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Snohomish Basin Chinook Meet First Spawning Goal Since 1980

Mill Creek (February 8, 1999) -- Wild chinook in the Snohomish Basin have met spawning goals for the first time in 18 years, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and Tulalip Tribes announced today.

The good news comes on the eve of an expected federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) listing for wild Puget Sound chinook stocks.

The wild chinook spawning goal for the basin is 5,250 salmon. WDFW surveys last year estimated 6,300 chinook spawned in the basin, which consists of the Skykomish, Snoqualmie and Snohomish rivers and their tributaries.

State and tribal fish managers attributed the larger return of wild salmon to cooler water in the Pacific Ocean and a significant reduction in Canadian interception of Washington-bound fish off Vancouver Island. Those reductions were the result of negotiations between Washington and British Columbia last year.

Jeff Koenings, director of WDFW, emphasized that the state and tribes have been limiting their fisheries in Washington waters for a long time to protect the wild chinook runs. He said the Canadian reductions allowed the local restrictions to have a greater effect. In the early 1980s, 80 percent of the wild chinook produced by the Snohomish system was harvested from Alaska to Puget Sound. The number was reduced to about 30 percent last year.

The Tulalip Tribes, which haven't opened a net fishery directed at Snohomish chinook since 1984, are hopeful that the chinook allowed to spawn will provide a basis for recovery. However, they emphasize that harvest reductions alone will not be sufficient to reverse the overall downward trend for the species.

"Fishing communities have done their part to pass the chinook through to the spawning grounds," said Terry Williams, Tulalip Natural Resources Director. "But they will continue to shoulder an unfair burden in salmon recovery until we end the rapid and continuous degradation of habitat in the rivers, in the wetlands and along the shores of Puget Sound."

Despite the 1998 return, fish managers note chinook reproduce on a four-year cycle. Spawning goals must be met for several years to signal real recovery is taking place, fish managers say.

"We are very pleased that state and tribal cooperation on fishery management plans was successful in 1998," said Koenings. "We are working with local governments and habitat managers to extend this spirit of cooperation to all of the factors that affect salmon production."

Puget Sound chinook are among several salmon stocks expected to be listed under the ESA as "threatened" in March by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). The listing is expected to impose federal intervention that will affect land and water use decision-making in western Washington for the protection of salmon.

Williams said that the tribes acknowledge that the ESA can prevent species important to the tribes from becoming extinct, but want endangered species protection held to a higher standard. "The tribes do not want to see some runs of salmon preserved as museum exhibits," he said. "They want these stocks to be returned to healthy levels that can support responsible harvest."

Major harvest rate reductions have been difficult to achieve because chinook salmon are available for harvest in a wide range of mixed-stock fisheries, extending from southeast Alaska to Puget Sound. Williams pointed out that the cutbacks that resulted in the low harvest rates of recent years also meant that fishers had to avoid abundant, healthy stocks in order to minimize the incidental harvest of Snohomish chinook.

State and tribal co-managers are currently developing a long-term harvest management plan designed to maintain the harvest rate at or below the 1998 level until the Snohomish chinook can consistently return to healthier levels that will allow some directed harvest.

"We are working with NMFS to assure that our harvest plans will meet their criteria for recovery of this important component of the Puget Sound chinook salmon," Williams said. "However, just as air, fuel, and heat must be present for a fire to burn, we must have harvest, hatcheries, and habitat all managed soundly for wild salmon to return to health. The tribes, state, NMFS, and local governments are addressing all three of these 'h's' in the Snohomish chinook salmon recovery plan."

For More Information: Curt Kraemer, WDFW District Biologist, (425) 775-1311, ext. 101; Kit Rawson, Tulalip Harvest Management Biologist, (360) 651-4478; Logan Harris, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, North Sound Information Officer, (360) 424-8226.

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