Lots of so called wild Chinooks at CQ

[BARCHASER10]

There is a report from CQ newly posted. The poster is complaining about releasing a lot of so called wild Chinooks at CQ.

We've got a reser starting next Sunday at Van Ripers with my Seahawk. I'm afraid of too many so called wild Chinooks. I kind of quit fishing CQ cause in years past you had to toss back about 4-5 so called wild Chinooks for each fin clip. It got too frustrating and I switched over mostly to Ucluelet. But going to Ukee got too expensive for a retired guy. I've only been to CQ once since 2000. I hope we aren't back to that again, but maybe we are.

Our hatcheries are fin clipping more than they used to, because the law sez they are supposed to. But the Canucks do not fin clip Chinooks and I suspect a lot of the fish the poster tossed back are Frazer River Chinooks from a Canuck hatchery.

I thought by now, most of those Canuck fish have gone by CQ and PA, but maybe not. Once at one of those North of Falcon meetings several years ago I asked the WDFW why at Neah only 15 miles away you can keep so called wild fish, no fin clip, but not at CQ. (The obvious answer is Neah is tribal and the tribes do not want to see the fishing tourist number go down.) The WDFW guy gave me a smartass answer "maybe you should fish somewhere else".

Sounds like CQ may be back to mostly C&R on Nooks.

This is a 2003 article about fin clipping.

Notebook: Dicks' plan helps salmon
By Mark Yuasa

Seattle Times staff reporter

The Washington salmon fishing scene will soon benefit from a multi-agency funding bill signed by President Bush last week.

The federal government has launched a new effort to protect threatened salmon stocks in the Northwest with language that U.S. Representative Norm Dicks added to the Interior Appropriations bill.

Dicks serves as the ranking Democratic member on the appropriations panel that funds the Interior Department.

The language of the bill states that, "the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shall, in carrying out its responsibilities to protect threatened and endangered species of salmon, implement a system of mass marking of salmonid stocks, intended for harvest, that are released from Federally operated or Federally financed hatcheries including but not limited to fish releases of coho, chinook and steelhead species."

Dicks' plan allows wild fish to be visually separated from hatchery fish, facilitating recovery of wild stocks listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by reducing negative interactions between wild and hatchery fish, while allowing selective harvest of hatchery fish. This legislation complements the hatchery reform project originally initiated by Congressman Dicks and Senator Slade Gorton.

Until now, only a portion of the salmon reared in Northwest salmon hatcheries has been marked, Dicks said.

"With new automated technology developed in the Pacific Northwest, however, it is now possible to increase dramatically the number of marked fish," Dicks said.

The legislation provides funding for the purchase of portable, automated mass marking machines, as requested by the states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

The machines are able to process large numbers of salmon quickly, clipping each fish's small, unused adipose fin to make it distinguishable from other fish.

"We simply must adopt new and more comprehensive strategies such as this one in order to assure viable populations of fish available for harvesting, while protecting wild fish," Dicks said. "The mandate for marking hatchery salmon applies to all federal hatcheries, as well as state and other hatcheries that receive federal assistance."

Much of the work will be done at the state level, including the federal "Mitchell Act" hatcheries on the Columbia River, operated by the states of Washington and Oregon.