Orca report

[nwwanderer]

Our governor has endorsed removal of Snake dams to increase sound orca numbers by ten.  Kind of a very long reach.  Why not start with miles of Puget sound spawning habitat now under asphalt and in culverts, remove the locks on Lake Washington and replant the old growth forest species by the space needle.  All would improve things way faster.

[DOUBLELUNG]

I'll just leave this here ...

[TheHunt]

Many of the Snake River salmon are produced by the Nes Pierce tribal hatcheries.  They do NOT clip any fish so they get by the fisher people on the Columbia. 

[7mmfan]

Snake River salmon will have virtually zero impact on South Sound resident Orcas. They're using the Orcas as a symbol and scapegoat to get the dams down. I really don't have any issue with removing those dams, I only see positive coming from it from a fisheries standpoint, but if resident Orca population improvement is the goal, Snake river dams won't help. No gillnets in Puget Sound and it's rivers, increase hatchery production/implement brood stock programs, and control marine mammal populations.  Get fish back in the Sound, and you'll find the whales do just fine.

[Stein]

Authorize hatcheries and shoot seals and you would make an impact on the Orcas immediately.  Unfortunately, this is more of an "environmental" move than something involving legitimate science.  As usual, never let a dying Orca on TV go to waste, pure political move.

[Fishmaker57]

Authorize the removal all you want, it won't happen in our lifetime. Congress gave approval to remove the Elwha Dam in 1978....and it took almost 40 years to get that done! This for a dam that generated no electricity, had no fish passage, didn't help control flooding, and didn't support barge traffic and all the wheat farmers in Idaho and SE Washington. As for the South Sound Orcas....evolution. Allow Harbor Seals and Sea Lions to grossly overpopulate and this is the result.

[trophyelk6x6]

There is only two ways to help, help orcas, help the economy, help tribes, help whitey's, help commercial, help and cure the issue...………………….SHOOT Pinnepeds and ramp up hatchery production  10x …..do it now your dumb sh....Washington state legislators   

[bigbullshedhunter]

Most the fish that return to the snake, salmon and clearwater rivers are a huge portion of the fish that move into the system and they have the farthest to go. Gill nets are wiping out our clearwater river fish which are known to be some of the biggest steelhead in the state. These fish travel thru the Columbia on there return anywhere from 10-20 ft. Right where the gill nets guyare sitting. The fish dnt have a problem with the dams. It's the manner that these fish are being taken. How are we suppose to build better stronger runs that will adapt year to year when only 40%% of the fish going into the Columbia are making it home. Only an average of 5-600 miles that they travel no big deal. And the whole being able to keep wild fish on lower parts of the river system is ridiculous.  Even after the fish have made it to there spawning grounds done there thing we still dnt get to keep wild fish that ppl hundreds of miles down river kept. Even the ones the hatchery returns to the river after they breed em. Idaho is the ones paying for all of it. And now we got a group out of Seattle shutting our fishery down today. What a joke. The guy I work for on the river is going to lose 20% of his income atleast. I honestly wish the whole west side of the state wld just break away and disappear.

[bigdave]

Pure and simple........ virtue signaling for the 2020 run for the presidency. God, I can't wait till he leaves.

[castie2504]

Best salmon documentary I’ve ran into. Gives a well rounded perspective of the many problems affecting salmon runs in the northwest. If you are a fisherman, it’s worth the time.

[WSU]

We could instantly increase available chinook by the hundreds of thousands.  All we'd have to do is stop harvesting 80% of the fish in Alaska and BC.  Sounds simple, right?

[JimmyHoffa]

We could instantly increase available chinook by the hundreds of thousands.  All we'd have to do is stop harvesting 80% of the fish in Alaska and BC.  Sounds simple, right?

My guess is that if you end up with a significant cutback in AK-BC, then fishing would be stopped here for non tribals.  I think seals/seal lions are probably the most immediate solution to provide for killer whales and fisherman.  Then do some number shuffling with AK-BC to get another 20% or more back down here.

[WSU]

We could instantly increase available chinook by the hundreds of thousands.  All we'd have to do is stop harvesting 80% of the fish in Alaska and BC.  Sounds simple, right?

My guess is that if you end up with a significant cutback in AK-BC, then fishing would be stopped here for non tribals.  I think seals/seal lions are probably the most immediate solution to provide for killer whales and fisherman.  Then do some number shuffling with AK-BC to get another 20% or more back down here.

Seal and sealions are not the most immediate.  Much of what they eat are smolts, which obviously take a few years to return.  Even if we stopped predation today, you'd see the results 3-5 years down the road.  We could stop harvesting this year's fish now.

And, why would washington have to stop harvesting washington fish if AK/BC laid off?  I can agree that the Washington ocean fishery would probably need to be curtailed to allow the orcas their shot at the fish, but terminal fisheries would be far improved. 

[KFhunter]

Dec 13, 2018 / Energy/Environment
MCMORRIS RODGERS, NEWHOUSE JOINT STATEMENT RESPONDING TO GOVERNOR INSLEE’S ANNOUNCEMENT OF TAXPAYER FUNDS TO CONSIDER BREACHING SNAKE RIVER DAMS
WASHINGTON, D.C. (December 13, 2018) — Today, Eastern Washington Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-05) and Rep. Dan Newhouse (WA-04) released the following joint statement on Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s proposed $750,000 in the state budget to support evaluation by a state task force of breaching the Lower Snake River dams:

“The people of Eastern Washington whose livelihoods depend on these dams should not be collateral damage for anyone’s presidential ambitions. The Governor does not have the authority to breach our federal dams on the Lower Snake River, and allocating state taxpayers’ funds to consider breaching them would be wasteful. Congress has the sole authority to authorize breaching our federal dams, and as representatives of Eastern Washington communities that depend on the many benefits they provide, breaching them is out of the question. We commit to do everything in our power to save our dams.”

# # #

[WSU]

I'm generally in favor of breaching the dams, partly because they are outdated and will cost more to maintain than they produce.  Updating them makes the equation even worse.  Other than barge traffic, they really don't produce much benefit.