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spring-run Chinook, and summer-run Chinook salmon were conducted at two separate pound net sites in the lower Columbia River. Over three years of study, mark-recapture tagging and net pen holding methodologies were used to estimate survival of Chinook salmon and coho salmon, respectively. Evaluating detections of Chinook salmon tagged and released from a passively operated pound net in 2019, detection of tagged fish at Bonneville Dam over a mean 6.5 d upriver migration (167 km) was 1.000 (95% CI: S ≥ 0.970) for the sample genetically assigned to populations originating upriver of Bonneville Dam (100% detection and survival after
erated pound nets may allow for selective harvesting of targeted fish stocks with little to no mortality of adult salmonid bycatch in the lower Columbia River and other low-gradient, lowturbidity rivers that may be compatible with the gear-type. Given the success of the research over the past decade in the Columbia River and strong support from science and conservation communities, the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) recently completed a lengthy rulemaking process that will legalize use of pound nets for selective harvesting in the lower river by the 2024 fishing season (WAC 220-360-500). For the first time in 90 years, commercial use of pound nets will return to wa-
Wild steelhead being released from pound net. Photo by Conrad Gowell/Wild Fish Conservancy. release from the fishing gear). Through two separate net pen holding studies where fish were released into captivity for observation after capture and release from the fishing gear, survival of coho salmon was 1.000 (95% CI: S ≥ 0.975) over 4 d in 2020 and 0.965 (95% CI: 0.948 ≤ S ≤ 0.969) over 6 d in 2021 (100% and 96.5% survival, respectively). Given that these analyses lacked control groups to adjust survival estimates for confounding mortality effects (e.g., marine mammal predation, research handling/tagging effects, etc.), study results were inherently conservative from this Fisheries Research publication. Ultimately, these findings support the conclusions of prior studies and further suggest that passively op-
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ters of the Columbia River as an alternative to gillnetting. This time around, contemporary pound nets will serve as a means to protect wild salmonid bycatch, reduce straying of hatchery fish to wild salmon spawning grounds, improve compliance of state hatchery programs with ESA requirements, and provide sustainable fishing opportunities for commercial and tribal fishing communities. If implemented as anticipated, the emerging commercial pound net fishery could prove to be a model of sustainability within our region, helping fishers maintain their fishing tradition while advancing salmon management and recovery throughout the Columbia River Watershed.
Although the lower Columbia River commercial fishery represents just a small-piece of the wild salmon recovery puzzle, a successful working model for selective commercial fishing in the Columbia could help drive a much broader transition toward the sustainable salmon management practice of harvesting in or near rivers of salmon origin with suite of low-impact, passive fishing tools that may be compatible with a given fishing environment (e.g., pound nets for river reaches with lowvelocity and low-turbidity; modified fish wheels for rivers with high-velocity and high-turbidity; and reef nets near river mouths in the Salish Sea). Paired with the recent court victory against the National Marine Fisheries Service over their approval of the mixed-stock southeast Alaska troll fishery for Chinook salmon, it is our hope that the emerging Columbia River pound net fishery may demonstrate that transition to this alternative model of sustainable salmon fishing is achievable and advantageous to wild salmon recovery, orca whale recovery, and our region’s fishing economies. As the viability of in-river selective fisheries is demonstrated on a commercial-scale and communities across the coast continue to raise their voices in opposition to the approval of unsustainable mixedstock ocean fisheries occurring from California to Alaska, there is hope that our collective conservation efforts may redirect salmon management and industry toward a more sustainable path that protects the needs of wild fish, fishermen, and future generations.
Adrian Tuohy is an aquatic and fisheries biologist with the Wild Fish Conservancy. He currently leads projects developing and researching sustainable commercial fishing practices in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. To learn more about the Wild Fish Conservancy Northwest visit: https://wildfishconservancy.org For additional information about the Wild Fish Conservancy’s pound net project, see Adrian Tuohy’s article “Commercial Fish Traps for Bycatch Mortality Reduction in Salmon Fisheries” in the January 2020 issue of The Osprey at https://www.ospreysteelhead.org/archives
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