April was truly a busy month for Puget Sound Anglers. The North of Falcon process was completed, and the Pacific Fishery Management Council meetings in Seattle were conducted. We didn't get much of a season, but then there just aren't too many salmon headed our way. I can't help but think our future is bright with selective fishing seasons becoming the way of the future.
Last week I met with Cullen Stephenson the Deputy Director of the newly formed state agency, Puget Sound Partnership. Director Stephenson and I exchanged ideas, and I gave him some of my insights to the health - or lack of it- of Puget Sound and its ecosystem. I think some of my opinions that I shared with him opened his eyes to a new issues. The most noteworthy of those being the incredible, but invisible, damage that ghost nets and derelict fishing gear continue to do everywhere they remain. Thank goodness for the Northern Straits Commission and the great detail that they have kept with their ongoing quest to clean up areas of Puget Sound. When I re-read their fact sheet, it even opened my eyes again to the terrible toll that the ghost nets take. Check out the Northern Straits Commission on the web.
Puget Sound Anglers stepped forward to do what needed to be done to save endangered salmon stocks on the Columbia River: We joined with other groups to fight the injunction of the Humane Society of the United States that has kept the State of Washington and the federal government from controlling sea lion predation of spring salmon on the Columbia. Last Friday, the court ruled in our favor. But I expect some sort of an appeal. Apparently the seal lovers don't give a darn about listed salmon in the Columbia. The expected next step will land the suit in the lap of the 9th District Court, and anything can happen there, although it is somewhat uncommon for a higher court to over rule a lower court. But then again it is the 9th District. I think you all know what I mean there.
The lawsuit is only going to cost us a little money as the $3,000 estimated tab will be divided between several groups including Columbia Pacific Anglers, Salmon for All (the gillnetters), Northwest Steelheaders, Puget Sound Anglers, Oregon Anglers, Ilwaco Charter Association, Westport Charter Association, and the Washington Trollers Association. I don't mind aligning with other organizations with diverse interests when we are doing the right thing. But aligning with other organizations is always on a case by case basis.
I thought it was great to see two Washington Fish and Wildlife Commissioners attending much of the Pacific Fishery Management Council meetings in Seattle. I commend both Commissioner Miranda Wecker and Commissioner Conrad Mahnken for their going above and beyond the call of duty here. Now they know how the frustrating process operates, or fails to. Well, at least they have a sense of how it operates. Does anyone really know how it does?
Several of us are trying to craft a sport fishery for some of the estimated 25,000 Chinook predicted to be headed for the Lake Washington system this fall. Most of those are headed for the Issaquah Hatchery and a lot should be harvested. I'm hoping for a selective saltwater season in the vicinity of the Lake Washington Ship Canal.
Mid May finds several of us P.S.A. members on another Punta Colorada fishing trip hosted by THE REEL NEWS. Perhaps I'll have some bragging pictures to show you.
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