on June 7th, the following letter was sent, certified, to the governor and all DFW commissioners. yesterday, at the statewide PSA meeting, the letter was made public. our group felt the first step in this process was to give those with the authority to act notice that we expect them to stop sitting on their hands. if not, we have already discussed next steps. thought you folks might be interested in activities south of the border. [8D]
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An Open Letter to:
Governor Gregoire
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Commissioners
Governor and Commissioners:
We are a group of ordinary citizens who reside in Washington State. We all enjoy the out-of-doors with a passion for sport fishing. Some of us have been doing this for the last eight or nine decades. All of us have become increasingly concerned with the continuing decline in our wild spawning salmon and steelhead populations. While we read about a host of intertwined issues: bad planning, construction on flood plains, urban runoff, the ubiquitous ‘ocean conditions’; we never seem to see any concern for the conservation of these resources being acted upon by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), the agency for which you provide oversight.
So why publish an open letter? The sport angling community is not an organized lobbying force. You don’t have to pay attention to our concerns. Yet even in these hard economic times, we provide almost 1 billion dollars in annual spending that supports small businesses and local communities all over our state as well as a significant portion of the WDFW annual budget.
We feel that the state has reached the point of no return with our naturally spawning salmon and steelhead. It appears that the WDFW and its predecessor agencies have already allowed dozens and dozens of unique wild fish populations to become extirpated or to go extinct. The time for your action is far overdue. We recognize the work done by the Hatchery Scientific Review Group (HSRG) but don’t see the Commission acting to implement any of the recommendations, only requests for more ‘studies’ costing more money and increasing constraints on only the recreational fishing community.
It is well documented that every time a ‘projection’ becomes available with fewer and fewer fish returning, the response is to immediately reduce sport fishing seasons or require selective fishing methods. What we don’t see is a comprehensive plan that also reduces commercial harvest, tribal and non-tribal, by a commensurate percentage, or requires their use of selective commercial harvest methods.
Each and every sport season we carefully record our catch on the Catch Record Card (CRC) which we are required to purchase and return to WDFW. Since about 2004, the staff at WDFW has failed to summarize and examine this real data, data which represents the actual numbers of fish caught in the various areas of our state. Instead, you have supported the use of unreliable statistical tools which are producing estimates whose validity cannot be verified.
The statistical technique currently supported by you involves collecting a ‘sample of convenience’, using interviews with a few sport anglers in a very limited number of locations. WDFW staff then uses this minimal pool of information to close seasons in areas where not a single angler may have been interviewed.
As you might know, US Senator Charles E. Schumer has called national attention to the use of such questionable estimation methodologies and declared: “…keeping our fishing stocks healthy is absolutely critical, and to accomplish this we can’t base decisions on outdated science and poor methods…” The Senator went on to say “…We need better science and more data-based flexibility in our fishing management regulations…the fishing community needs fairness and relief from flawed survey data, now…”.
There is much work for you to accomplish and not much time remaining to save our wild fish. The extinction clock has no time out. We believe the legal powers vested in you as Commissioners allow you too immediately and without hesitation put into practice requirements to save our wild fish. The actions you can take are simple and clear and supported by both the 1974 Boldt decision as well as the authority vested in the RCW which allow the Commission to regulate harvest methods as well as conserve unique stocks of fish.
You must also realize that each and every citizen of this state who cares about our iconic wild salmon and steelhead have reached the point of demanding action on your part. It is no longer sufficient to sit and not act.
The time has finally arrived for all citizens to stand together, no matter what group or organization they represent, and by standing shoulder to shoulder demand that our wild fish be preserved. Working with the Commission is most desirable, but preserving our wild fishes will come first and foremost.
To start the process of an aggressive recovery program, we are asking for your response to the following questions:
1. When are you going to stop the practice of looking only at Maximum Sustained Yield (MSY), commonly referred to in the sport angling community as overharvest, as what appears to be the only viable goal of WDFW in support of the commercial fishing industry?
2. When are you going to insist on the use of the accurate data you already collect via the Catch Record Cards, along with the best science available, for decision making by WDFW?
3. What is your time-line to require the application of selective fishing methods by all, sport anglers and commercial harvesters, tribal and non-tribal, to protect wild stocks from unnecessary harvest impacts?
Respectfully,
The 183 members
Puget Sound Anglers – North Olympic Peninsula Chapter
P.O. Box 2726
Sequim, WA 98382
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An Open Letter to:
Governor Gregoire
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Commissioners
Governor and Commissioners:
We are a group of ordinary citizens who reside in Washington State. We all enjoy the out-of-doors with a passion for sport fishing. Some of us have been doing this for the last eight or nine decades. All of us have become increasingly concerned with the continuing decline in our wild spawning salmon and steelhead populations. While we read about a host of intertwined issues: bad planning, construction on flood plains, urban runoff, the ubiquitous ‘ocean conditions’; we never seem to see any concern for the conservation of these resources being acted upon by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), the agency for which you provide oversight.
So why publish an open letter? The sport angling community is not an organized lobbying force. You don’t have to pay attention to our concerns. Yet even in these hard economic times, we provide almost 1 billion dollars in annual spending that supports small businesses and local communities all over our state as well as a significant portion of the WDFW annual budget.
We feel that the state has reached the point of no return with our naturally spawning salmon and steelhead. It appears that the WDFW and its predecessor agencies have already allowed dozens and dozens of unique wild fish populations to become extirpated or to go extinct. The time for your action is far overdue. We recognize the work done by the Hatchery Scientific Review Group (HSRG) but don’t see the Commission acting to implement any of the recommendations, only requests for more ‘studies’ costing more money and increasing constraints on only the recreational fishing community.
It is well documented that every time a ‘projection’ becomes available with fewer and fewer fish returning, the response is to immediately reduce sport fishing seasons or require selective fishing methods. What we don’t see is a comprehensive plan that also reduces commercial harvest, tribal and non-tribal, by a commensurate percentage, or requires their use of selective commercial harvest methods.
Each and every sport season we carefully record our catch on the Catch Record Card (CRC) which we are required to purchase and return to WDFW. Since about 2004, the staff at WDFW has failed to summarize and examine this real data, data which represents the actual numbers of fish caught in the various areas of our state. Instead, you have supported the use of unreliable statistical tools which are producing estimates whose validity cannot be verified.
The statistical technique currently supported by you involves collecting a ‘sample of convenience’, using interviews with a few sport anglers in a very limited number of locations. WDFW staff then uses this minimal pool of information to close seasons in areas where not a single angler may have been interviewed.
As you might know, US Senator Charles E. Schumer has called national attention to the use of such questionable estimation methodologies and declared: “…keeping our fishing stocks healthy is absolutely critical, and to accomplish this we can’t base decisions on outdated science and poor methods…” The Senator went on to say “…We need better science and more data-based flexibility in our fishing management regulations…the fishing community needs fairness and relief from flawed survey data, now…”.
There is much work for you to accomplish and not much time remaining to save our wild fish. The extinction clock has no time out. We believe the legal powers vested in you as Commissioners allow you too immediately and without hesitation put into practice requirements to save our wild fish. The actions you can take are simple and clear and supported by both the 1974 Boldt decision as well as the authority vested in the RCW which allow the Commission to regulate harvest methods as well as conserve unique stocks of fish.
You must also realize that each and every citizen of this state who cares about our iconic wild salmon and steelhead have reached the point of demanding action on your part. It is no longer sufficient to sit and not act.
The time has finally arrived for all citizens to stand together, no matter what group or organization they represent, and by standing shoulder to shoulder demand that our wild fish be preserved. Working with the Commission is most desirable, but preserving our wild fishes will come first and foremost.
To start the process of an aggressive recovery program, we are asking for your response to the following questions:
1. When are you going to stop the practice of looking only at Maximum Sustained Yield (MSY), commonly referred to in the sport angling community as overharvest, as what appears to be the only viable goal of WDFW in support of the commercial fishing industry?
2. When are you going to insist on the use of the accurate data you already collect via the Catch Record Cards, along with the best science available, for decision making by WDFW?
3. What is your time-line to require the application of selective fishing methods by all, sport anglers and commercial harvesters, tribal and non-tribal, to protect wild stocks from unnecessary harvest impacts?
Respectfully,
The 183 members
Puget Sound Anglers – North Olympic Peninsula Chapter
P.O. Box 2726
Sequim, WA 98382
