Had a good chat with the local native american fisheries biologist for
kitsap county the other day- he said that the net(s) just south of the agate
pass bridge caught 2000 coho this fall, they were estimating about 200. He
also said that since the net pen fish have no home stream they follow the
other hatchery coho (segregation in action I guess) to the home streams of
the hatchery fish that do have a natal stream, e.g. miller bay, steel creek
(near Brownsville) etc. Steel creek had a very large return of fish this
year & Paul Dorn (the biologist) was sure that many of the agate pass coho
wound up there. One of my theories for few fish at agate the past couple of
years was that they weren't planting any, & that's not true. I have heard
from another biologist that the net pen fish have created problems by going
to streams that have runs & spawning in those streams. Guess we just have
to look around a little more if the fish don't mill around agate pass. bill
hamilton
