SEQUIM — Interest has waned in a pink salmon fishery at the mouth of the Dungeness River now that the numbers originally expected haven’t developed, said the natural resources director for the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe.
The beach seine fishery, in which weighted nets are used to pull fish to shore, was developed by co-managers of the Jamestown S’Klallam, Port Gamble S’Klallam and Point No Point Treaty Council and approved by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to weed out some of the 1.3 million pinks expected to return this season, said Scott Chitwood on Friday.
“The fishery was put together in preparation for the large forecasted return,” Chitwood said.
“The reason we were even considering having a fishery was to not have so many fish in the spawning grounds.”
Water in the Dungeness is at a record low for this time of year since there is no snowpack in the Olympic Mountains to feed it.
Low water levels and high numbers of fish could spell disaster, Chitwood said.
“Too many organisms that are trying to survive in diminishing quantities of water could have led to catastrophic” low oxygen levels.
Decomposition of fish dying for lack of oxygen would increase the oxygen demand even more, he said, “and potentially start a chain reaction for a section of river that would impact even healthy fish.
Biologists conceived of the fishery — the first in more than 30 years, according to Aaron Books, fisheries management biologist for the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe — in an attempt “to avoid a condition in which there were too many fish for the quantity of water in the river,” Chitwood said.
The fishery, designed for all three of the S’Klallam tribes to participate in, had early participants when it opened in late July, but although it will remain open until Aug. 22, few are fishing there now, he said.
“The pink market around Puget Sound has been fairly well-plugged,” he said.
“Buyers have lost interest. As a result, our fishermen have lost interest.”
The price for pinks runs about 20 to 20 cents per pound, so fishermen and -women need to catch a lot to make money.
And the reality of the run of pink salmon in the Dungeness doesn’t seem to be living up to the early forecast.
“The fishery went on for a couple of weeks, but we were not getting the numbers we had been anticipating. Subsequently, fish buyers lost interest”
The run has yet to reach its peak, which is expected later this month, but “it doesn’t appear to be the huge run that had been forecast,” Chitwood said.
“We think we would have seen more than we’ve seen if there were a million” coming in, he said.
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Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or at leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.
