Love the OP?
Tell WDFW to protect wild steelhead by Closing the 2021-2022 Season
Washington is taking public comments about the upcoming winter steelhead fishery on the Olympic Peninsula. Wild winter steelhead need your help!
Wild OP Steelhead photo courtesy of John McMillan
Please weigh in with WDFW no later than Friday
See the link below:
Here is TCA’s conclusion summarizing our comments:
All of this leaves The Conservation Angle unable to support any options besides closing the entire fishery - which we believe is what is needed so the wild steelhead that do return this winter can help build a bridge towards a future with more wild steelhead abundance, diversity and productivity in more OP watersheds.
David Moskowitz, Executive Director
Here is a little more:
“TCA supports the adoption of the most conservative regulatory regime for the upcoming 2021-2022 winter steelhead fishery. The data that is available – as well as the uncertainty about the data that does not exist – both provide a strong rationale for an even stronger regulatory regime to protect wild winter steelhead in Western Washington than was adopted in 2020. Uncertainty with the 2022 forecasts and the inability to effectively monitor and enforce partial fishery options in-season do not provide us with the confidence to authorize partial fishery options when the spawning escapement margins are so thin overall. Even in the Quileute watershed, the relative health of the wild winter run is quite variable in each major river there despite the high aggregated watershed forecast. WDFW and OP anglers need to stop living from paycheck to paycheck on the backs of wild steelhead. The summer-run fish are nearly gone, early-returning wild winter steelhead are severely depressed as well.
All of this leaves The Conservation Angle unable to support any options besides closing the entire fishery - which we believe is what is needed so the wild steelhead that do return this winter can help build a bridge towards a future with more wild steelhead abundance, diversity and productivity in more OP watersheds.”
WDFW Assessment of 2020-21 Wild Steelhead Escapement (Source WDFW)
Open the link below to submit your own personal comments but you can support TCA’s comment also.
WDFW Coastal Steelhead Comment Portal:
https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/management/steelhead/coastal
