NWIFC News Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission 6730 Martin Way E
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Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission Fall 2013 NWIFCnwifc.org News Inside: ■ Dam Injures Salmon ■ Reef Net Fishery Celebrates Tradition ■ Investigating Bull Kelp in Puget Sound ■ Summer Chum Recovery Progresses ■ Tribes Track Fishers on Peninsula ■ Shellfish Surveys Guide Management 1 Being Frank NWIFC News Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission 6730 Martin Way E. Olympia, WA 98516 Fix White River Dam (360) 438-1180 By Billy Frank Jr. NWIFC News is published quarterly. Free NWIFC Chairman subscriptions are available. This edition is also online at nwifc.org. Articles in crumbling 103-year-old fish-blocking diversion dam and inadequate NWIFC News may be reprinted. fish passage system on the White River near Buckley need to be re- A placed because they are leading to injury and death for hundreds of threat- NWIFC Chairman ened salmon, steelhead and bull trout, slowing salmon recovery efforts in Billy Frank Jr. the river system. Executive Director It’s common for some adult salmon to display a few Mike Grayum cuts, scrapes and scars by the time they complete their Communications Division Manager ocean migration and return to spawn. That can take Tony Meyer two to six years, depending on the species. But more and more fish are now being found at the Regional Information Officers foot of the diversion dam with gaping wounds and Debbie Preston, Coast other injuries caused by exposed wooden boards, steel Emmett O’Connell, South Sound Tiffany Royal, Hood Canal/ reinforcement bars and other parts of the deteriorat- Strait of Juan de Fuca ing structure. Many of those fish later die from their Kari Neumeyer, North Sound injuries. At the same time, an explosive revival of pink salm- on has overwhelmed the inadequate trap-and-haul fish passage system operated NWIFC Member Tribes: Hoh, by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. At two years, pink salmon have the short- Jamestown S’Klallam, Lower Elwha est life cycle of all salmon and are abundant in the Puget Sound region. Pink Klallam, Lummi Nation, Makah, salmon returns to the White River have shot up in the past decade from tens of Muckleshoot, Nisqually, Nooksack, Port thousands to close to a million. Gamble S’Klallam, Puyallup, Quileute, That’s led to massive crowding of returning adult spring chinook, steelhead Quinault Indian Nation, Sauk-Suiattle, Skokomish, Squaxin Island, Stillaguamish, and migrating bull trout at the foot of the diversion dam where salmon continu- Suquamish, Swinomish, Tulalip and Upper ally try to leap over the structure – injuring themselves in the process – in their Skagit effort to move upstream and spawn. All three species are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Tribal contact information is available The diversion dam, constructed in 1910, sends water from the river to Lake under Member Tribes at nwifc.org. Tapps. The dam prevents adult salmon from reaching the Mud Mountain Dam Follow us on Facebook: facebook.com/ farther upstream, which is also impassable to salmon. Instead, fish are collected nwifc and on Twitter: @nwifc in a 73-year-old trap just below the diversion dam, then trucked upriver and re- leased above Mud Mountain Dam. There’s been a lot of talk but no action to fix the fish passage problem in the river. Back in 2007, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) issued a biolog- ical opinion under the Endangered Species Act requiring the Corps to upgrade the fish trap. So far, the Corps has ignored the order, claiming that it doesn’t have the money. Meanwhile, NMFS has turned a blind eye to the Corps’ documented illegal killing of ESA-listed salmon. On the cover: Isaac Ellingson, In 1986, only a handful of spring chinook returned to the White River, but to- Quinault Indian Nation fisherman, helps day those returns number in the thousands because of the cooperative efforts of lay a purse seine on the deck of the the Muckleshoot and Puyallup tribes, state government and others. Catherine Kate during a sardine fishery in the Pacific Ocean. See Page 5 for the The Corps and NMFS need to step up to the plate and do their jobs. When they story. D. Preston don’t, what they are really saying is that salmon, treaty rights, and years of effort and investment by so many of us here in Puget Sound don’t really matter. 2 PINK SALMON SalmonWhite River Suffering Salmon Incurring More Injuriesfrom in Recent Dilapidated Years from Unmaintained StructureDam Salmon are returning to the White River with gaping wounds and cuts because a diversion dam is not being maintained. “It isn’t uncommon to see a few injuries – gashes and scars – in fish as they make their way back, just because of normal wear and tear,” said Russ Ladley, resource pro- tection manager for the Puyallup Tribe of Indians. “But in the last few years, we’re seeing more ma- jor injuries that are likely shorten- ing the lives of these fish because the dam is breaking down.” The river constantly wears down the wooden dam near Buckley, leaving boards and steel rebar jut- Puyallup Tribe of Indians (2) ting out. Salmon returning to an adult trap on the White River are being wounded by a degrading Migrating fish are blocked from dam. moving up the White River by the dam. The fish are collected from a hands from Puget Sound Energy ically move across a wooden cur- trap at the dam and trucked above it to the Cascade Water Alliance. The tain below the dam, getting beat up and another impassible dam higher long-term goal of the alliance is to along the way, before finding their in the watershed. use the diversion to supply water to way to the trap.” Several species returning to the suburban King County cities. In the “These kinds of injuries aren’t White River – chinook, steelhead meantime, the degradation of the natural,” Ladley said. “These will and bull trout – are listed under the dam has gotten worse. often lead to disease and sometimes federal Endangered Species Act. “If the dam isn’t regularly re- mortality before the fish can actual- The dam was originally built in paired, it can get in pretty bad ly spawn.” 1910. In 1996, the dam changed shape,” Ladley said. “Salmon typ- Because the massive return of pinks every other year overwhelms the inadequate fish trap, all salmon species have a hard time making it past the dam. The risk of a massive die-off increases daily as the pink salm- on – along with coho and chinook salmon – crowd below the dam. Crowded conditions may deplete the oxygen in the water, or drain the fish of spawning energy before they can be moved. “Salmon only have so much en- ergy. If they run out of time and energy, then they’ll die before they spawn,” Ladley said. “We’re risk- ing years of hard work to recover these runs because we can’t keep a dam in good repair.” – E. O’Connell The wooden diversion dam on the White River near Buckley is not being maintained and is injuring salmon as they come back to the river to spawn. 3 LUMMI NATION Reef Net Fishery forFor the firstPink time in genera Salmon- Puget Sound gave tribal fish- tions, the Lummi Nation held a ermen renewed access to their reef net fishery at Cherry Point. traditional sites, but the 1939 “It feels good to say that as opening of a cannery brought of yesterday, we, the Lummi more competition from non-In- Nation have been reef netting,” dian fishermen who were able said Lummi Chairman Tim to reef net in more profitable Ballew at a tribal event Aug. locations. 28. “To know that tomorrow we In the U.S. v. Washington will reef net and the days after ruling, Judge George Boldt not- we will too.” ed that there were 43 reef nets The traditional reef net is operating off Lummi Island at suspended between two canoes, the time; none of them by tribal with grasses woven into ropes fishermen. along the bottom to simulate a “Members of the Lummi natural reef. Tribal fishermen Tribe are entitled to and shall watch for the salmon to swim have, as a matter of right, the close to the surface, then lift the opportunity to fish with reef net. nets in such areas,” Boldt “A sxwole (reef net) is a gift wrote. “(W)hile non-treaty from our creator, therefore an fishermen when licensed by the inherent right,” said Al Scott State to fish in reef net areas Johnnie, tribal cultural admin- have the privilege of fishing in istrative policy assistant. “This those areas ‘in common with’ was a way of life for our peo- Lummi Tribal members, they ple, and the method was also do not have the right to do so.” to allow our sockeye to go up North of Bellingham, Cherry into the river so they could re- Point is the site of the proposed plenish, because they were our Gateway Pacific Terminal, a extended family.” coal export facility that would Known in the tribal language be the largest in North America as Xwe’chi’eXen, Cherry Point if built. Lummi tribal leaders was a Lummi tribal village strongly oppose the coal ter- and traditional reef net site for minal because of the damage it hundreds of years. After the would do to natural resources K. Neumeyer Lummi Nation signed the Point and the traditional grounds. Elliott Treaty in 1855, tribal The pink salmon reef net fishermen continued to reef net fishery celebrated the tribe’s until about 1894, when non-In- traditional use of the area.