Tucannon River Steelhead Management Discussion

Washington Depart­ment of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) fish managers will present information and take public input on proposed Tucannon River steelhead management changes at a meeting in Dayton on May 29.

The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in the multipurpose room of the Dayton Elemen­tary School at Park and 2nd streets in Dayton.

WDFW southeast district fish biologist Glen Mendel explained there will be re­strictions to the steelhead fishery for fall and winter 2013-14 to comply with Na­tional Marine Fisheries Ser­vice (NMFS) requirements to protect wild steelhead that are listed under the federal Endangered Species Act as threatened.

"We've already made several changes in Tucannon steelhead hatchery produc­tion and management to protect this small wild steel­head population," Mendel said, "but we can't maintain the current fishery structure. We don't want to close this fishery altogether so we're trying to craft fishing rule options that help remove hatchery steelhead while still protecting wild steelhead."

Mendel and other WDFW staff will present summaries of the Tucannon River steel­head harvest, natural popula­tion estimates, and manage­ment issues involved, and take comments on several options for a restricted fish­ery. All options include a hatchery steelhead retention requirement to reduce hatch­ery fish on the spawning grounds.

Options being consid­ered to focus on removal of hatchery steelhead while minimizing catch-and-re­lease and incidental mortal­ity of wild steelhead include:

Option 1- Allow steel­head fishing Aug.1 - Dec. 31 when 40-50 percent of the hatchery fish and only 20 percent of the wild steelhead are present. The river would be closed to fishing Jan. 1 - June 7 (when trout fishing opens).

Option 2- Allow steel­head fishing Aug. 1 or Sept.1 through Feb. 28 when 55-62 percent of the hatchery fish have entered the Tucannon River and when only 36 percent of the wild steelhead are present. The river would be closed to fishing March 1 - June 7 (when trout fishing opens).

Those who cannot attend the May 29 meeting in Day­ton can look for information after May 24 about other possible options at http:// wdfw.wa.gov/about/regions/ region1/ and provide input by June 7 to teamspokane@ dfw.wa.gov with a "Tucan­non River" subject line.