NEAH BAY — State officials say the Makah tribe didn’t break any laws by fishing substantially more than the 1,600 chinook salmon the officials estimated before the start of the tribe’s fishing season last Oct. 1.
Of the almost 20,000 black mouth chinook caught by tribal fishers during their winter troll fishery, only 114 are believed to have been federally classified as threatened, said state Department of Fish and Wildlife officials on Friday.
On Thursday, the Makah voluntarily ended their winter troll fishery ahead of the scheduled April 15 closing date.
“A joint technical review of the impact of the Makah winter troll fishery . . . indicated that more than 94 percent of the [nearly 20,000] fish harvested were [of] hatchery origin or healthy natural stocks,” said a Fish and Wildlife statement.
“It is too early to determine what adjustments — if any — will be made to future fisheries that impact chinook salmon.”
Phil Anderson, Fish and Wildlife’s salmon policy coordinator, told Peninsula Daily News on Friday that his agency would have a better understanding of any potential impacts to the 2005-2006 fishing season after it compares and analyzes salmon catches from across the state during the next few weeks.
Salmon forecasts March 1
The Fish and Wildlife Department is set to unveil salmon forecasts for Puget Sound, coastal Washington and the Columbia River on March 1 in Olympia.
Fish and Wildlife’s statement did say, however, that while 114 protected fish — originating from the mid-Hood Canal and the Puyallup River — is more than the department thought the Makah would catch in their Strait of Juan de Fuca fishery, the “impact to those stocks appears to be low.”
