Outdoors

POSTED: Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009

The future of rockfishes, wolves planned

Separate discussions are currently underway concerning the status as well as future management and protection of Puget Sound rockfish and gray wolves.

With the numbers of certain of their kind in severe decline, the decisions going forward regarding rockfish are likely to be felt first by saltwater fishers if the proposal to end all retention of them in inland waters passes in February.

This is certain to be just the first step on a longer road to their recovery.

On the other hand, as the slow but steady resurgence of Washington's top canine predator continues, hunters, livestock interests and rural residents will be among the many stakeholders focusing on the direction state and federal authorities take in perpetuating them.

Circulating now are two conservation management plans for each, together with drafts of their accompanying obligatory environmental impact statements.

Also a slate of public meetings has been drawn up at which the public will have both a chance to learn more and to opine on the relative qualities of the plans.

In the case of rockfish, the direction or tenor of the plan focuses on conservation through education, moderation of fisheries and protection of rockfish populations, especially the three most critical: canary, yelloweye and bocaccio.

Their Puget Sound and coastal populations are candidates under consideration for federal protection under the Endangered Species Act.

A key dilemma for marine fish managers is the relative slowness with which these particular fish mature and grow old. In a healthy population, canaries and yelloweyes can live to be more than 100 years old.

Other issues to reckon with include the diversity of rockfish species (30) to manage and the relative plentitude of some such as quillbacks and coppers, though they, too, have been overfished in many locales.

For gray wolves, their management document presumes, with the ongoing change in status as their resurgence continues, that Washington State will soon bear the same responsibilities for which Idaho, Montana and Wyoming already have girded themselves, the day-to-day burden of maintaining biologically viable populations while dealing with the social and economic complexities of living with wolves.

There is currently a small breeding gray wolf population centering on northeast Washington and those animals were taken off full federal protection this year, though the state still retains them on its 'endangered' rolls.

Managers say these and other expanding populations in Idaho, Montana and British Columbia are likely to seed reestablishment in currently non-occupied areas of the state.

Under this emerging plan, wolves, present and future, occupying central and western Washington will still be listed as endangered by both levels of government and will remain so until they achieve specific biological and census targets.

For persons interested in rockfish conservation, the closest of four public meetings is Thursday, Oct. 29 from 7-9 p.m. in Mill Creek at the agency's regional office. Comments from the public on the rockfish DEIS and conservation plan for inclusion in the record will be taken until Thursday, Nov. 19.

Wolf recovery plans will be the sole subject of discussion at 12 meetings around the state including a Wednesday, Nov. 4 gathering in Mount Vernon at the Cottontree Inn Convention Center. The timetable for commenting on the wolf DEIS and management plan has the public input period closing Friday, Jan. 8.

Public comments also will be recorded at each meeting.

To get copies of either of these two sets of documents, log on to:

?

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/management/rockfish/

? http://wdfw.wa.gov/wildlife/management/gray_wolf/mgmt_plan.html

To get an even more detailed look at the status of Puget Sound rockfish, look up: The Biology and Assessment of Rockfishes in Puget Sound by Wayne A. Palsson and others at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/rockfish/rockfish_biology.htm.

The state fish and wildlife department also has a Web site devoted to gray wolves accessible at: http://wdfw.wa.gov/wildlife/management/gray_wolf/.

COLUMBIA LIMIT BOOSTED

Columbia River anglers may now keep until Dec. 31 up to six fish a day caught in the mainstem from the Rocky Point-Tongue Point line upstream to Pasco.

The numbers and species of salmon and steelhead allowed in the daily bag vary by reach, but up to three may be adult-sized salmon.

In this instance, managers have liberalized the catch opportunity to take advantage of this fall's hatchery coho run. Also two in the daily six-fish mix may be hatchery-origin steelhead.

For details specific to the cut-off points for each reach and species that may be retained in each, check the fish and wildlife department's emergency regulations Webpage at https://fortress.wa.gov/dfw/erules/efishrules/rules_current_order_by_date.j

METHOW TABOO ZONE OPENED

The lower Methow River's normally taboo section has been opened to angling for hatchery-origin steelhead this fall and winter.

It's the reach from the second powerline crossing upstream to the first State Route 153 bridge.

The zone is typically kept off-limits to fishing to reduce interactions with wild steelhead that hold in the area, but steelhead returns this year warrant liberalized fishing opportunities and many wild fish have already ventured further upstream, say state managers.

Anglers must retain all eligible adipose fin-clipped steelhead they land in the Methow and other central Washington rivers now open for steelheading.

Wild (adipose present) steelhead and any steelhead, clipped or not, having one or two holes punched in its tail must be let go.

The selective fishery rule also applies, as does the night fishing ban.

Doug Huddle, the Herald's outdoors correspondent, is retired from Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and has written a weekly hunting and fishing column for the Bellingham Herald since 1983 that appears Fridays. E-mail him at doug.huddle@bellinghamherald.com.