Whatcom Creek chinook program feeds tribes, ecosystem
In highly trafficked areas around lower Whatcom Creek, where it winds through the city of Bellingham’s Maritime Heritage Park and…
Tag: Hatchery Salmon
Being Frank: Hatchery salmon hold the ecosystem together
Being Frank is a column by Chairman Ed Johnstone of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. As a statement from the…
Bringing Focus
It was a meeting long overdue. Representatives of the 20 treaty Indian tribes in western Washington sat down for the…
Being Frank: Certainty is Key
This year’s North of Falcon salmon management process, for the coast and Puget Sound, was tougher than it’s ever been.
North of Falcon is the key part of annual planning that brings state and tribal co-managers together with input from stakeholders to set fishing regulations north of the Oregon Coast cape of the same name.
As in years past, it was a give-and-take process of shaping fisheries to fit under the “impact lid” that helps us protect weak wild salmon stocks while, to the extent possible, harvesting abundant hatchery salmon. We are especially concerned about protecting Puget Sound chinook listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.