Aug, 16, 2008
OUTDOORS / PETER JENSEN
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/102/story/502535.html
Whatcom County residents gathered at the Lummi Island Reefnet Festival Saturday, Aug. 16, to enjoy live music, good food and to celebrate one of the oldest methods of catching Pacific salmon - reefnetting. Yet, this method only accounts for about 5 percent to 10 percent of the commercial, nontribal salmon catch in Puget Sound, reefnetter Steve Thatcher said. Organizers of the Reefnet Festival, now in its fourth year and held at the Legoe Bay Marina, want to change that.
They advocate using this method in commercial fishing because it's environmentally friendly and benefits recovery of endangered wild salmon stocks, said Bud Jewell, a reefnetter and former fisheries biologist with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. "It's an ecologically sound fishery," Jewell said. "We want to make people realize we're not the problem. This festival helps the public become aware of that." The Coastal Salish American Indian tribes, some of the first inhabitants of Puget Sound, developed reefnetting.
As it is practiced today, two boats drive out and anchor in a well-used thoroughfare for migrating salmon, such as the Rosario Strait east of Lummi Island. Crews set up a rectangular net that stretches between the two boats and wait for salmon to swim over it. Once a school of salmon does, the crews crank the net up to catch the fish, and then dump them into a netted live well in one of the boats. This allows the fishermen to go through and sort the fish, keeping hatchery-raised stocks while releasing wild fish.
The method can be boring at times as the fishermen wait for the salmon to swim into the net, Thatcher said. But eight hours of waiting can be well worth it if two- to three-minutes of work produces a hefty haul. "You can't believe how empty that water can be," Thatcher said. "It will be hours of boredom and then it happens, you get a good-sized school and it gets exciting."
Reach Peter Jensen at 715-2264 or at peter.jensen@bellinghamherald.com. Reach PETER JENSEN atpeter.jensen@bellinghamherald.com or call 360-715-2264.
OUTDOORS / PETER JENSEN
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/102/story/502535.html
Whatcom County residents gathered at the Lummi Island Reefnet Festival Saturday, Aug. 16, to enjoy live music, good food and to celebrate one of the oldest methods of catching Pacific salmon - reefnetting. Yet, this method only accounts for about 5 percent to 10 percent of the commercial, nontribal salmon catch in Puget Sound, reefnetter Steve Thatcher said. Organizers of the Reefnet Festival, now in its fourth year and held at the Legoe Bay Marina, want to change that.
They advocate using this method in commercial fishing because it's environmentally friendly and benefits recovery of endangered wild salmon stocks, said Bud Jewell, a reefnetter and former fisheries biologist with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. "It's an ecologically sound fishery," Jewell said. "We want to make people realize we're not the problem. This festival helps the public become aware of that." The Coastal Salish American Indian tribes, some of the first inhabitants of Puget Sound, developed reefnetting.
As it is practiced today, two boats drive out and anchor in a well-used thoroughfare for migrating salmon, such as the Rosario Strait east of Lummi Island. Crews set up a rectangular net that stretches between the two boats and wait for salmon to swim over it. Once a school of salmon does, the crews crank the net up to catch the fish, and then dump them into a netted live well in one of the boats. This allows the fishermen to go through and sort the fish, keeping hatchery-raised stocks while releasing wild fish.
The method can be boring at times as the fishermen wait for the salmon to swim into the net, Thatcher said. But eight hours of waiting can be well worth it if two- to three-minutes of work produces a hefty haul. "You can't believe how empty that water can be," Thatcher said. "It will be hours of boredom and then it happens, you get a good-sized school and it gets exciting."
Reach Peter Jensen at 715-2264 or at peter.jensen@bellinghamherald.com. Reach PETER JENSEN atpeter.jensen@bellinghamherald.com or call 360-715-2264.
