Once again, the four Columbia River treaty tribes have criticized Washington and Oregon for allowing fisheries that permit retention of hatchery fish, but release of wild ones, when the water temperatures are so high.
Sport fishermen at Buoy 10 in the Columbia River estuary must release wild salmon on Sundays and Mondays this year in an attempt to stay within catch allocations and keep the season open through Labor Day.
Called “mark-selective fisheries,’’ the limiting of retention only to fin-clipped hatchery fish also is scheduled between Tongue Point near Astoria and Warrior Rock on Sept. 10 through 14.
“With the combination of warm water in the fall and low mark rates especially for bright chinook, we do not see how mark-selective chinook fisheries can be considered appropriate,’’ said Bruce Jim, a member of the Warm Springs Fish and Wildlife Committee.
Jim made his comments at a meeting of the Columbia River Compact in Vancouver last week.
“We are also concerned that temperatures in the lower river likely will be above 70 degrees in August and may get above 72 degrees,’’ he said. “We note that NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) does not allow sampling at the Bonneville AFF trap at temperatures above 72 degrees and greatly restricts it above 70 degrees.
“The stated reason for this is to protect fish from handling stress at warm temperatures. We find it odd the NMFS imposes this restriction, but there are no restrictions on mark-selective fisheries at high temperatures.’’
Jim also called for research to learn the mortality rate on chinook released in the sport fishery. The states use a 19 percent mortality rate.
“We also do not see how the states can reliably estimate wild A and wild B steelhead impacts if no one measures the fish that are released,’’ he said.
Commercial fishing should have some on-board monitoring to determine how many released steelhead perish, he added.
The tribes also are concerned about how much non-Indian fishing occurs in the lower Columbia prior to the tribal fall gillnet season.
“This is a concern which our fishers always bring to us,’’ Jim said.
