Whether Fish or Politics, Those Who Ignore History Are Doomed to Repeat It

By Pete Soverel

“Prevent your taking the wrong course on matters of great importance by yielding too readily to the persuasions of your allies.”

Thucydides, 450 BC

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In the past several Hits & Misses, I have mused about my conservation/angling experiences over the past 50-some years in the hopes those experiences will shed some light on how dire the threats to our steelhead are, call attention to the small number of conservation successes and encourage all to never accept the current state of affairs as acceptable outcomes. Paraphrasing Thucydides’ admonition twenty-five hundred years ago, those who ignore history are destined to repeat it. This applies equally to fish management as well as political history. I am reminded frequently of these truisms.

Readers will recall our jubilation last year when the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission courageously voted to terminate hatchery supplementation of North Fork Umpqua River summer steelhead over objections from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, some recreational anglers and nontreaty Indian bands. The Commission terminated this harmful hatchery program only after careful vetting and consideration of sound, irrefutable scientific evidence presented by the North Umpqua Coalition that was not included by ODFW’s own staff. In any event, predictably, a lawsuit promptly ensued. Several Indian bands (without treaty secured hunting/fishing rights) recently begged the Commission to rescind their decision, arguing, in essence, that the cessation of hatchery releases was the functional equivalent of the end of the world.

Let’s look at the evidence. Rock Creek summer steelhead hatchery program (North Fork Umpqua River) began 64 years ago. Six decades later, the wild return has plummeted from 4,000 to

5,000 to less than 330 (2022 update). Belatedly, but thankfully, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission voted to shutter the program. The official “Desired Abundance Target” is 4,200 and Critical Abundance level is 1,200. In other words, the current return is 7.7% of De-

North Fork Umpqua summer steelhead is certainly way below 8% of the Desired Abundance goal.

Predictably, the Commission’s decision provoked howls of protest predicting the end of Western civilization. Incredibly, this proven record of sharply declining wild returns failure notwithstanding, ODFW, some anglers and the tribes argue to keep on doing what has driven wild steelhead populations lower and have gone to court to ask a judge — not a fisheries expert— to re-instate the hatchery program. Stay tuned.

The North American Journal of Fisheries Management recently released a groundbreaking study reporting the drastic decline of wild winter run steelhead on the storied steelhead rivers of the Olympic Peninsula. As detailed in Historical Records Reveal Changes to the Migration Timing and Abundance of Winter Steelhead in Olympic Peninsula sired Abundance and only 27% of critical abundance. I suppose the opponents to the hatchery closure want ODFW to persist with the program until the wild fish are finally extirpated. We can be certain that reproductive potential of

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The Osprey

Pess is the particularly alarming virtual eradication of early returning (November - February) wild winter runs in the storied rivers of the Olympic Peninsula. This component of the population historically represented about 60% of the total return. Their work shows starkly why The Conservation Angler petitioned the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to list Olympic Peninsula steelhead as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. See: https://issuu.com/the conservationangler/docs/tcawfc_op_ste elhead_petition_faqs_final

Over my several decades of salmon and steelhead conservation advocacy, I have been consistently mystified why agencies doggedly persist with policies which, by all objective measurements and irrefutable data, are harming the populations/stocks they manage. I am reminded of the track record of the Nooksack steelhead hatchery program, which continues unabated, and it exemplifies this mysterious behavior. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife routinely releases about 150 pounds of hatchery steelhead smolts to get back one to two adults. Talk about upside down and backwards. Instead of the natural anadromous model where the weight of returning adults is orders of magnitude greater than the weight of out-migrating smolts, the Nooksack program merely subsidizes the ocean nutrient load! In a similar vein, consider the current uproar over the closure of Gulf of Alaska king and snow crab fisheries with the predictable finger pointing every which way except to the most obvious — sustained over-harvest by commercial fishers who demand financial compensation for the closures for which they are largely responsible?

The latest twist in the tortured saga to remove four Klamath River dams: Anthony Intiso, Siskiyou County Water Users Association board member, personally filed suit to block removal, which is scheduled to commence later this year. Antiso alleges that the secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency lacks authority to use taxpayer money to fund the historic dam removal project. Be sure to read Dr. Mark Rockwell’s article on recent progress towards finally breaking cement on the Klamath in this issue of The Osprey.

Maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel: both Washington and Oregon are actively considering closure of commercial gillnet fisheries in the lower Columbia River. While this may end one aspect of the mixedstock, non-selective fisheries in the lower river, the intensive sport fishery will then have to confront its own power and impact on ESA-listed wild salmon and steelhead populations that are failing to recover. We can hope. www.theconservationangler.org

Pete Soverel is Chair of The Osprey Management and Editorial Committee and founder and President of The Conservation Angler, one of The Osprey’s supporting partner organizations.

NOAA Accepts Olympic Peninsula Steelhead ESA Petition — “Listing May be Warranted”

On Friday February 10, NOAA announced that a petition submitted by The Conservation Angler and Wild Fish Conservancy to list Olympic Peninsula steelhead as a Threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act presented “substantial scientific and commercial information indicating the listing may be warranted.” Now that NOAA has made this positive 90-day finding, they will conduct a status review of OP steelhead to determine whether the listing is warranted. They are soliciting scientific and commercial information relevant to OP steelhead from any interested party to ensure that the status review is comprehensive. Scientific and commercial information relevant to the petitioned action must be received by April 11, 2023. You can find complete information at this link: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/02/10/2023-02849/endangeredand-threatened-wildlife-90-day-finding-on-a-petition-to-list-olympic-peninsulasteelhead

The Osprey has published several recent articles about Olympic Peninsula steelhead by John McMillan – these can be found in The Osprey Archives at www.ospreysteelhead.org/archives

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