost forever.
It's a dangerous game that ODFW is playing with the future of wild steelhead and the gamble is not worth it in the least.
This example I've used describes a stable situation where the steelhead parents are replacing themselves. It illustrates a conversion of a wild salmonid population into a production program to provide harvest benefits to a business. This conversion has a biological impact on the wild population through genetic and competition impacts that affect the reproductive success of the wild population at a cost to the public that supports the program through tax dollars, fees and investments in watershed protection. The cost to produce a fish that is harvested is hidden from the public by the state management agency. There have been some economic studies that have determined what those costs are. For example, a recent independent economic evaluation was completed under contract for NOAA Fisheries that pointed out that the Mitchell Act Hatchery program on the Columbia River (18 hatcheries) is a deficit spending program for all hatcheries. These hatcheries are supported with public tax dollars. In response NOAA Fisheries fired this economics team and looked for one that would give them the answer they wanted. For hatchery programs, regardless the type, there is no cost or biological impact accountability. These programs are sold by the management agencies (state, tribal and federal) as conservation actions, when in fact they are not only a drain on public funds, they are increasing the risk to wild fish populations. The recent study done by Chilcote (NOAA Fisheries), Goodson (ODFW) and Falcy (ODFW) point out that conventional hatchery production and native broodstock hatcheries for coho, chinook and steelhead all contribute to the decline of the wild populations that they affect, for the wild populations decline in proportion to the naturally spawning hatchery fish in those wild populations. The agencies have constructed a good business plan, for they get most of the benefit from the invested public funds, but it has eclipsed the conservation mission of the agencies and is placing the native fish that are their primary responsibility at greater risk of extinction. For example, the Sandy River wild steelhead have declined from an estimated 20,000 fish to 800 fish over time. Mitigation hatcheries funded by the public have not been successful in replacing the loss or stemming the decline. Even though the public has made a $100 million commitment to restore this river for wild salmon and steelhead, they are disturbed by the fact that wild run continues to decline, it is threatened with extinction, and the habitat is filled with hatchery fish. One biologist concluded that hatchery fish waste the productivity of the habitat and the investments to restore it.
ODFW is being very myopic, of course, as it's not so much the removal of 1-2% of the run that's screwing things up, as steelhead are remarkably resilient and will replenish themselves (we harvested probably 50% of the run, or more, for decades before things got noticeably bad). I think the broodstock program is horrible for a whole different set of reasons:
1) ODFW sold the public on a program that they claimed would have more conservation benefits and be less harmful to wild fish. As Chilcote has shown, this is 100% false.
2) We now have hatchery fish spawning on top of our Feb-May wild fish. No studies have even been conducted on this, which really pisses me off (though Chilcote told me that this is going to be his next area of focus, should start a study on this later in the year).
3) On the Nestucca and Wilson, wild fish at least had the river to themselves from February to May up until 2004. Now it's a constant onslaught of hatchery pukes. Summers from May - January, Alsea stock from November - February, and "wild" broodstock from January - May.
4) Increased pressure.There used to be minimal pressure from Feb-April, and now it's a parade of drift boats. The gravel from Beaver to Blaine is no longer even utilized as the fish aren't going to spawn when 25 boats are going over them.
I would like to thank Bill Bakke and Spencer Miles from Native Fish Society for their contribution to this subject

The ODFW Version of 3 Card Monte

What is the old saying? If you can't wow them with facts then baffle them with bullshit!
Here is what those fine folks at ODFW are doing on the Sandy river
Lowering the baseline and avoiding the ESA by Spencer Miles

Come To Oregon This Summer For Poached Steelhead

No I'm not talking about illegally caught either.
In a press release from NSIA (Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association) it states the following.

NSIA representatives included major retailers such as Fred Meyer and Fishermen’s Marine and Outdoor, tackle manufacturers, outdoor advertising and media, and guides. Facilitated by ODFW, the participants brainstormed ways to leverage their collective communication platforms and resources for better outreach to attract new customers to this thriving but under appreciated fishery.

“Steelhead are one of Oregon’s most prized game fish, known for their fight,” said Todd Davidson, Director of Travel Oregon. “Great conditions and stable fishing seasons make summer steelhead a solid draw to Oregon for visiting anglers and their families.” Davidson continued, “The statewide potential of this pilot project is tremendous.”
Last year, nearly half a million of these summer steelhead, often nicknamed “freight trains” entered the Columbia River and were pursued by anglers from the bank and from boats. For 2011 the steelhead returns will be down, but only slightly. “This is the perfect fishery for the families that shop Fred Meyer,” said Cheryl Kindwall, sporting goods buyer. “A Columbia River steelhead is easily caught from the river’s many public beaches, turning a fishing trip into a picnic and fun family outing.”

So what is wrong with this you might ask? The Columbia river runs very warm, fish wise, in the summer months. It runs on an average year in the lethal range of 68-71Fin August the height of tourist season. Plainly speaking that is too hot to stress out a wild steelhead.
When a steelhead is hooked and played in those warm temperatures is is almost always lethal.
It is somewhat surprising that a group like NSIA would promote this fishery knowing that the warm water is harmful.
Tourism in Oregon is fine and we all know that it helps Oregon's struggling economy but to promote actually harming ESA is troubling. I would have thought NSIA would know better.Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, who are also involved in this promotion of CR summer steelhead, has once again shown a total disregard for the health of wild salmonids...does that surprise you?

An Important Read

If you have ever had doubts about just how hatchery programs affect wild salmon and steelhead you will want to read the study linked below. It's a pretty long read but it is worth it.
Chilcote Study on hatchery anadromous fish and their effect on wild salmonids

Things to Think About for 2012

In 2012 Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will consider new angling proposals. This is a process that happens every 4 years and the public is invited to submit their ideas for consideration.
We have to be vigilant and stick up for our wild salmonids and their habitat and your help is needed.

Here are some proposals that I am kicking around.

- A 10" to 13" statewide slot limit for all wild cutthroat trout
- Barbless hooks for use in all rivers where wild salmon, trout and steelhead are present
- Bait restrictions in upper portions of coastal rivers
- Increased protection of salmon and steelhead spawning areas
- Increasing daily and weekly bag limits for hatchery steelhead
These are just some of the things that will be addressed and considered for future regulations.
AS we get closer to the time for this process to begin I will keep you all posted about what you need to do.
Please be involved! Wild fish need your help

Gary Moore RIP 1952-2011

This guy could rock!!!!!

Reagan at 100

Yes I know I made a pledge to "depoliticize" the Quiet Pool but I couldn't resist sharing this with all of you.

Barbless Hooks and Their Importance to Wild Salmonid Recovery

There is an incredible resistance among sports anglers against the use of barbless hooks and I do not understand it.
Studies show that the use of barbless hooks does decrease mortality among released fish. Think about for a minute.
You've hooked a wild trout and know that you are going to release it. Doesn't it make sense that a barbless hook allows your fly or lure to be quickly removed and therefore would be desirable among ALL sports anglers? This is just common sense...right?
The vitriol against the use of barbless hooks, especially among conventional gear anglers, is shocking.

Click on the link below for an eye opening article by Bill Bakke, executive director of Native Fish Society
Barbless Hooks Study by Bill Bakke

Wild Steelhead - It's What's for Dinner

It recently came to my attention that Key City Fish Company of Port Townsend, Washington is a distributor of wild steelhead to area restaurants.
I emailed them and here is the exchange I had with them

I wrote -

It has come to my attention that you distribute and sell ESA listed wild steelhead to various Seattle restaurants.I would please implore you to stop and do not purchase these endangered fish any longer.
Wild steelhead are a very precious resource in this region and we cannot afford to let their numbers slip any further.
Once they are gone they are gone forever...there is no replacement for them in our rivers and in our rivers is where they belong not on someone dinner plate.
Please consider not selling them anymore.


Key City's Response -

Thank you for your concern regarding the Olympic Peninsula Steelhead. We agree with your position that distributing unsustainable, endangered and threatened fish is not a good idea.
The Olympic Peninsula Steelhead that we purchase is always from the sustainably managed Quileute tribal fishery on the Quileute River or the Makah tribal fishery on the Tsooees River. The Steelhead is a combination of both hatchery and wild stock that has spawned naturally. The Quileute and Makah Tribes are closely partnered with the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife to effectively, and aggressively manage these fisheries so that they remain healthy and robust for generations to come. The state and tribes actively work with citizens to catalogue details about habitat and map fish stock distributions. I can assure you that everyone involved, from tribe to state to distributor and restaurant has a vested interest in the preservation of this fish.
It is true that many Wild Steelhead populations are indeed endangered or threatened and should absolutely be completely avoided, such as those on the California Coast, Oregon Coast, Snake River, and Puget Sound. However, the Olympic Peninsula Steelhead population is healthy, robust and absolutely not threatened. For confirmation of this please visit NOAA’s website at:
http://www.nwr.noaa.gov/ESA-Salmon-Listings/Salmon-Populations/Steelhead/.
We are aware that there is considerable conflict between sport and commercial fishermen regarding the regulation of steelhead fishing and we understand the frustrations of both sides. We want to stress, though, that our interest in this fish is primarily as a fantastic food. The Olympic Peninsula Steelhead we deliver is sustainably and legally caught according to the regulations set forth by the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife and is not endangered or threatened according to NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service. If these official assessments were to change we would indeed adjust our use of this product.
Best Regards,
Johnpaul Davies
Key City Fish Company

So okay they don't care but we do! I urge anyone who thinks the conservation of wild steelhead is pretty important and that Key City Fish Company is wrong to write this company and express your unhappiness about their business practices and their commitment to wild steelhead.
You can also write to companies that get fish from Key City and make them aware of what is going on.
Here is the response from a restaurant that got fish from Key City  Ray's Boathouse Restaurant in Seattle


Thank you for your feedback. We are no longer serving Steelhead. We will continue to work hard to find truly sustainable sources for our products and appreciate your comments at any time. Thank you for your time and passion on this very important issue.

Best,
Peter Birk, Executive Chef
Ray’s Boathouse, Café & Catering
6049 Seaview Avenue NW
Seattle, WA 98107

Obviously Ray's think wild steelhead are pretty important and that putting them on the menu is wrong.....Thank You Ray!

Reaching out to businesses like Key City and Ray's does make a difference. Maybe Key City will change their minds about serving wild steelhead if they get enough emails and calls to quit serving them.

The New Normal

The rivers of Puget Sound are closing again this year because of low returns of wild steelhead...yes I said again. This is the second year in a row that this has happened and I would have to applaud the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife for taking this action in order to preserve the few wild steelhead remaining.
Do the names Skagit, Skykomish and Sauk sound familiar? These are the rivers of steelhead legend. The Stilliguamish once had 80,000 winter steelhead returning to it but now have fewer than 1000! How in the hell did this happen? I'm sure there is plenty of finger pointing going on but the fact remains that this is could be the "new normal"
Here is the link to the sad and alarming WDFW news release.

Puget Sound River Closures

“No Winter Lasts Forever; No Spring Skips Its Turn.”

I dredged this up from 2008 and thought that everything I wrote about winter 3 years ago holds true today. This winter has been extra tough as I am helping a relative that refuses to be helped. Anyway enjoy these musings from a few years back....I think it's one of the best I've written.



Websters defines cabin fever as "extreme irritability and restlessness from living in isolation or a confined indoor area for a prolonged time"
The clinical definition is Seasonal Affective Disorder or some call it the shack nasties and yes I have it. Since my retirement I have the onset of the "winter blues". I've touched on this before in other entries but this season seem to be the worst I've dealt with. Constantly cold,drizzly and days that are too short. My favorite winter steelhead stream has a mudslide in the upper river that has kept the lower twenty miles of the main stem (most of the river) the color of a cappuccino and thus unfishable. The other nearby rivers have ran high for almost all of the winter and since I am not a gear fisherman it makes the swinging of flies tough and I don't need any more handicaps in hooking winter steelhead on a fly than I already have.
With ice and snow on nearly all of the coastal range passes and gasoline topping out over $3 well you get the picture. If it sounds like I'm whining or making excuses then I confess but you can only tie so many flies,watch so many fishing DVDs and have so many heated political or conservation debates with the unlearned so called sportsmen on the internet before it gets to you.
So my edginess may be more evident in my postings this time but bear with me for a few more months.
How I long for those exciting first few trout excursions of the spring over to the Deschutes and what I wouldn't give to feel a two inch long salmon fly crawling down my neck because it's late spring along the Deschutes. Those lazy late summer days of the coast streams where the new trout water I discovered awaits me and my four weight.
I can just feel it now! The warm breeze of the desert canyon with the juniper and sage doing natures aroma therapy on my soul.
When I'm hiking up above the locked gate on the Deschutes this year I'll remember the cold of winter and rejoice in the little things that are all a part of my angling life.
So fellow winter sufferers take heart in what British poet Anne Bradstreet wrote about winter.
“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”

NFS River Steward Op-Ed in the Oregonian

By Spencer Miles

Over the past decade countless organizations -- including Portland General Electric, the city of Portland, Western Rivers Conservancy and The Freshwater Trust -- have spent more than $75 million on Sandy River habitat restoration with a long-term goal of recovering wild fish. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, on the other hand, continues to show more interest in protecting its harmful hatchery programs than in protecting our native fish. The results have been catastrophic. 
Wild salmon and steelhead in the Sandy River desperately need our help. Native winter steelhead that once numbered 20,000 fish are now hanging on by a thread with a population of only 800 fish. Spring chinook are in even worse shape, having gone from a historic abundance of 29,000 fish to 750 today. Sandy River spring chinook, fall chinook, winter steelhead and coho are all listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act and chum salmon are extinct.
For the past 40 years fisheries biologists have known that hatchery fish are extremely harmful to wild fish. A river can only support a finite number of fish, and over time, hatchery fish simply drive wild fish toward extinction. The ODFW fish commission continues to operate with little regard for science or the well-being of our endangered wild fish. This spring, about 1,250,000 hatchery-raised salmon and steelhead will be released into the Sandy.
In 1997 ODFW's abundance goal for the upper Sandy was 4,900 wild winter steelhead. By 2010 this number has been administratively reduced to a goal of 1,515 wild winter steelhead for the entire Sandy basin. Despite greatly improved habitat, these endangered fish are being managed out of existence.
At a recent ODFW meeting in Salem, Assistant Fish Division Administrator Bruce McIntosh stated that annual releases of 240,000 hatchery steelhead is a reasonable number for supporting a recovery of wild fish. The ODFW has been annually planting the Sandy with 240,000 hatchery steelhead for decades, and wild steelhead runs have declined precipitously as a result.
Albert Einstein once quipped that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. In a recent interview with the Portland Tribune, ODFW District Biologist Todd Alsbury stated that reducing hatchery programs on the Sandy is a "last resort." Are four endangered species and one extinct species not grounds for this "last resort"? Must we wait for more extinctions before ODFW breaks from the status quo and starts protecting Oregon's salmon and steelhead?
It is time for the ODFW to stop ignoring the science and its responsibility under the law and truly commit to a restoration of Sandy River salmonids. Dozens of organizations have recognized the importance of these fish by giving more than $75 million to improve their habitat. If future generations are to ever witness a spawning salmon, the ODFW must take accountability for its deleterious hatchery program and designate the Sandy as a wild salmon sanctuary. Oregon will be a better place for it.

ODFW's Response

After getting over 300, at last count, responses to the wild steelhead situation on the Sandy river here is ODFW's response.
I will let you read it and draw your own conclusions before commenting at the end of this post.Please click on the link below to read the response from ODFW

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Memo - Sandy Basin Concerns 1-14-11



So what is Mr. McIntosh saying here? In my opinion not much. He fails to acknowledge that what ODFW is doing on the Sandy is a violation of Oregon's Native Fish Conservation Policy. This was pointed out to him and Ed Bowles, ODFW Fish Division Administrator, at the January 5th public meeting in Salem by Spence Miles.
In fact Bowles went so far as to say in another correspondence to a Native Fish Society River Steward that if conservation groups were to pursue a solution to this that  involved a lawsuit those group(s) bringing a suite would be "Marginalized"
Now isn't that interesting?  We have a state agency whose responsibility it is to protect and conserve those native steelhead acting like a spoiled child.
What Spencer has done is open a huge can of worms and brought Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to task for their huge failure in protecting an irreplaceable wild steelhead population. Those of us that call ourselves friends of wild fish can learn a hell of a lot from Spencer Miles about motivation to action when dealing with ODFW and concerning wild salmonids.

Wild Steelhead on the Sandy Need Your Help

  Fellow Native Fish Society river steward Spencr Miles has done research on the wild winter steelhead of the Sandy River near Portland Oregon. He found that Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is sacrificing a disproportionate amount of endangered wild winter steelhead for the sake of yet another broodstock program. The details below are from a letter that Spencer wrote and posted on his blog Whitefish Can't Jump  If after reading what Spencer has found out pisses you off...and it should, please take the time to write ODFW a letter stating your displeasure of this "mining" of wild milt and eggs for the sake of another hatchery program.
Here is a link to an automailer that you can use send a letter to ODFW Save Sandy River Wild Winter Steelhead 
Thanks!

The Sandy River historically supported an annual native winter steelhead run of upwards of 20,000 fish (Mattson 1955). This run has now been in decline for decades, culminating in an escapement of 537 fish at Marmot dam in 1995 (Marmot Fish Counts) and an ESA listing of winter steelhead in 1998.

In 2000, just two years after the ESA listing went into effect, ODFW instituted a broodstock hatchery program on the Sandy with a goal of supplying 25% of the hatchery smolts with native Sandy River steelhead (Cedar Creek HGMP). In that year, with only 893 wild winter steelhead passing the Marmot dam, 140 wild steelhead were harvested from the river to support the new broodstock program. Between 2001 and 2007 an average of 83 wild steelhead were harvested for the broodstock program when the wild run above Marmot averaged only 781 fish (Marmot Fish Counts).
The Hatchery Scientific Review Group has determined that the primary cause of poor productivity in the Sandy is a high proportion of hatchery-origin spawners (HSRG 2009). Moreover, in 1998 NMFS estimated that as many as 45% of the spawning fish are of hatchery origin (Federal Register 1998).
During the summer of 2007 the Marmot dam was removed, allowing countless numbers of hatchery steelhead to reach some of the best spawning grounds in the watershed. The Marmot fish ladder also made it trivial to track escapement, and without this data, determining the maximum sustainable harvest to support the broodstock program is onerous at best.
How is it that the ODFW, despite a record low Sandy River escapement in the late 1990s, decided to implement a hatchery program based on harvesting this already fragile run?
Furthermore:
•How can the ODFW legally harvest native steelhead listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act?
•Does the ODFW have a scientific justification for harvesting ESA listed wild fish to sustain a sport fishery amidst record levels of low escapement?
•How does the ODFW measure annual escapement of wild winter steelhead on the Sandy, and how do the escapement estimates impact the number of wild fish harvested to support the broodstock program?
•At which point does wild escapement become too low to sustainably support a broodstock program?
•Does the ODFW feel that a harvest of up to 15% of an ESA listed fish is an acceptable method for supporting a sport fishery?
•In 1998 NMFS estimated a 45% hatchery stray rate on Sandy River spawning grounds, which has undoubtedly increased since the removal of Marmot dam. The ODFW has established a maximum limit of 10% hatchery spawners under the Native Fish Conservation Plan (OAR 635-007-0507), yet the Sandy River hatchery continues to operate with little regard to that administrative law. How does the Sandy River hatchery continue to legally stock 160,000 winter steelhead smolts and 80,000 summer steelhead (Sandy River HOP 2010) when it is clearly in violation of OAR 635-007-0507?
The Sandy River has the potential to be one of the finest urban winter steelhead fisheries in the country, yet the perpetuation of an unsustainable hatchery program has rendered it as anything but. It is my sincere hope that the Sandy River hatchery can be brought into compliance with state law, and that the Sandy River can once again provide amazing runs of native winter steelhead for future generations

The Smoking Gun?

Okay guys are we in agreement that hatcheries are harmful to wild salmonid populations? Still not convinced huh?
Well don't take my word for it and why should you anyway? I am not a trained fisheries biologist but I do believe the science that the experts have come up with. You could counter almost every argument that I posted if you are in favor of robust and vibrant hatchery programs.
Would you argue with science? Maybe the following assessment BY THE EXPERTS will convince you.

ScienceDaily (June 13, 2009) — Steelhead trout that are originally bred in hatcheries are so genetically impaired that, even if they survive and reproduce in the wild, their offspring will also be significantly less successful at reproducing, according to a new study published today by researchers from Oregon State University.
The poor reproductive fitness – the ability to survive and reproduce – of the wild-born offspring of hatchery fish means that adding hatchery fish to wild populations may ultimately be hurting efforts to sustain those wild runs, scientists said.
The study found that a fish born in the wild as the offspring of two hatchery-reared steelhead averaged only 37 percent the reproductive fitness of a fish with two wild parents, and 87 percent the fitness if one parent was wild and one was from a hatchery. Most importantly, these differences were still detectable after a full generation of natural selection in the wild.
The effect of hatcheries on reproductive fitness in succeeding generations had been predicted in theory, experts say, but until now had never been demonstrated in actual field experiments.
"If anyone ever had any doubts about the genetic differences between hatchery and wild fish, the data are now pretty clear," said Michael Blouin, an OSU professor of zoology. "The effect is so strong that it carries over into the first wild-born generation. Even if fish are born in the wild and survive to reproduce, those adults that had hatchery parents still produce substantially fewer surviving offspring than those with wild parents. That's pretty remarkable."
An earlier report, published in 2007 in the journal Science, had already shown that hatchery fish that migrate to the ocean and return to spawn leave far fewer offspring than their wild relatives. The newest findings suggest the problem does not end there, but carries over into their wild-born descendants.
The implication, Blouin said, is that hatchery salmonids – many of which do survive to reproduce in the wild– could be gradually reducing the fitness of the wild populations with which they interbreed. Those hatchery fish provide one more hurdle to overcome in the goal of sustaining wild runs, along with problems caused by dams, loss or degradation of habitat, pollution, overfishing and other causes.
Aside from weakening the wild gene pool, the release of captive-bred fish also raises the risk of introducing diseases and increasing competition for limited resources, the report noted.
This research, which was just published in Biology Letters, was supported by grants from the Bonneville Power Administration and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. It was based on years of genetic analysis of thousands of steelhead trout in Oregon's Hood River, in field work dating back to 1991. Scientists have been able to genetically "fingerprint" three generations of returning fish to determine who their parents were, and whether or not they were wild or hatchery fish.
The underlying problem, experts say, is Darwinian natural selection.
Fish that do well in the safe, quiet world of the hatcheries are selected to be different than those that do well in a much more hostile and predatory real-world environment. Using wild fish as brood stock each year should lessen the problem, but it was just that type of hatchery fish that were used in the Hood River study. This demonstrates that even a single generation of hatchery culture can still have strong effects.
Although this study was done with steelhead trout, it would be reasonable to extrapolate its results to other salmonids, researchers said. It's less clear what the findings mean to the many other species that are now being bred in captivity in efforts to help wild populations recover, Blouin said, but it's possible that similar effects could be found.
Captive breeding is now a cornerstone of recovery efforts by conservation programs for many threatened or endangered species, the researchers noted in their report. Thousands of species may require captive breeding to prevent their extinction in the next 200 years – which makes it particularly important to find out if such programs will ultimately work. This study raises doubts.
"The message should be clear," the researchers wrote in their report's conclusion. "Captive breeding for reintroduction or supplementation can have a serious, long-term downside in some taxa, and so should not be considered as a panacea for the recovery of all endangered populations."


So you have to ask yourself is this the smoking gun? One would certainly think so but this study probably wouldn't convince many in Tillamook county because the hatchery addicition runs deep through many gernerations of anglers.
We see bogus "conservation" awards for those who put their efforts into increasing hatchery output and those efforts are bullshit! So instead of letting the opinions of a few knuckle draggers who post on ifish.net and who believe that the the only way to fishing nirvana is dumping a "gazillion" hatchery smolt into the watershed (actual ifish quote) then read the science! It's all out there and easily accessible....do your homework if you care to because you will find the smoking gun on dwindling wild salmon and steelhead.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Merry Christmas from the Quiet Pool

The Bigger Picture

It's a given that we all love fly fishing. If you are reading this blog you have to love fly fishing at least a little or you wouldn't waste your time reading my mindless drivel would you? Well it's the same for me also. The joy I get from casting a fly to a trout or steelhead is hard to measure. I fear my sanity would suffer greatly if I could not get out on a river on a semi-regular basis.
All that aside though I believe that there is something larger than our angling pleasures....namely the effort to save what wild salmon, trout and steelhead we have left. We cannot sit idly by and just expect the wild salmonids in our river to always be there because that has never worked with anything in the past and our endangered cold water fisheries are on the brink.
We have to ask ourselves just how important is our passion for these things. Can you set aside your desire to have some excellent fly fishing in order to save a few wild trout or steelhead...can you? I am not putting myself or my conservation efforts above those of any of you that are reading this but I can assure that I would give up fishing a river like the Deschutes if I thought I could make a difference in the survival of a wild species like the redside rainbows. I could set aside fishing on the Metolius if it meant that the Bull trout would survive and I could quit tossing flies at coastal cutthroat trout on my favorite coastal river if the survival of these trout hung in the balance.
We cannot pin our hopes that state fish and wildlife agencies or the federal government to do what is necessary to make sure wild fish survive because their track record is piss poor.
Here we sit on the eve of a new year and still our wild cold water fisheries are in grave danger because of greed and mismangment and a lack of imagination of our fish and wildlife agencies. So I am hoping that each of you have a wonderful 2011 out on the river and I ask you to consider just one thing as you hold that beautiful trout or steelhead oout the water for your hero shot. Think about what it takes for that fish and other wild salmonids like it to survive and perpetuate their species. What could you sacrifice in 2011 to make that happen.
2011 will mark the fifth year I have shared my thoughts with you on this blog and I wanted to take the time to thank all of you who stop by the Quiet Pool for putting with my ranting and poor punctuation. Your feedback is what keeps it going.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of my fly fishing friends out there.

The World is Our Oyster

I was just browsing the mega Pacific northwest website and sometimes soap opera known as ifish.net and reinforced. once again, my belief that sports anglers have to be among the most selfish and greedy bunch in the world. Everything from hatchery fish are our God given right to saying tough shit house boat owners the wake our water crafts put out is just something you are going to have deal with because we gotta a mess of fish to catch! Barbless hooks? forget it because it may cause me to catch less salmon.
In fairness though,ifish.net is not the only place where this self serving, "Screw everyone else I gotta get mine" mentality exists on the world wide web. It's pretty much everywhere.
It will come off sounding overly pessimistic but I have deep fears and doubts that we will ever save what little wild salmon and steelhead there are left because we just have no desire to sacrifice anything in favor of our own greed.
My generation grew up with our parents giving us everything we wanted. I had all the latest toys and bikes etc. because my folks gave them to me but failed to instill any kind of charitable character traits. I'm sure most of you had similar childhoods. To overcome the "me first" attitude we had to struggle and force ourselves to actually care about something bigger than ourselves. It's still and effort for me!
Some my age never over came it and they have passed "The world is my oyster" mentality down to their own children.
Fishing for salmon and steelhead in this region has brought out the worst in people and they cannot wrap their pea brains around the notion that they can no longer kill and harvest everything and anything they want. When told that there are not enough returning fall chinook in several watersheds they are outraged.
I've bitched about the "Harvest Mentality" for most of the almost 5 years this blog has been in existence. I've singled out Tillamook county as the worst offender but in retrospect maybe that was unfair. Oh sure they own a lot of the blame for their piss poor attitude about wild fish issues but they are really not much different than anglers around the Portland metro area.
My brother recently asked me during a heated political debate what I have done to change things. In my defense I listed the activities I have been involved with for wild salmonids however if I were truthful I would have said I have not done enough. I guess the thing that bothers me most is not just the half-assed efforts of people like myself but those who think more hatchery fish, broodstock programs that rob wild salmon and steelhead of the eggs that are needed to perpetuate the wild spawning species. They actually think that what they do is necessary and they feel good about it.
Listen folks, and this may come as a shock to some of you, but the state of Oregon and Washington is not obligated to supply you or me with fish to kill especially at the expense of what few wild salmon and steelhead are left.
The world is not our oyster no matter what Falstaff may have said. We get out of it what efforts we put into it and sadly, when it comes to wild trout, salmon and steelhead those efforts and attitudes are lacking.

Well Hallelujah...Our Hatchery Troubles Are Over

A better hatchery salmon and steelhead huh? Wasn't that what they promised with the broodstock programs? Of course the harvest addicts will greet this as the best thing since sodium sulfite. Maybe if they make the tanks oval WDFW could draw in a bunch of NASCAR fans!!!!

From OregonLive
By  Eric Mortenson, The Oregonian

Call it another example of survival of the fittest.
Researchers experimenting with juvenile salmon and steelhead at a Washington fish hatchery say fish raised in circular tanks with a swift current are faster and tougher than fish raised in the commonly-used rectangular raceways.
The findings come from a pilot project at Eastbank Hatchery in Wenatchee, Wash., carried out by Chelan County Public Utility District, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Conservation Fund's Freshwater Institute. Researchers determined that fish raised in circular tanks migrated downstream faster upon release, reaching a checkpoint five days earlier than their brethren. More of them survived, as well -- 72 percent compared to 52 percent of fish raised in rectangular tanks, according to a Freshwater Institute news release. Also, the fish raised in circular tanks included fewer "mini-jacks," juvenile salmon that become sexually mature early and stay in freshwater rivers instead of migrating to the ocean. Researchers are concerned that hatchery-raised jack salmon can distort the genetic makeup of wild salmon over time.
Depending on the technology used, circular tanks can re-use up to 99 percent of the water in the system. The systems also collect waste and uneaten food, making them easier to keep clean, according to the Freshwater Institute. The institute, a non-profit based in West Virginia, advocates the sustainable use of water.
The findings are preliminary, but researchers are "extremely optimistic" that hatchery operations and water conservation efforts can complement each other, hatchery manager Joe Miller said in a news release. However, scrutiny is required because fish hatchery operations have a "history of unintended consequences" such as producing flawed fish, the news release said.
The research findings will be presented Dec. 7 at the Northwest Fish Culture conference in Portland.

--Eric Mortenson

Of Gray Days and Winter Steelhead

Winter Steelhead caught by Jad Donaldson

It's November 29th but I know that the Pacific northwest is well into the winter season. It's not like it's early or anything it's just well...here. I decided I needed to get out of the house today and so I made my first trek over the coast range to look for winter run steelhead. Yes I know it's seems like a pipe dream but it wouldn't matter if all that was present were a run of suckers because I needed to get out on the river.
The winter scene is like one would expect during the early winter steelhead season. It's like you are looking at the world through a gray filter like the kind that might be used on a camera. The low peaks of the coast range had a typical winter fog obscuring their tops as the alders and maples stood in stark contrast to the green firs along the highway. The higher peaks of the coast range showed a trace of a recent Thanksgiving week snow. All the fall leaves have blown away during an earlier fall wind and those that did not make it into a coastal stream were now a ground up mulch along the river. The fall colors of October have been transformed in subdued hues of pale green and misty gray. Yes this is definitely winter.
I have a special steelhead run that has given me success over the last few years and so it was there that I headed.
Fishing in the upper reaches of a coastal river is a solitary experience for the most part and on this "winter" day I fished alone with only the occasional car or truck passing on the road that runs along the river.
In some ways these cold and solitary days on the upper river have an almost overwhelming affect on me,a kind of an anxiety that I cannot explain.
In other ways it is so quiet and still that I do not feel it is proper to talk, to myself of course, in anything other than a whisper.
I took out a new spey rod today hoping for that new rod mojo to reward me and to my utter delight and joy I did have a very strong grab and short run before the fish came unhooked. The sound that an older Hardy fly reel makes as a strong steelhead peels off line during that initial run is the most beautiful music a steelhead fly fisherman can hear. My short encounter with an early winter steelhead made the day instantly brighten.
These winter days are just too short and I cannot seem to get out of bed in the pre-dawn hours so my fishing days is truncated to just a few hours in the afternoon.
I decided to head home as the predicted storm was starting to make it's presence known but I felt that the day had been a success. A new rod and a brief but thrilling encounter with a winter steelhead warmed me like no cup of chicken noodle could even begin to.
With limited numbers of returning steelhead that seem to get fewer every year I count these fleeting encounters a gift and a sign of a hopeful winter to come.

Please Sir Can I Have Some More?

Ah yes! The harvest mentality is alive and well in Oregon and Washington! I can just hear it in Tillamook and Clatsop counties right now. "Endangered fish? We don't care about no stinkin' endangered fish! We want our freezers filled with freezer burned fillets and sodium cured eggs"
Well I sure as hell care about them and know many people who also care about them. This damn hatchery addiction has got to end if we ever want to have wild salmon, steelhead and trout for the future!

From the Oregonian
ASTORIA-- Four counties say a draft federal plan for managing lower Columbia River fish hatcheries is "flawed" and "inadequate."
Officials from Clatsop and Columbia counties in Oregon and Pacific and Wahkiakum counties in Washington wrote a letter to the National Marine Fisheries Service regarding how the federally funded hatcheries will be managed.
The Daily Astorian reports the federal agency's draft environmental statement spells out five potential operating scenarios for the hatcheries funded with money under the Mitchell Act, the law that provides federal dollars for conservation of Columbia River basin salmon and steelhead.
The counties said the 1,100-page document is divisive and assumes that fish production will not increase. It does not acknowledge basin-by-basin efforts to restore fish runs, county officials said, that they claim they were not consulted in the process. They requested that it be withdrawn.
"The history of working together and the values we share for future abundance is too important to leave to this flawed and inadequate document," the letter said.
For 10 years, funding has ranged from $11 million to $16 million for annual hatchery operation funding of 62 programs. They have produced more than 71 million fish each year.
Congress has not appropriated the money to operate the hatcheries next year. 
The five operating and funding scenarios included in the draft consider multiple options but none include increasing fish production.
One scenario discontinues Mitchell Act funding and others cut back the number of fish caught by up to nearly 50 percent. Four options close hatcheries and cut production.
In the zero-funding scenario, production would be cut to about 36 percent of the status quo. Another would operate lower Columbia River hatcheries with stricter standards to protect natural-origin fish, and a third would apply those tougher standards to upper river hatcheries.
Clatsop County Manager Duane Cole said the focus should be on developing resources needed to adequately support the hatchery system. The current funding of $12.5 million should be boosted to $35 million to $40 million, he said.
"The federal government needs to get serious about developing abundance by fully funding the hatchery system," Cole said. "The resources spent on this document should be spent on enhancing the system to restore the fish runs," Cole said.

The Greatest Generation

Can we ever thank the veterans of World War II enough? Probably not even come close but recently I got a chance to let one of them know how much I appreciate him and the other veterans who saved the world from tyranny and oppression.
I was entering a local variety store near my home and noticed an elderly gentleman wearing a ball cap that said "World War II Vet"
I felt the urge to ask him if I could shake his hand and I wanted to just say thank you to him. Of course I had to wander around the store for several minutes while I got up the nerve to approach this aged vet. Don't ask me why I was nervous because I couldn't tell you, but it took me a few minutes to figure out what it was I wanted to say.
My father was a veteran of that war and perhaps connecting with this man would some how give me a chance to connect with my dad. I did think about my father as I finally decided to go ahead and do what I knew was the right thing to do.
I had thought that he and his wife had slipped out of the store and I had missed my chance as I looked up and down the aisle for the octogenarian gent.
I finally found him and simply said in a voice choked with emotion "Sir, my father was a WWII vet and I was wondering if you would do me the honor by allowing me to shake your hand?" He gladly obliged and said simply "Thank you for noticing son"
Whether we agree with the politics of war or not we can never downplay the importance of our veterans and whenever I get the chance I will say thank you.

"It's a Money Thing For Me"

This interview appeared on the blog Buster Wants To Fish
You readers can draw your own conclusions



Q & A with a North Umpqua Guide:



Q: I heard through the grapevine that you are advocating bringing hatchery summers back to the fly water. Is that true, and if so, what is your reasoning?

A: Well, I don’t know how much you know about the North Umpqua, but it’s just the last few years that we’ve stopped seeing hatchery summers in the fly water. The hatchery fish that were up there weren’t a problem, since they were main stem spawners. I grew up on the Umpqua, and I can tell you that 99% of Umpqua summer steelhead are creek spawners. The hatchery fish spawned in the main stem, where they were acclimated. Back then you might have seen one or two hatchery fish up at Lee’s pool.
My real issue is I don’t think the wild run can handle all the pressure. I mean, we have more guys coming up here every year. But we only have a couple thousand wild steelhead. Without the hatchery fish, guys are figuring out where the natives hang out and they are pounding on them every single day. Meanwhile, ODFW is planting hatchery summers in places where nobody fishes. I’d say 2/3 of the Umpqua’s hatchery fish aren’t even getting fished for. A third of them are planted below the I-5 bridge. Another third is planted at Whistler’s Bend, and the last third at Rock Creek. But nobody fishes below I-5 bridge. Look at Whistler’s Bend. I drive by there every day, and if you see one guy fishing there it’s a rarity. Two guys I know run down there in the fall. The fly water is the only good summer water, and without some hatchery fish up there, the wild fish take the brunt of the pressure.


Q: So you think that by adding a hatchery program above Rock Creek you’ll be decreasing pressure on the wild fish? I don’t think you could find any examples of that correlation. Hatchery programs result in an increase in angling pressure on wild fish. That’s according to Oregon’s leading biologists and decades of research.

A: I think people are over thinking this whole thing. I mean, do we have a true “wild” run in the Umpqua? With all the hatchery influences over the last century, are these fish really wild?


Q: Umpqua steelhead are wild as they come. Has nobody shared with you the DNA analysis on wild steelhead in Oregon? I can send you the graphs that show the distinct genetic groupings of hatchery and wild fish.

A: Well I haven’t seen what you are talking about, but you just said yourself that the wild fish weren’t harmed by all those decades of hatchery mixing, right? So what’s the problem? Your own data says the wild fish are fine. We had hatchery fish all over up here. All the way up to the dam.


Q: What I’m saying is that there has been very little, if any, genetic introgression from interbreeding. But we know the presence of hatchery adults on the spawning grounds reduces overall numbers of wild fish. So you’re going to have a hard time convincing wild-fish advocates that there is an acceptable risk, at any level.

A: I just don’t see it that way. I don’t think there was much, if any mixing. And if the wild fish are as pure as you say they are, that proves it, right? All I’m saying is if you’re going to have hatchery fish in the Umpqua, put them in the places where people fish! Or get rid of all the hatchery fish, and take the money and use it to repair lost spawning and rearing habitat. One or the other. But it doesn’t make sense to spend all this money and resources on a program that nobody can benefit from.
I’m all for wild fish. But right now we aren’t getting the numbers of wild steelhead we used to see. We’re under 5,000 fish. We need 7,000 to 9,000 fish to handle all the pressure on the fly water. The only way we’re going to get that is if they either let us have some hatchery fish or reclaim the lost habitat. Like Canton Creek. There used to be over a thousand wild fish in there. But it was wiped out when they built that road. It’s never recovered. So if ODFW took all the money from hatcheries and used it to bring back wild fish, I could get behind that.
Now our winter steelhead in the Umpqua really need protection. In the winter we get 10,000 to 14,000 wild fish. And ODFW wants to institute a hatchery program and a kill fishery! All of us guides are against it. ODFW makes no sense. You can’t kill wild fish!

Q: But you just said you’re against killing wild fish, but hatchery programs kill wild fish. Isn’t that an inconsistency?

A: I hear what you’re saying, and I could get behind a wild-only Umpqua. But it’s got to be one or the other. The way things are going now, I can’t make any money. I’m not ashamed to say it’s a money thing for me. If we’re going to have hatchery fish, let’s acclimate a third of them from Wright Creek down and offer people a little more opportunity in the summer. We don’t even need to increase the numbers. Just put them where they can be used. Or get rid of them altogether.

Q: Do you think you would feel the same way about this if you weren’t guiding?

A: I don’t know. The summer hatchery program, the way they’re running it now, just doesn’t make good economic sense. So I think I would be frustrated even if I wasn’t guiding. I’d still be up here in the canyon. It’s the only part of the river you can consistently get fish on dries throughout the summer.