Quillayute
Quillayute River Wild Winter Run Steelhead
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Winter Run Reconstruction
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Wild Steelhead Shares
Quillayute Wild Winter-Run SteelheadPresented above are two graphics for the Quillayute River wild Winter-Run steelhead stock (click to enlarge).Data for the '’09-’'10 sport fishery is incomplete, pending the inclusion of April 2010 data. It will add some amount to the sport harvest, total run size and harvest share estimates -– probably on the order of 150 fish for the first two and 75 fish for the third.’The '97-'98 season was a concern on the part of the Fish and Wildlife Department. Fearing low returns, they closed sport harvest, moving to a Wild Steelhead Release rule.The QuilleuteTribe did not agree with the magnitude of potential short fall, and continued with their gill net fishery, although at what would appear to be a reduced level of effort.Chalk one up for the State managers for “"erring on the side of the fish”." Perhaps also chalk one up for the Tribe, as they stayed well within their share, even if they did not shut the gill net fishery down.The escapement goal for this stock is 5900, and has not been changed since originally established in the aftermath of the Boldt decision and its successor cases. It may not be accurate or fair to look at management performance / harvest share compliance prior to the establishment of that goal (~1985), - but we did - –so there you have it. – Frankly, it would be a lot of work to go back and sort through the years prior to the goal being set and look at what the management basis was and fiigure out the appropriate shares. Applying the 5900 escapement goal for the entire history above, yeilds the following:Sport Exceeding Harvest Share – 1 year in 33Sport Exceeding Harvest Share caused missed escapement goal – 0 in 33Tribe Exceeding Harvest Share – 7 years in 33Tribe Exceeding Harvest Share caused missed escapement goal – 3 in 33Appling the 5900 escapement goal for only the period beginning with the '‘85-‘86 season yeilds:Sport Exceeding Harvest Share – 0 years in 25Sport Exceeding Harvest Share caused missed escapement goal – 0 in 25Tribe Exceeding Harvest Share – 5 years in 25Tribe Exceeding Harvest Share caused missed escapement goal – 2 in 25Perhaps more troubling is a recent trend. If we look at two periods:• Establishment of the escapement goal (‘'85-'86) to the season prior to sport harvest being limited to one wild fish per year statewide (’'03-‘'04), and• Sport harvest being limited to one wild fish per year statewide (’'04-‘'05) to present (’'09-’'10), we find a significant increase in frequency of share exceedance by the Tribe.In the first period, sport anglers stayed within their share for all 19 seasons. The Tribe exceeded their share twice, once causing an escapement below goal.In the second period, sport anglers stayed within their share for all 6 seasons. The Tribe exceeded their share three times, once causing an escapement below goal.Since the rule change for sport anglers, the Tribe has exceeded their share 50% of the time, and been responsible for the lowest escapement in the 33 year record (4,733 fish). That assertion can be made because in the year that the goal was missed, (’'08-'’09) sport anglers stayed within their share.Unlike some other situations, these share exceedences were not "by plan", that is, not the intended outcome of the pre-season harvest management plan agreed to by the co-managers. It is however how it turned out, and that's whats real. Enough for now.
