Sol Duc wild steelhead management zone established

[TheHunt]

Sol Duc wild steelhead management zone established;
Snider Creek program to end

OLYMPIA - The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has announced it will end a hatchery steelhead program at Snider Creek next year to establish a wild steelhead management zone in the Sol Duc River.
After next spring, no hatchery steelhead will be released into the Sol Duc River, which will be the first wild steelhead management zone formally established in the state under the department's Statewide Steelhead Management Plan, said Ron Warren, regional fish program manager for WDFW. Snider Creek is a tributary to the Sol Duc River in Clallam County.
Wild management zones, also known as wild stock gene banks, are designed to preserve key populations of wild fish by minimizing interactions with hatchery-produced fish, said Warren. Research has shown that hatchery fish are often less genetically diverse and can impact wild stocks through interbreeding or competition for food or habitat.
WDFW is also looking to identify other streams that could be candidates for wild management zones, said Warren. That effort includes working with an advisory group to identify specific streams in the Puget Sound region.
"Establishing wild management zones is part of a broad effort aimed at modifying our hatchery programs to be compatible with conservation and recovery of naturally spawning salmon and steelhead populations," Warren said. "Shifting hatchery steelhead production away from the Sol Duc River - where we have one of the largest wild steelhead populations in the state - is an important step in that effort."
Changes designed to support naturally spawning salmon and steelhead populations are driven by plans and policies adopted by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission, such as the Statewide Steelhead Management Plan and the Hatchery and Fishery Reform policy, Warren said.
The Statewide Steelhead Management Plan is available on the department's website at http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/fisheries/steelhead/ , while the commission's hatchery and fishery reform policy is available at http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/policies/c3619.html .
While the hatchery program will no longer take place at Snider Creek, WDFW is working with stakeholders to re-establish a similar effort in the Bogachiel or Calawah rivers, where the department already releases hatchery steelhead, said Warren.
The program will end next spring, when 25,000 winter steelhead smolts are released into the Sol Duc River, Warren said. Last year, WDFW also discontinued its summer steelhead program on the Sol Duc River, after releasing 20,000 smolts. 
Before making that decision, WDFW conducted three public meetings and reviewed about 400 public comments on the future of the Snider Creek program.
While fewer and fewer hatchery steelhead will be returning to the Sol Duc River in the coming years, anglers will continue to have opportunities to fish for salmon and other game fish, as well as retain one wild steelhead per license year on the river, said Warren.   
The Snider Creek program was created in 1986 as a joint project with the Olympic Peninsula Guides' Association to increase fishing opportunities for steelhead on the Sol Duc River. The program is unlike most other hatchery efforts in that it produces offspring from wild steelhead rather than hatchery fish. 

[Button Nubbs]

this is good news!!!! I'm very happy to hear they are at least trying to do something for the wild fish!

[Dhoey07]

Our state has stuff so ass-backwards 

[huntnnw]

 

[TheHunt]

I do agree...

The indians will just net the mouth...   The only way to crack down on this is to raise the fines to 100,000 dollars or something enough to ruin a business for buying native steelhead.  Than start stings with the buyers and people buying the native steelhead. 

[asl20bball]

This is a bad idea!       Now you can only keep 1 steele on the duc per year and the overall numbers will drop by a lot. Sounds like a push from our left wing folks in tree huging Olympia.

[Dhoey07]

This is a bad idea!       Now you can only keep 1 steele on the duc per year and the overall numbers will drop by a lot. Sounds like a push from our left wing folks in tree huging Olympia.

But the fish will be so pretty to look at 

[Sporting_Man]

I would say that there are pros and cons... However, wild steelhead was in decline, or at least just stagnating. Things have to get worse before they get better in situations like this. Someone mentioned the ban on sales wild steelhead. This would solve the problem with excessive netting by Natives there (I know what they do there, saw it firsthand soooo many times). Then, limits for retention of wild fish can gradually go up for sportsmen. I see this as a positive thing for one healthy river. I would not want to see this as a trend that would apply to Cowlitz, or rivers that are affected by dams. That would be flat-out stupid... 

[teal101]

This is a bad idea!       Now you can only keep 1 steele on the duc per year and the overall numbers will drop by a lot. Sounds like a push from our left wing folks in tree huging Olympia.

Or it sounds like a push from Bios to restore the natural Steelhead runs to the river.  Why dont you stop and use that brain of yours for a minute and do some research as to why they are doing this, and stop thinking with your greed.  Hatchery fish are terrible for the population as a whole.  They are weak inbred fish that are "watering" down the wild population slowly but surely.  Eventually all the wild Steelhead will contain the weak hatchery gene and the population will slowly disappear to nothing.  Hatchery fish have a much lower survival rate in the wild.  Hatchery fish are destroying genetically unique Steelhead populations.  Hatchery fish are competing with wild fish for redd locations.  In order to sustain Steelhead fisheries in the future, we need to evaluate what waters contain large runs of wild fish and save them from the hatchery plague.  You both sound like the stereotypical gear throwers all the fly fishers like to bash because of your selfish me first, fish later attitude.

Yes the numbers will drop, and yes you will only be able to catch one.  As the wild population rebounds due to better management practices there will be more fish, and eventually a better fishery for yours and mine kids.  Steelhead research has made huge strides in the past decade and old management practices are being revised or eliminated in order to properly manage the fish.  The hatcheries are one of these old management practices that does more harm than good in the long run.  Stop thinking about the short term, and think about the long term.  If you do not, there wont be ANY Steelhead for you, nor your children to catch in the future.

And agreed on the point about the dammed rivers.  I have a feeling they will not implement this management practice on rivers with dams, at least without further research.  The dams are one of the some of the most important pieces of infrastructure in the PNW, yet at the same time they are the number one killer of Salmon and Steelhead.  Can you imagine catching wild Chinook and Steelhead on the Sanpoil?  You were able to until Grand Coulee was built.  For 4 years after the construction anadromous fish continued to return to the dam site to try and migrate up river, until that 4th year when none were recorded.  That dam wiped out countless individual populations of anadromous fish.  In order to understand the significance of this you have to have an understanding of how anadromous fish populations work.  Each creek has its own population with its own genes.  Transplanting fish from one creek to another generally has a very low success rate.  In the wild, anadromous fish use their homing senses (still debating as to what senses are used, but it is generally accepted smell is one) to find their home creek.  Every year fish will stray from their home creek to another.  This promotes finding new habitat to breed in as well as preventing genetic inbreeding among populations.  These are FRAGILE ecosystems with creek specific populations, many of which we have forced into extinction.

Kudos to the state for finally making a sound Steelhead management move.

[Dhoey07]

This is a bad idea!       Now you can only keep 1 steele on the duc per year and the overall numbers will drop by a lot. Sounds like a push from our left wing folks in tree huging Olympia.

Or it sounds like a push from Bios to restore the natural Steelhead runs to the river.  Why dont you stop and use that brain of yours for a minute and do some research as to why they are doing this, and stop thinking with your greed.  Hatchery fish are terrible for the population as a whole.  They are weak inbred fish that are "watering" down the wild population slowly but surely.  Eventually all the wild Steelhead will contain the weak hatchery gene and the population will slowly disappear to nothing.  Hatchery fish have a much lower survival rate in the wild.  Hatchery fish are destroying genetically unique Steelhead populations.  Hatchery fish are competing with wild fish for redd locations.  In order to sustain Steelhead fisheries in the future, we need to evaluate what waters contain large runs of wild fish and save them from the hatchery plague.  You both sound like the stereotypical gear throwers all the fly fishers like to bash because of your selfish me first, fish later attitude.

Yes the numbers will drop, and yes you will only be able to catch one.  As the wild population rebounds due to better management practices there will be more fish, and eventually a better fishery for yours and mine kids.  Steelhead research has made huge strides in the past decade and old management practices are being revised or eliminated in order to properly manage the fish.  The hatcheries are one of these old management practices that does more harm than good in the long run.  Stop thinking about the short term, and think about the long term.  If you do not, there wont be ANY Steelhead for you, nor your children to catch in the future.

And agreed on the point about the dammed rivers.  I have a feeling they will not implement this management practice on rivers with dams, at least without further research.  The dams are one of the some of the most important pieces of infrastructure in the PNW, yet at the same time they are the number one killer of Salmon and Steelhead.  Can you imagine catching wild Chinook and Steelhead on the Sanpoil?  You were able to until Grand Coulee was built.  For 4 years after the construction anadromous fish continued to return to the dam site to try and migrate up river, until that 4th year when none were recorded.  That dam wiped out countless individual populations of anadromous fish.  In order to understand the significance of this you have to have an understanding of how anadromous fish populations work.  Each creek has its own population with its own genes.  Transplanting fish from one creek to another generally has a very low success rate.  In the wild, anadromous fish use their homing senses (still debating as to what senses are used, but it is generally accepted smell is one) to find their home creek.  Every year fish will stray from their home creek to another.  This promotes finding new habitat to breed in as well as preventing genetic inbreeding among populations.  These are FRAGILE ecosystems with creek specific populations, many of which we have forced into extinction.

Kudos to the state for finally making a sound Steelhead management move.

Do you understand what the snider creek program was all about?

[asl20bball]

teal101:  I do like native steelhead to. However, I'm first and foremost a fan of steelhead- hatchery, native, whatever.  What I am not is ignorant ...think about it genious...in the long term will this increase the steelhead population in the duc? No, but it will increase the native population but doubtful the native only population will be as great as the current native + hatchery until we take some other measures such as limiting the netting of natives.
No need to take shots .... idiot. 

[teal101]

teal101:  I do like native steelhead to. However, I'm first and foremost a fan of steelhead- hatchery, native, whatever.  What I am not is ignorant ...think about it genious...in the long term will this increase the steelhead population in the duc? No, but it will increase the native population but doubtful the native only population will be as great as the current native + hatchery until we take some other measures such as limiting the netting of natives.
No need to take shots .... idiot. 

Think about this.  In the long term leaving the hatcheries will destroy the native genes leaving weak inferior hatchery fish.  This will decrease the native population as well as the population as a whole.  The state will constantly have to supplement the river with fish to keep a population.  Not only is this the wrong approach (pushing a Steelhead population into extinction) it is a VERY expensive one as well.

This will increase the NATIVE steelhead population to as large as the river with current management practices can sustain.  This is the goal. The goal is not to provide a massive fishery, it is to restore the native wildlife.  This is what people who oppose restoration do not care about, or are ignorant of.  Why dont you do some research and take a look at the goals are and re-asses your stance.  If all you want is a mass population of fish to catch regardless of genetic nativity you are no better than the indians who are netting these fish.

I do 100% agree the native netting needs to stop, although there is a treaty and a federal government standing in the way of this.  Unfortunately the politics involved with the indians outweighs the need to restore native fauna at the cost of us, the sportsmen.

[teal101]

This is a bad idea!       Now you can only keep 1 steele on the duc per year and the overall numbers will drop by a lot. Sounds like a push from our left wing folks in tree huging Olympia.

Or it sounds like a push from Bios to restore the natural Steelhead runs to the river.  Why dont you stop and use that brain of yours for a minute and do some research as to why they are doing this, and stop thinking with your greed.  Hatchery fish are terrible for the population as a whole.  They are weak inbred fish that are "watering" down the wild population slowly but surely.  Eventually all the wild Steelhead will contain the weak hatchery gene and the population will slowly disappear to nothing.  Hatchery fish have a much lower survival rate in the wild.  Hatchery fish are destroying genetically unique Steelhead populations.  Hatchery fish are competing with wild fish for redd locations.  In order to sustain Steelhead fisheries in the future, we need to evaluate what waters contain large runs of wild fish and save them from the hatchery plague.  You both sound like the stereotypical gear throwers all the fly fishers like to bash because of your selfish me first, fish later attitude.

Yes the numbers will drop, and yes you will only be able to catch one.  As the wild population rebounds due to better management practices there will be more fish, and eventually a better fishery for yours and mine kids.  Steelhead research has made huge strides in the past decade and old management practices are being revised or eliminated in order to properly manage the fish.  The hatcheries are one of these old management practices that does more harm than good in the long run.  Stop thinking about the short term, and think about the long term.  If you do not, there wont be ANY Steelhead for you, nor your children to catch in the future.

And agreed on the point about the dammed rivers.  I have a feeling they will not implement this management practice on rivers with dams, at least without further research.  The dams are one of the some of the most important pieces of infrastructure in the PNW, yet at the same time they are the number one killer of Salmon and Steelhead.  Can you imagine catching wild Chinook and Steelhead on the Sanpoil?  You were able to until Grand Coulee was built.  For 4 years after the construction anadromous fish continued to return to the dam site to try and migrate up river, until that 4th year when none were recorded.  That dam wiped out countless individual populations of anadromous fish.  In order to understand the significance of this you have to have an understanding of how anadromous fish populations work.  Each creek has its own population with its own genes.  Transplanting fish from one creek to another generally has a very low success rate.  In the wild, anadromous fish use their homing senses (still debating as to what senses are used, but it is generally accepted smell is one) to find their home creek.  Every year fish will stray from their home creek to another.  This promotes finding new habitat to breed in as well as preventing genetic inbreeding among populations.  These are FRAGILE ecosystems with creek specific populations, many of which we have forced into extinction.

Kudos to the state for finally making a sound Steelhead management move.

Do you understand what the snider creek program was all about?

Uhh supplementation of the Steelhead population via artificial rearing of native and non native strains of Steelhead.  It's what nearly every hatchery program is about, tailored to the water the hatchery is on.

Just for reading, nearly all of my points are met in this review of the hatchery,
http://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/01187/wdfw01187.pdf

Points such as:

Hatchery fishing bringing negative genetic and domestication traits into the wild strain.

Hatchery fishing negatively effecting spawning of wild fish.

Removal of wild broodstock fish reducing fish spawned in the wild, etc.

[Houndhunter]

So my question,  if they are spawning the wild fish in the hatchery how is this ruining the genetics of the wild fish? Why would it matter if we spawn them or if they spawn naturally ? I thought that's what it sounded like they were doing, not bringing in a different type of stock but using the wild fish from that river?

[Button Nubbs]

I honestly believe gillnetting is a small part of why these fish aren't coming back. (Flame away) not saying I agree with the practice but I don't think its the majority of the problem, but it sure is easy to point the finger.

Look at some of the rivers that have massive hatchery plants and relatively low netting. A lot of these systems are having trouble getting wild fish and hatchery fish back. Here's why imo. 1: If you continue to inbreed fish they will become less and less genetically diverse which will lead to poor survival rates. When genetically inferior fish spawn with wild fish it makes the survival rate of the now "wild fish" lower.  2: urban expansion continues to take away habitat put silt and chemical runoff into the river destroying the chances of the vulnerable smolts survival and valuable spawning areas. Dams are another issue which we all know about.

Now let's look at some of the coastal rivers that get the shi+ netted out of them. Comparatively the habitat is left pretty much unchanged. These rivers still get great runs of wild fish, which leads me to believe that netting is not the single greatest cause of the wild steelheads demise. Rather habitat destruction is.

Removing hatcherys from rivers is not the end all be all cure but it is a great strp in the right direction for the recovery of these northwest icons.

We have the gentics to rival the fisheries of b.c. And with the right managment plans I believe the oly pen could once again be the motherland to steelheaders. But there are several pieces to this puzzle. Decreasing Netting, removing hatcherys,  and restoring habitat are just a few places to start in restoring these fish we all cherish.

I hope my future children will be able to enjoy these great fish as I have.

Wa needs to take a look at B.C.'s managment plan and start there.