Montana stream access bill hearing draws overflow crowd

A "massive crowd" of anglers and sportsmen converged on the Montana capitol yesterday to testify against HB309 that would effectively turn any waterway that has a man-made structure on it into a private waterway and thus not accessible to hunting, fishing and other forms of public recreation.

LINK (Via: The Billings Gazette)

Take Action - Ray's Boathouse Serving Wild Steelhead

Ray's Boathouse has Olympic Peninsula wild steelhead on their menu.

Here is a letter courtesy of Osprey Steelhead News that you can e-mail to Ray's to let them know it is just not cool to be serving wild steelhead. If you're not from the area you should still send an e-mail and add that you will not patronize Ray's if you ever visit the Seattle area unless they stop the practice.

Send to rays@rays.com

Hello,

It has come to my attention that your restaurant is serving wild steelhead from the Queets River (and presumably other rivers) from the Quinault Indian Tribe. Wild steelhead are endangered species act listed throughout much of their range in the United States. In Washington State, stocks of steelhead in the Columbia River, Snake River, and all of Puget Sound have been listed under the ESA within the last 20 years. Steelhead in other areas in Washington continue to decline. In coastal areas on the Olympic Peninsula where the Quinaults and other tribes fish, rivers are largely protected in the Olympic National Park, so freshwater habitat is in very good condition. Yet in recent years several of the rivers including the Hoh, Queets, Quileute (including the Sol Duc, Bogahciel and Calawah), and others, have failed to meet the minimum spawning escapement goals established by the state. The Hoh river has failed to meet its goal the majority of years recently, and in 2009 none of the above mentioned rivers met their goals, and the Queets missed its goal by more than 1/2, meaning that less than half the minimum number of fish needed to spawn to produce the next generation did so. This failure to meet escapement goals is a major conservation issue and could result in coastal stocks being ESA listed eventually too. Yet it is totally preventable. In all of the cases where escapement goals were not met, had tribal harvest been curtailed, escapement would have been met, meaning that the run was large enough to meet the goals but due to irresponsible and unsustainable tribal overharvest, the runs did not meet their goals. I am very disappointed to see your fine restaurant supporting this unsustainable harvest of wild steelhead and would ask that your restaurant take it off the menu immediately. All of the data I have referenced above is available from the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife if you would like to see it for yourself. Please stop serving wild steelhead. Thank you.

Sincerely,
xxxxxx

(Via: Osprey Steelhead News)

You can also go to the Ray's page on Urban Spoon and scroll down to the first review, which takes them to task for serving wild steel, and hit recommend.

Thanks for the help.

Update on Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 12:29PM by El Guapo

Whistling past the graveyard

Osprey has an update.

If you sent an email to Ray's boathouse yesterday regarding their decision to serve steelhead on their menu, chances are you got a form letter from Peter Birk explaining that Ray's is committed to providing sustainable locally harvested sea food to its customers and that steelhead are not ESA listed on the Peninsula and therefore the fishery is sustainable. While the point is valid we have to ask ourselves, do we really want to be harvesting the last non-listed stocks of wild steelhead in Washington State.

What If?

Whitefish Can't Jump serves up your 2011 New Year's resolution.

What if every fisherman who values wild fish gave up 10% of their fishing time to tackle conservation issues?

Amen brother.

Take Action: Stop Surface Longlining

The Gulf of Mexico provides important habitat for rare and beautiful marine species including western Atlantic bluefin tuna, blue and white marlin, sailfish and leatherback sea turtles. The dependence of these species on the Gulf of Mexico exposes them to a common threat - surface longline fishing. That threat was made even worse by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

LINK (Via: The Pew Charitable Trust)

Take Action! Protect the Thompson From Hatcheries

Photo: Brian Niska

The definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

From Osprey Steelhead News

This year, for the second time this decade, fisheries mangers opted not to open the BC's legendary Thompson River. For the last 5 years returns have hovered at extremely low levels, with only 800-1200 fish returning annually. Now, with steelhead stocks critically depressed some ill informed angler groups are calling for a hatchery program. Thirty years of science and recovery efforts elsewhere have demonstrated that hatchery fish are not adequate replacements for wild and that when spawning in the wild, their reproductive success is often reduced as much as 90%. Adding a hatchery on the Thompson would only serve to further depress wild stocks. At this point the wild population cannot afford such a setback.

Sign the petition today and tell fisheries managers the Thompson must remain wild.

Take Action! - Fight the Proposal to Increase the Commercial Quota for Striped Bass

If you care about the future of recreational striper fishing on the east coast you should take the action spelled out by Stripers Forever below. This is the first step in a campaign to defeat this shortsighted proposal, stay tuned for phase two and thanks for your help.

Stripers Forever members – on November 9^th the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) will vote on the proposal to increase the coastal commercial quota for striped bass. Stripers Forever is strongly opposed to this idea on all grounds.  A number of states have previously supported an increased commercial quota, and in a few days we will ask you to send e-mails to the governors of these states.  Today, though, we ask for your help to change the vote of Wilson Laney,  the representative on the ASMFC from the U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service

We have prepared a letter for you below to e-mail to Ken Salazar, the United States Secretary of the Interior, with a copy to Mr. Laney.  We need to send a lot e-mails to these people to let them know how important this is to us, and that we are watching!  Your sentiments will definitely count.  Please, send your letter and do your part to keep this proposed 20 to 50% increase in the commercial quota from taking place.  

The letter follows immediately below.  Please copy, paste, and send it right away!

Send the letter to:  ken_salazar@fws.gov  

Copy to:  wilson_laney@fws.gov

To:  Ken Salazar, United States Secretary of the Interior

From:  (Your Name and Address go here)

Dear Secretary Salazar:

I am a resident of (your town and state go here), and I am writing to ask that you direct Wilson Laney, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service representative on the Atlantic States Marine Fishery Commission, to vote against the proposed increase in the commercial striped bass quota.~ Here are the reasons why:

The recently released young of the year index from Chesapeake Bay shows that the decline in spawning success that began in the early 2000s is continuing.  The average for the last five years is 6.8 compared to 22.09 for the previous 5 years and 22.38 for the 5 years beginning in 1996.  This alarming downward trend indicates there will be many fewer adult striped bass in the population in the coming years.  

The claimed decrease in the commercial catch of striped bass is simply not true.~ Commercial quotas have been caught annually and have not decreased.~

The given commercial catch numbers do not include the well-documented illegal harvest of stripers along the Atlantic coast.~ Even a modest estimate of the illegal harvest would materially revise the commercial catch upward.

The total recreational catch of striped bass - numbers of fish caught and released as well as those kept or harvested – dropped by more than 50% between 2003 and 2009 while the commercial catch was essentially unchanged.

It is never a surprise when some commercial striped bass fishing advocates attempt to increase their catch beyond responsible levels; it has happened time and again in the history of commercial fishery management, in species after species.  After a near total collapse in the striped bass population during the 1980’s due to overfishing, a moratorium on most harvesting of this species caused stripers’ numbers to recover rapidly.  Now it seems that we have forgotten the lesson we should have learned.  

I expect USF&W to be a strong voice for conservation, not for exploitation. This is not a time to increase the harvest of striped bass, commercially or recreationally.~ Even NMFS has voted against this commercial increase.  Fishing mortality should be cut back and not expanded. When you consider that the average recreational fisherman on the East Coast was responsible for harvesting less than a single fish for the entire season, it is clear that the commercial catch should be decreased, not increased.~ Please direct Wilson Laney to vote accordingly.  

Sincerely,

(My name and address)

Copy to Wilson Laney

Here is some recent news about the sentencing of a commercial fisherman for overfishing striped bass.