PORT ANGELES — A year-long extension to the now 10-year old moratorium on commercial and recreation fishing on the Elwha River and its tributaries through July 1, 2022 has been announced by the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Olympic National Park and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Implemented at the beginning of the dam removal project in 2011, the moratorium aims to protect depleted native salmonid populations, including four federally listed fish species, to re-colonize habitat between and upstream of the river’s two former dam sites.
Fishing in mountain lakes in the Elwha River basin within Olympic National Park and Lake Sutherland, generally occurring from the fourth Saturday in April through October 31, will not be impacted by the Elwha River closure.
Fisheries biologists note salmon spawning and rearing in habitats upstream of the former Glines Canyon Dam is paramount to successful restoration. These early re-colonizers play an important role in establishing spawning and juvenile rearing in habitats of the upper watershed.
Final obstacles to migrating fish were removed from the Glines Canyon Dam site in 2016.
Fisheries biologists confirmed upstream passage of adult chinook, sockeye, coho, pink, winter and summer steelhead, bull trout and Pacific lamprey past the former Glines Canyon Dam site with some adults reaching as high as river mile 40 in the Elwha.
Chum have been documented upstream of the former Elwha Dam site but not above the Glines Canyon Dam site.
Some fish populations remain low and the lack of habitat utilization in the upper reach of the river indicates that further recolonization and spatial expansion are needed to reach population levels in the Elwha watershed capable of supporting sustainable fisheries.
Fisheries managers note that recreational and commercial fishing will resume when there is broad distribution of spawning adults in newly accessible habitats above the former dam sites, when spawning occurs at a rate that allows for population growth and diversity and when there is a harvestable surplus of fish returning to the Elwha River.
The Elwha River project partners evaluate spawner abundance, extent of distribution, and juvenile production each year throughout the system using a variety of tools including sonar, spawning (redd count) surveys, snorkel surveys, tangle net surveys, and smolt trapping.
Monitoring ecosystem recovery in the Elwha is a cooperative effort among the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Olympic National Park, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and WDFW.
For Olympic National Park fishing rules, go to nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/ fishing.htm. For state rules, visit wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations.
