Fisheries Management Calendar

[Pete]

Mark your calendar: Fisheries Hearings
These are the highlights. Please note that details of these meetings and discussion of the issues will be posted as available or are available at the DFW web sites. These are opportunities for YOU to get involved in deciding where and when you can fish!


March 8 – 12, 2004
What: Pacific Fisheries Management Council – Fall salmon planning kick-off – final options presented for public review.
Where: Tacoma

March 16, 2004
What: North of Falcon I - Columbia River
Where: Portland, OR - Jantzen Beach Double Tree

March 17, 2004
What: North of Falcon I - Ocean/Columbia salmon fishery negotiations
Where: Lacy WA - TBD

March 19, 2004
What: North of Falcon I - States/Tribes Columbia River
Where: Portland, OR - CRITFC

March 19, 2004
What: Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission - Ocean and state waters salmon fishery options
When: 8:00 AM

March 29, 2004
What: Pacific Fisheries Management Council – Public Options Hearing
Where: North Bend, OR

March 30, 2004
What: North of Falcon II - Ocean/Columbia salmon fishery negotiations
Where: SeaTac

April 5-9, 2004
What: Pacific Fisheries Management Council – Adopt 2004 ocean salmon fishery regulations
Where: Sacramento, CA - Red Lion

April 16, 2004
What: Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission - Adopt ocean and state waters salmon regulations
Where: Beaverton, OR

[ 03-10-2004, 04:43 PM: Message edited by: Pete ]

[Pete]

just in case anyone is interested ...

[love2fish]

Pete, what time of day are these meeting's usually held? I'd like to try and attend a couple of them. I'm not a very vocal person, but I'd like to hear what goes on at these meetings.

Thanks,
love2fish

[Pete]

Most of the hearings are all day affairs; 8 or 9 until 5 or so. It's best to check the agenda on the web site of the organization a day or so ahead of time when it's released.

[Pete]

Here are a list of meetings important for the setting of the sturgeon and spring salmon fisheries in the the Columbia.

Commission meetings:

Friday, January 9th in Salem the Oregon Commission will give staff direction for the spring chinook season.

Saturday, January 17 the Washington Commission will finalize their recommendation on Spring Chinook allocation. The meeting will be in Olympia @ the DNR Building first floor.

WA & OR Commissions will give guidance to their staff for A THREE YEAR SHARING agreement with sport and commercial fishers on spring chinook. The last modeling I saw out of Washington Staff had three options, all going backwards for the sportfishing community! It doesn't seem fair for the sportfishers to get less fish because the gillnetters mortality rates are twice as high as ours.

Compact Meetings: These are joint state meetings where the final fishing seasons are set.

For sturgeon A TWO YEAR AGREEMENT is at stake. Sport anglers and the industry have united in saying that days/week is far more desirable than long block closures. The public also broadly supports moving enough fish from the estuary to allow for year round sturgeon retention with days/week in the 130 miles of river above Wauna Power lines. As far as we can tell, WDF&W is deeply opposed to days/week, but they may be moved by public comment, since the staff at ODF&W seems to be.

The Compact meeting to set the sturgeon meetings will be on Wed. January 7th @ 10:00. It will be held at the Vancouver Water resources building.

The Compact meeting to set Spring Chinook seasons will be held on Thursday, February 5 at the Museum of the Oregon Territory, 211 Tumwater Drive, Oregon City.

[David Johnson]

In case this was missed....

The last modeling I saw out of Washington Staff had three options, all going backwards for the sportfishing community! It doesn't seem fair for the sportfishers to get less fish because the gillnetters mortality rates are twice as high as ours.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">

For sturgeon A TWO YEAR AGREEMENT is at stake. Sport anglers and the industry have united in saying that days/week is far more desirable than long block closures. The public also broadly supports moving enough fish from the estuary to allow for year round sturgeon retention with days/week in the 130 miles of river above Wauna Power lines. As far as we can tell, WDF&W is deeply opposed to days/week, but they may be moved by public comment, since the staff at ODF&W seems to be.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">It's up to public input to change these blemmishes to the system....

[TheRogue]

As far as we can tell, WDF&W is deeply opposed to days/week, but they may be moved by public comment, since the staff at ODF&W seems to be.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">Pete, any idea why the WDF&W is opposed to this? Something sinister or just on the grounds of "we don't do that"?

TR

[Pete]

I don't understand the WDFW position or have any real explanation for it. I wish I did.

[cosmo]

The Washington position is stems from Ilwaco and the charter boat community. For the charter boats, the most effective season is a compact one. Their hot business is May to September. The operators want to fish everyday possible in that time frame, so they want an opened sturgeon season that runs its course and ends. Ideally, they get enough fish to start in May and finish immediately before the salmon opener so their boats do not sit idle.

Days per week would lengthen the season and perhaps run an open sturgeon season into an open salmon season, which costs those charter boats money (the days of "no harvest")

What you may likely see is a days per week season above Wauna, and a hit and run fishery below in the estuary.

Make no mistake. The Ilwaco charter boat community weilds a lot of influence when it comes to estuary fisheries.

[David Johnson]

The Ilwaco charter fleet is behind the politics of block closers in Washington state.

Most guides I know are in favor of a day/week season. And I think that most private anglers are as well.

[Oly Angler]

Kudos to Pete and his timely posting of this information.

As for the WDFW resistance to days/week, the excuse is to difficult to manage 2 sections of the river separately, too expensive, won't work, etc, etc.... True story is probably they just don't want to do it.

Getting days/week river wide won't happend due to the charters. However, I think it is possible to run it in the upper river.

For the Springer decisions in both states, the more bodies the better. Models produced by WDFW are for options that reduce sport impact allocation. Cindy LeFleur at the Vacouver office of WDFW is the person to contact to request that the other two options (63/35 and 70/30) modeled. With enough pressure applied to WDFW staff and the Commission, the sport allocation decision for Washington may stay where it was last year. This will be easier if Oregon goes with an acceptable split due to their making a decision first.

[Pete]

Sturgeon hearing added ... see above.

[Pete]

Calendar updated

[Jennie@ifish]

Bump.

[Chris Nordling]

Is there a time set for the meeting on the 5th?

Chris

[Pete]

The meeting on the 5th is at 10 AM.

[Chris Nordling]

Is it ok to come late? Like after 1 ?

Also, is there an address for where this will be?

Thanks,

Chris

[Pete]

I don't know what the agenda is, so I can't tell you if being late will miss the fireworks.

The Museum of the Oregon Territory is at 211 Tumwater Drive at the top of the hill.



[ 01-24-2004, 06:30 PM: Message edited by: Pete ]

[Pete]

The Agenda for the February 6th Oregon Commission Hearing has been released and is available HERE.

The Washington Commission also meets on February 6th. Their agenda is HERE.

Don't forget the Compact Hearing in Oregon City on Thursday, February 5th!

[Pete]

The "North of Falcon" schedule of events is as follows:

2004 NORTH OF FALCON
PUBLIC MEETING SCHEDULE

DATE MEETING TIME/LOCATION/PURPOSE

March 1 Pre-season Forecasts & Fishery Discussion
9:30 a.m., General Administration Bldg., Auditorium
11th & Columbia Street, Olympia, WA

March 8-12 Pacific Fishery Management Council Meeting (PFMC)
Sheraton Tacoma Hotel; (253) 572-3200

March 9 Coastal Fisheries Discussion
7:00-9:00 p.m., Willapa Harbor Chamber of Commerce
First & Alder, South Bend; (360) 875-5231

March 11 Puget Sound Fisheries Discussion
7:00-9:00 p.m., WDFW Mill Creek Office; (425) 775-1311

March 16 Columbia River Fisheries Discussion
9:00 a.m., Columbia River Double Tree Inn; (503) 283-2111

March 17 North of Falcon #1
9:00 a.m., Embassy Suites-Lynnwood; (425) 775-2500

March 30 North of Falcon #2
9:00 a.m., SeaTac Holiday Inn; (206) 248-1000

April 5-9 Final North of Falcon and PFMC
Red Lion Inn, Sacramento, CA; (916) 922-8041

[Pete]

The Oregon Commission schedule is HERE . A week or so before the meeting, the date becomes an active link to the agenda for the meeting and often includes links to documents which support the meeting.

The Washington Commission schedule is HERE with links to their agenda.

[ 02-08-2004, 06:30 AM: Message edited by: Pete ]

[Pete]

North of Falcon - important series of meetings.

Each year state, federal and tribal fishery managers gather to plan the Northwest's recreational and commercial salmon fisheries. This series of public meetings between federal, state, tribal and industry representatives and other concerned citizens is known as the North of Falcon process.

The North of Falcon planning process begins with the March and April meetings of the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PMFC), where ocean commercial and sport salmon seasons are set. In between the two PFMC meetings, the states of Washington and Oregon and the Treaty Tribes sponsor two additional meetings. Fishery managers generally refer to the entire pre-season process as North of Falcon, although only the two meetings hosted by Washington and Oregon are actually titled North of Falcon meetings

North of Falcon Overview

How salmon fishing seasons are set