State, tribes working to develop new selective commercial fishing tools
By Dr. Jeff Koenings, WDFW Director
The Trout and Salmon Leader, Director's Column
September 2000

Selective fishing - the catch-all term for efforts to target fish from healthy populations while sparing protected stocks - is becoming a familiar phrase to many by now.

Sport fishers are already familiar with techniques that help them avoid harvesting protected stocks, from time-and-area restrictions to targeting fin-clipped fish. Indeed, the expanded opportunities recreational anglers will have in southwest Washington this fall for marked hatchery coho is a good example of how selective fishing techniques are working.

But the number of tools in the selective fishing arsenal is growing, and the commercial sector, too, is taking steps to fish selectively. And this, ultimately, should lead to even greater efficiency in managing our state's salmon resources and allowing us to meet both our conservation and fishing opportunity goals.

Recently, two types of commercial selective gear - the tangle net and the floating trap net - were chosen by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and tribal fishery managers for testing. Both are aimed at providing non-target stocks a better chance at being returned to the water unharmed.

Depending on the outcome of the tests, each new selective fishing gear option could ultimately mean another choice for fishers who must be increasingly flexible and resourceful in order to stay on the water.

The tangle net and the floating trap net were spotted by WDFW scientists as two of the more promising gear types discussed in recent selective fishery workshops in Canada, a nation which has spent millions to study and develop viable selective fishing methods for commercial and tribal fishers.

Fisheries managers here, who assembled a $226,000 package of state and federal funding to test the two gear types in state waters, picked the two nets for a try-out this summer and fall in the hope the gear could offer useful alternatives to gillnets.

Tangle nets, constructed with smaller mesh than gillnets, capture fish by the jaws, tangling them harmlessly as they twist to escape. The larger mesh of gillnets, by comparison, smothers salmon by compressing their gills. The difference between the newer tangle net and the traditional gillnet could mean the difference between life and death for unintended by-catch. And, of course, returning bycatch to the water unharmed is the yardstick of success for selective fishers.

The floating trap net - a V-shaped net set between shore and a drifting boat - is similarly benign, constructed to hold fish in an underwater cage where fishers can use a dip net to collect their catch and then release non-target fish without ever removing them from the water.

In 100 days of test-fishing outings which began in mid-August and will continue into October, WDFW and tribal fish biologists are taking a long look at how the two types of nets compare to traditional gillnets, and how well fish released from them survive to complete their migration.

Because the condition of the fish caught is a key factor in gauging the merits of a selective fishing method, the biologists are scrutinizing the liveliness - or lethargy - of the catch that turns up in their nets. To gauge how well the fish do after they are returned to the water, they also are marking their catch with jaw tags before returning the fish to water. Those tagged fish will be recovered later from hatcheries, fishers or streams. Fish caught in Budd Bay and bound for the Tumwater Falls hatchery will be tested to determine whether the stress of the catch and release affected the viability of their eggs.

Test sites selected include terminal fishing areas in Puget Sound (Olympia's Budd Inlet, Miller Bay on the Kitsap Peninsula and the lower Puyallup River) and Willapa Bay near the mouths of the Naselle and Willapa rivers. With chinook returning in August, that species became the star of the first test fishing outings; later-arriving coho are due to take the limelight afterward.

It's too soon to tell how well the tangle net or the floating trap net will serve state fishers as a new selective fishing method. So far, WDFW biologist Geraldine Vander Haegen, who is supervising the test fisheries, says it appears the tangle net may be better suited for coho than for larger, deeper swimming chinook.

WDFW plans to keep working with the tribes and commercial industry to test new types of selective gear, and hopes to expand test sites to other areas of the state, including the Columbia River. One thing is already certain: New selective gear is something all of us must keep pursuing in order to meet our conservation goals for wild stocks and maintain viable sport and commercial fishing opportunities.

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