The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

Wahkiakum County commissioners and staff of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife reviewed project progress and harvest issues in a meeting October 6.

Pat Frazier, regional fish biologist, and Sara LaBorde, special assistant to the director, reported that the department's alternative gear salmon test fisheries have had a successful summer, and they need to hold meetings with fishers to discuss future developments in gear use.

Frazier also reported that the department is considering what to do now that testing has shown that there is no ground water to feed a proposed chum salmon rearing channel at the Elochoman Salmon hatchery, which is closed. County commissioners and other local residents had proposed construction of the channel as a way to enhance the chum salmon population and also to allow local high school students to be involved in a salmon rearing program.

LaBorde and Frazier said that although the department's alternative gear test fisheries are showing some gains, they also come with some struggles.

The department has contracted with fishers to test purse seines, beach seines and fish traps to analyze harvest and survival rates of wild and hatchery reared anadromous fish.

Many Columbia River basin wild salmon stocks are classified as federally endangered species, and the department is trying to finds ways to harvest hatchery fish without impacting wild fish.

The tests show that the alternative gear will catch fish, they said, and the fish that are released have a better rate of survival than fish caught and released from traditional gillnets.

This brings up many questions, LaBorde said. They know the alternative gear works, but they have no idea how it could be implemented.

"Now, how do we catch up with this?" she asked. "What does this mean? How do you implement a change in gear? How will recreational fishers react? How will other commercial fishers react?

"In order to have the hatchery system that fuels our popular ocean and river fisheries, you've got to reduce mortality on the wild fish," she said.

She added that the department's mission is "to preserve, protect and perpetuate fish, wildlife and ecosystems while providing sustainable fish and wildlife recreational and commercial opportunities," and so, "We're trying to make sure we have a commercial fishery." The challenge, she said, is to meet the requirements of the Endangered Species Act and to design a system that serves both recreational and commercial fishers.

Commissioners Dan Cothren and Blair Brady noted that a rift over alternative gear has developed among commercial fishermen.

Recently, a group gathered signatures for a petition supporting the use of gillnets as the only legal commercial fishing gear on the Columbia.

Frazier and LaBorde knew of the movement and said they need to get the fishermen together to talk about potential changes in gear and how any change could be fairly implemented.

The department needs to hold some meetings with fishermen so "the communities can all remain friends," Frazier said.

Besides the demands of the Endangered Species Act, the department is watching an initiative in Oregon which would prohibit the use of gillnets in Oregon waters.

Oregon and Washington manage Columbia River fisheries through the Columbia River Compact. Proponents and opponents of the initiative are debating the possible effect on the arrangements of the Compact.

LaBorde said she is concerned the initiative, if passed, could impact how the department can manage its programs.

The major concern, she said, is a provision that mandates that harvest allocations be based on averages of the past five years. The section states that the initiative would “Ensure that the percentages of the total state, non-tribal Columbia River salmon harvests, including off channel fishery enhancement areas, that are landed in recreational fisheries in the Columbia River and its tributaries are not reduced below the averages of the 2007-2011 fisheries.”

An outcome the department has to achieve is catching more hatchery fish to keep them off spawning grounds, she said. The allocations necessary for the best management of the wild and hatchery fish stocks may not be those five-year averages, she said.

"I don't see it (the initiative) allowing us to go after hatchery fish and keep our hatchery systems intact," she said. "It doesn't allow me to use all my tools to conserve wild fish and provide sustainable fisheries."

Frazier said the lack of groundwater for a chum channel at the Elochoman Hatchery is causing department staff to rethink its plans for use of the hatchery, which has closed.

"By next spring, we should have a clear indication of what we want to do and where we'll have a chum channel," Frazier said. "It might be at some other location on the Elochoman."

The department is considering other alternatives such as constructing infiltration galleries--perforated pipes buried in gravel that would bring water to the the rearing channel.

"The Elochoman is still high on our radar for doing some chum work," he said.

The Elochoman hatchery has used water from Clear Creek, which lies across the river from the facility, as a source of clean water for its work.

Next year, Wahkiakum County will replace the creek's culvert under the road and raise the road bed, which will require modifications to the hatchery road, said county Public Works Director Pete Ringen.

The project will make the creek passable to fish up to the site of the hatchery's intake, Ringen said.

Frazier said that by 2015, the intake will either be removed or modified to allow fish passage.