A friend just bought a very nice home this spring on the salt, in large part for the fishing and recreational opportunities. When the silver run started this fall, he was delighted to find that the oyster beds in front of his home were prime feeding spots for both the resident and migratory cohos, and he began catching (and releasing) fish regularly.
Not long thereafter, the local indian tribe showed up and began netting. When they saw him fishing, they would run their outboards to the edge of his property, often tieing off on his property, and then run a gillnet or purse seine in a large sweep to the far end of his beach. After netting the fish, they stripped the eggs and threw the carcasses back - often leaving them in piles on the beach. The piles of dead salmon bodies included native (non-fin clipped)silvers and blackmouth - both illegal to take under WA state regulations. When he called the local WDFW office to report what he had seen, the reply was something like this; 1. we don't care, the hatchery quota for eggs has been met so let the indians have them, and, 2. Why are you complaining, there are plenty of fish to catch this year, and you shouldn't have bought that property. > From: Rob Blomquist [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Friday, October 19, 2001 2:00 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Possible Steelhead Opportunity in Chelan and Douglas > counties > > On Friday 19 October 2001 09:37 am, Don Shearer rambled unforgivingly: > > Hi, > > > > A quick question regarding this story. Why do they have a hatchery to > > begin with? If there is a fear they will breed with "wild" fish and they > > do not let anglers fish for the hatchery fish why have a hatchery? > > Hatchery production has shifted in the last few years to many hatcheries > doing wild fish enhancement. They will take selected wild stock, > artifically fertilize and raise them, then return them to the river that > they originated from in order to help boost wild populations. > > But currently the runs contain hatchery fish from the previous era, which > are > genetically and physically inferior to the wild fish. Fishing for the > hatchery fish is a way of removing them from the gene pool, so that the > wild fish genes are not weaked by these seriously inbred mutants from hell. > > Rob > -- > Rob Blomquist > Kirkland, WA
