Skokomish River king slaughter

[Shadow Cat]

I used to fish the Skokomish river quite a bit. There was always compitition between the tribe and regular fishermen in the river. Last year I went down to the bridge by Hunter farms and saw the nets. I could deal with that because some fish were still getting by. What I could NOT deal with was when I went to the other side of the bridge and looked over and saw a few HUNDRED (NO EXAGERATION) of dead kings up on the bank that had been gutted for the eggs. I talked to a WDF officer about it and was told nothing could be done about it and that the eggs were worth more than the meat! I don't EVER want to hear another word about a buffalo killed and left on a prarie over a hundred years ago!

[jackelope]

that sucks huge...back in new york when fishing the lake ontario trib. salmon runs, we used to sell the eggs of the hen kings we'd catch. now mind you, we also took fillets home. the $$ we made off the eggs would pay round trip gas money for a 4 hour drive one way if thats any indication of what they are worth.
blame it on pautzke's


check this out.
http://www.washingtonflyfishing.com/board/showthread.php?t=41243

[Choclab]

Damnit...........I have nothing good to say about them wasteful sons of bitches. Nothing will change. This state is run by a bunch of bitches. WDFW will never do anything. Too many higher ups are in the pockets of these damn induns. They will wipe out a major fishery and move on. They will find some other species to exploit and destroy....all for the sake of money. I guess casinos ain't enough for them greedy *censored*s. I feel a hell of alot better knowing we wiped out there buffalo.....*censored*s

[Shadow Cat]

Thanks for the link. I worked for the US Fish & Wildlife Service in Lacey, WA up until July 7th and know that they are eyeball deep in FOIA request involving Indian litigation of one sort or another. Things are getting to tied up in red tape and nothing is being done in the mean time.

[Choclab]

The state is afraid of hurting peoples feelings....thats what you get when dummycrats are in charge.....with the help of bleeding heart liberal judges. Something has to be done.  They should have to abide by the same rules as we do.....reservation or not.

[Shadow Cat]

I agree. Some of the things I see, hear and read gets my blood boiling.  Some of the biologist I worked with used to just drive me insane!!!

[Dman]

 Welcome Shadowcat, we have a similar background. My dad used to work down at the mouth of Chamber's creek and would see hundred's of Chum stacked up rotting because the tribe's were after Chinook, or Coho, still makes me 

 

[sisu]

This is so different from the Alaskan natives I have been around. They harvest the eggs for sale in Japan but all the meat is harvested for canning, smoking, and filets all for sale in local stores and of course the canned and smoked can be shipped to the Lower 48 or over seas.

In fact the new ethic of catch and release was considered a slap in the face to the salmon, rainbow etc. by the old folks when I first moved there. Now a days it's more accepted that some folks will return fish to the water after catching them and it is not a bad thing to do.

I was always impressed by the natives along the Kuskaquim River during the salmon runs. All the fish were used for the up coming winter etc.

[PolarBear]

That is typical of the Skoks!  They are notorious for poaching wether it be fish of game.   

[WAcoueshunter]

The state is afraid of hurting peoples feelings....thats what you get when dummycrats are in charge.....with the help of bleeding heart liberal judges. Something has to be done.  They should have to abide by the same rules as we do.....reservation or not.

Seriously...the State can't do a damn thing.  I guarantee they'd like to.  Cracks me up when people blame Indian issues on local gov't when it's a federal deal.  They don't call it the Tulalip Indian NATION for nothing.  You want change with the Indians?  Better talk to your buddy GW.

[ICEMAN]

IMHO, what outdoors folks like ourselves should do, is to video document what we see, and attempt to get it on the tv, as often as possible. I think that most people in this state are in a state of guilt, and think that the "poor" indians just want fish and wildlife for their consumption. I too have seen the elk shot at St Helens National monument. I did not get video of the slaughter, but have video of the aftermath.

If more video shows up on local TV, I bet this would be more damaging to their reputation and may cause some change, maybe....hopefully...

Crap, who am I kidding, you know darn well that the local liberal TV stations would never air anything that would make the tribes look bad.

[Shadow Cat]

Iceman, You are right about that. You would never get something like that on TV. The money the stations get for advertising there casinos would vanish in a heartbeat so they dont want to bite the hand that is "feeding"them.

[Choclab]

Public Broadcasting Station......lol....Someone gets the video, I'll sell out the bucks for a half hour

[grade-creek-rd]

Not to take sides, as tribes are slowly (very slowly) starting to take an interest in natrual resources, noting the proposed hatchery by the Colville tribe at bridgeport (projected to be the largest producing hatchery on the entire Columbia, if and when it's operational) and the hatcheries run by the Puyallup and Muckleshoot tribes, which put into the Puyallup river system over 800,000 coho fry a year (and just as many chinook fry), but WE (sportsman) should use modern technology and public persuasion to our benefit. For instance, how about videoing the waste in nets, drinking (and becoming extremely drunk) in public, and use of illegal substances by other's (namely those I have personally witnessed by "tribal members" which are outcast if we had access to their records) and put those videos and photo's into a presentation form. Then anytime the WDFW has a "public forum" type meeting, simply have several people show up, sign up to talk (usually a 2-5 minute time limit) and then defer their time to one guy who simply pushes "play" on a portable TV and SHOW them what we are talking about.

What's the old saying...a picture is worth a thousand words...

I think it was last year or two years ago, a member from another board observed some "tribale members" from the puyallup tribe smoking pot under the bridge by decorsey creek.  He took photo's of them and provided copies to law enforcement (not just tribal police but also WDFW officers) he then posted them on the internet, and the game agents (bot tribal and WDFW) name and contact numbers. It turns out the presure from all of the other board members seeing the photos adn calling the agents personally got those tribal members arrested and their fishing rights taken away...

Just a thought.

[boneaddict]

I watched a whole boat load of salmon rot at hoodsport.  They emptied their nets and then went and got drunk and left their catch in the sun.  It was there three days.  The stink got pretty bad.  Talk about a cluster they were netting fish while the sportsman were catching them.  There were actually Sportsman throwing their lures in the ent and Indians getting pissed off.