Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Whitman County commissioners Monday endorsed a letter regarding the inequality of opportunities for anglers fishing for salmon upstream from Bonneville dam versus those fishing below Bonneville Dam.
The letter will be sent to the director of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and chair of Washington Fish & Wildlife Commission from the Walla Walla County commissioners.
“Salmon fishing is important to southeast Washington’s economy,”
Commissioner Art Swannack said Monday. “As Whitman County’s southern border is the Snake River, successful salmon runs offer recreational opportunities and jobs for our citizens and neighbors. I believe that allowing more salmon to make it upstream to the spawning areas will result in more successful salmon runs, better reproduction and less of a threat to our Snake River dams.”
The letter began by relating a recent issue wherein no extension for the upstream sport fishing was allowed after three extensions had been provided downstream from Bonneville.
“We are sure staff could write a book why these actions were justified, but at the end of the day, this only continues a practice of denigrating upriver fisheries to benefit those areas below Bonneville Dam,” the letter states.
The Walla Walla commissioners list two specific actions that could be taken to improve things. The first was changing the Columbia River Policy Coordinator position. The coordinator’s office is located in Vancouver and reports to the regional director located in the same office. The commissioners felt this created a management bias favoring downstream anglers.
“For example, angling seasons have been set in the past for both summer chinook and sockeye where harvest would be allowed downstream of Bonneville. Yet for the same stocks, the season was closed upriver,” the letter states. “An eastside voice in that decision-making was apparently lacking.”
The commissioners noted fisheries below Bonneville get extended or re-opened while similar occurrences seldom happen upstream.
“The downriver bias has led to a situation where the economic benefit of these fisheries is not being shared,” the letter states.
The commissioners noted that license endorsements are not in equal proportions to where fish are being harvested. For 2000-2015 the harvest averages where 86 percent below Bonneville Dam compared to eight percent from Bonneville to McNary Dam and six percent on the Snake River. Yet license endorsements were 63 percent from the westside counties and 37 percent from the eastside counties.
“This creates a situation where 37 percent of the anglers are allowed only 14 percent of the harvest,” the letter noted.
As a result, the economic benefits associated with the fishing are going more to the downstream communities.
To ensure recreational harvest of spring chinook does not exceed its share with treaty fisheries, eastside anglers have to participate in “catch balancing” which now constrains the fishing more than ESA impacts, the letter said. This means that if more than the allotment of fish is caught below the dam, then fishing above the dam is restricted to compensate.
“Zone 6 and Snake River fisheries have had to participate in the solution, yet were never part of the problem.”
“We are not suggesting that upriver fisheries should have a majority of harvest, but to only provide them an average of 14 percent is a statistic we see as patently unfair,” the letter states.
The Walla Walla Commissioners also addressed past meetings between constituents and WDFW staff that were arranged so no action could be taken. The commissioners put forth several recommendations to ensure future meetings were a productive use of time. Some of these included having Oregon counterparts included in negotiations, all geographic locations be represented, harvest and not ESA impact distribution as the metric for calculating where angler efforts will be and endorsement sales geographically should be the basis for harvest allotment.
“While we recognize the majority of anglers and license sales take place on the westside of the state, the disproportionate bias favoring anglers on the Lower Columbia River must end,” the last paragraph of the letter stated.
Jana Mathia is a reporter at the Whitman County Gazette.
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