By the Gills
Broadman said sonar has been tried but was unsuccessful on the lower river due to its width and the prevalence of moss. And he commended the Yurok tribe for improving its accounting efforts. “When I first started here years ago, there wasn’t any accounting for fish,” he said. “They do a very good job compared with the past.”
Both tribes defended the accuracy of their accounting methodology, in which pre-season harvesting estimates are compared with actual harvest numbers, based on sample data collected in interviews and inspections. “We know what we’re doing, and we do it well,” said Yurok Tribe member and policy analyst Troy Fletcher. “And the Yurok Tribe has never exceeded their quota. … We sure would like to see the sport industry monitored to the high degree that the tribal fisheries are monitored.”
The Hoopa Valley Tribe is catching more fish than in previous years. Mike Orcutt, the tribe’s fisheries director, said the near-total closure of this year’s commercial ocean fishing season increased both demand and market price for salmon, and the tribe has built new facilities and increased efforts to catch its full allotment of 6,180 fish. As of last week, he said, they’d caught just over 4,000 — but not with bank-to-bank gill netting, which Orcutt insisted he had never seen in Hoopa territory.
“We have that right,” Orcutt said of this year’s catch, “and now we’re exercising it.”
That’s the bottom line, agreed Chuck Tracy, salmon staff officer with the Pacific Fishery Management Council, a federal agency that regulates sport and commercial fishing on the West Coast. “Tribes regulate their own fisheries,” he said. “They’re sovereign, so they set their own rules.”
Fletcher said complaints like Aughney’s often boil down to racial tensions and attitudes about the tribal fisheries, a charge Aughney denied.
“It just so happens that only Indians have gill nets,” he said. “I wish it was white people because then we could really go after them with both barrels and I wouldn’t have to worry about being called a racist.”
The actual numbers of naturally spawning salmon in the Klamath basin won’t be known until the PFMC releases its full analysis in January or February. Then, new quotas and conservation objectives will be set and another fishing season will commence.
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TWO Comments
Comment / By Outsider Looking In / Nov. 12, 2009, 11:41 a.m.
It is important to note that despite multiple dams, massive water diversion, temperatures up to 76 degrees, no fish ladders, a fish kill of more than 60,000 and hazardous chemicals running into the water, the Klamath and Trinity rivers continually support healthy salmon runs. Ironically, the Klamath and Trinity rivers are located on multiple Indian reservations. Further, the healthiest salmon runs in the State of California are within the Klamath and Smith river basins. Both are taken care of by Native people. Sadly, the Sacramento River’s salmon runs have been killed off due to farming and high water temperatures. The Sacramento River is solely controlled by Non-Indian people and its destruction happened in less than 150 years. This terrible story can be told over and over again about rivers within the State of California. The Tribes have been here, caring for the rivers for thousands of years and continue to do so despite all the surrounding environmental challenges bestowed upon them. If one wants to continue to challenge the Tribes on their right to fish, it would be best to look at the history and facts first rather than a few for-profit guider’s clouded opinions.
Comment / By Salmon Lover / Nov. 12, 2009, 1:51 p.m.
Thank you Outsider. Your comments are the most sound I’ve read on the topic thus far. Indians have managed the fishery successfully for thousands of years. It wasn’t until dams and irresponsible mining came along that the fishery was devasted. In fact, in the ten years after the dams were built on the Trinity River, the fishery declined by 80-percent. I’ve lived in Hoopa my whole life and fished these rivers just as long. Sure, some salmon are sold from time to time. But that really is a rarity. The only reason they were sold this year, is because the ocean fishery is shut down and there is quite a demand for salmon in the Bay Area. The total take of salmon has reduced dramatically since ocean fisherman aren’t taking the usual 100,000 to 200,000 fish. Our hearts go out to those folks too. It used to be there were plenty of salmon for all, if managed wisely. Today, the state and federal governments water priorities are screwed up leaving river communities and fisherman to fight for scraps. It’s too bad Mr. Augeny is too short sighted to see the real culprit here is the governments mismanagement of water on the west coast. Most Hoopa fish end up on our tables and in our ceremonies. Most families fish until they have enough to freeze or preserve to provide for an occasional salmon meal over the next year. In my 30 some-odd years living here, I’ve never seen a net stretched accross the entire river. Other tribal members would never allow it! To do so would invite some sort of retalliation from other tribal fishermen. There is a mutual understanding on this river. You don’t take more than you need and you make sure there is enough for everybody. If you look at sport fisherman’s numbers, they’ve taken just as many fish so far than the Hupa Tribe.