[env-trinity] Trinity Journal Opinion; Wolf Vonnn-Healthy fishery should be goal

[Tom Stokely]

Healthy fishery should be goal


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Healthy fishery should be goal

>From Wolf Vonn
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Healthy fishery should be goal

>From Wolf Vonn

Redding

I would like to follow up on a number of recent submissions to the Opinion section of the Trinity Journal concerning the state of our Trinity River fishery. I particularly found the Jan. 15 submission from Hoopa Valley Tribal Chairman Byron Nelson Jr., “Tribe debates fishing report,” very enlightening.

It is difficult to feel confident about how the Hoopa Tribe manages the fishery as the fish move through the Hoopa Valley. Serious questions have been raised, particularly after this last fall and the dramatic lack of fish making it past the Hoopa Valley weir located at Tish Tang.

Of particular concern are the fall runs of chinook and coho salmon, and of steelhead trout. With all due respect to Mr. Nelson, and contrary to his citing, the number of fish passing the Fish and Wildlife weir at Willow Creek, or making it to the hatchery this fall was dismal. Please correct me if I’m in error, but Hoopa Valley Fisheries Department claims that 90 percent of fish attempting to pass the TishTang weir during the fall run are harvested.

We have already learned that no matter what quota or limit is set, the Hoopa Fisheries group will essentially ignore whatever limit or restrictions state and/or federal biologists set. Case in point, Western Outdoor News report, “Hoopa Tribe Went 10 Times Over Trinity River Salmon Catch Limit,” published March 23, 2018. This was after the fall chinook season for sport fishing on the Klamath and Trinity rivers was closed to protect the fishery. A letter to the Secretary of the Interior from the Yurok Tribal Chairman at the time admonished this action and wrote a letter of concern to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Interior Secretary Zinc. “Our upriver neighbor fished well beyond their allocation, impacting the already minimal spawning escapement thereby threatening the very stock that we are trying to protect.”

The anecdotal evidence concerning the stewardship of this fishery is of concern. It is hard to understand how on one hand the Hoopa Tribe will fight and litigate for water quality and dam removal, then set up an almost impassable gauntlet for the fall anadromous fish run? A January 2011 report in High Times Magazine pointed out the then, and current, Director of Hoopa Fisheries made significant money selling Trinity River salmon to a fish processor, “Wild Planet.” When you see truck after truck, loaded with plastic totes backed up to the Tish Tang weir, and full of fish, there is a natural concern for the future health of the fishery. (gauntlet=fishermen, line of snaggers, gill nets, then the weir).
I know, we are in an era of political correctness and it’s almost heresy to question any particular minority group. Maybe we could take out the Fish and Wildlife weir just upstream from Tish Tang and use the Hoopa Valley weir as the place to count and monitor fish numbers. The Hoopa Valley weir would then be a place for research, tribal fishing, and hope. This could be a partnership between tribal, state and federal fishery biologists, with Hoopa leading the way. Who could object to such a partnership? After all, a healthy Trinity fishery for future generations is what all of us want.
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