LACEY, Wash. — About 100 sport fishermen and women gathered outside the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration office in Lacey Thursday, angry that the Puget Sound salmon season has been shut down.
"We're talking about a $100 million industry in terms of sport fishing in Puget Sound," one speaker told the crowd.
The shutdown came Sunday after the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission failed to negotiate limits for coho or silver salmon in Puget Sound.
Record low returns of coho have some worried the wild stock may be in danger of dying out. The impasse shut down fishing for all species of salmon.
Last month, the state, tribes and federal government avoided a shutdown of salmon fishing along Washington's coast by agreeing to prohibit the taking of coho by sport and commercial fishers with the exception of a short and severely limited catch at the mouth of the Columbia River.
Chinook, or king salmon will be permitted during shortened seasons to prevent unintended damage to the coho stock.
Yearly salmon limits in Puget Sound, the San Juan Islands and the Strait of Juan DeFuca, are set through negotiations between Washington state tribes, which have treaty rights to the fish, and the WDFW.
They are then approved by NOAA because wild salmon are considered endangered and protected under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Protesters want NOAA to step in and set the limits because the tribes and the state can't come to an agreement.
"We need to be able to go out and fish for our small amount of fish that we do get every year," LeRoy Bell of Puget Sound Anglers said.
Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission spokesman Willie Frank says tribes in Washington want to leave the coho completely unfished this year and possibly next to allow them to spawn and thrive.
"We need to come to the table and sit down and discuss the real issue here," Frank said. "It's not about the lack of coho this fishing season, it's about habitat in general."
Fishermen at Point Defiance boat launch in Tacoma expressed anger over the stalemate.
"Sad story when you can't catch fish," Mark Mahugh said. "A hundred million dollars into the sport fishing industry and to just shut it off for this reason is ridiculous."
Cox Media Group
