North of Falcon: setting commercial and recreational salmon fishing seasons in the Northwest.
Each year, state, federal and tribal fishery managers meet to plan the Northwest's recreational and commercial salmon fisheries. This series of meetings is referred to as the North of Falcon (NOF) process. The name refers to waters north of Oregon’s Cape Falcon, which is the farthest south that Washington manages salmon stocks. This area includes freshwater and coastal areas of the Puget Sound, Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Columbia River.
Who participates in NOF meetings?
Representatives from federal, state, and tribal governments, recreational and commercial fishing industries, and members of the public are all part of North of Falcon.
WDFW hosts or participates in more than a dozen in-person and virtual North of Falcon meetings to develop annual salmon fishing seasons. Some of these meetings are between the Department and members of the public. Other meetings are government-to-government meetings between the state and the tribes.
The North of Falcon planning process coincides with the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PMFC)’s March and April meetings. PFMC is the federal authority responsible for setting ocean salmon seasons three to 200 miles off the Pacific coast.
In addition to the two PFMC meetings, Washington and Oregon state fisheries managers and the Treaty Tribes hold meetings to discuss alternative fishing seasons that meet conservation and allocation objectives. WDFW works with tribal co-managers to equitably divide the share of harvestable salmon, both during North of Falcon and through ongoing management throughout the year.
Fishery managers generally refer to all pre-season salmon fisheries planning meetings collectively as “North of Falcon.”
What happens at NOF meetings?
North of Falcon meetings are an opportunity for discussion, analysis, and negotiation among all interested parties. Biologists from state, tribal and federal management agencies provide technical analyses. These analyses project the impact of fisheries to individual stocks and compare the combined impact to conservation requirements.
Participants consider how fishery options impact salmon stocks in the ocean (outside) and in Puget Sound, coastal waters, and the Columbia River (inside).
The goal is to agree on a management plan for the upcoming fishing year that meets all conservation requirements for all stocks.
Meeting timeline
Public meeting schedule
The North of Falcon process follows a similar timeline each year. Find details for NOF meetings on our public meeting schedule.
Late February-March
The North of Falcon process between state and tribal co-managers starts in late February or early March when forecasts of the numbers of salmon expected to return (run sizes) are available. Fisheries managers consider wild and hatchery run sizes for all salmon species across the state when preparing proposals for the year’s fisheries. Fishery managers also take into account expected Alaskan and Canadian harvest levels.
March
At the March Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) meeting, state, tribal, and federal fishery managers make preliminary recommendations for ocean fishing seasons. The PFMC establishes ocean salmon seasons from three to 200 nautical miles off the Pacific Coast, including Neah Bay (Marine Area 4), La Push (Marine Area 3), Westport-Ocean Shores (Marine Area 2), and Columbia River/Ilwaco (Marine Area 1).
Once managers establish ocean salmon season options, state and tribal co-managers meet to discuss preliminary Puget Sound marine fisheries and Columbia River and freshwater fisheries.
In March, WDFW also hosts meetings throughout the state to discuss fishing season options with the public. Public feedback is accepted in-person and virtually. During these meetings, WDFW, recreational anglers, commercial fishers, and tribes negotiate how to fairly share catch while meeting conservation objectives.
April
At its April meeting, PFMC finalizes recommendations to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce for recreational fishing seasons and catch limits off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California. The public may provide written comments prior to the Council meeting or provide testimony at the April Council meeting.
In concurrent April meetings, the state and tribal comanagers finalize a tentative fishery plan, known as the List of Agreed Fisheries, for marine and freshwater areas in Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Fisheries developed through the process go through applicable reviews to make sure they meet all federal Endangered Species Act requirements.
May, June, July
Following the April meeting, WDFW drafts Washington Administrative Code (WAC) language that reflects the seasons developed during the North of Falcon process. Next, WDFW publishes the draft rules, accepts comments on the draft rules, and holds a public hearing. After considering changes to the draft rules based on public comment or errors discovered in the draft rules, WDFW adopts final rules for salmon fisheries for the year.
In early summer, WDFW publishes recreational and commercial fishing regulations and posts them on the WDFW website.
Throughout the North of Falcon meeting process, WDFW shares meeting summaries and salmon management insights in web articles called the Salmon Fishing Current.
Glossary of NOF terms
Adult equivalents (AEQ): Number of wild salmon that would have returned to the river in either the present year or future years if not killed in fisheries.
Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE): The Catch Per Unit Effort is a standard measure of the rate of catch in a fishery. In recreational fisheries, the unit of effort is defined as one angler trip. Therefore, the CPUE is the number of legal sized fish caught per angler trip.
Concise Explanatory Statement (CES): Concise Explanatory Statement (PDF) describes the WDFW’s reasons for adopting the annual recreational salmon fishing rules and responds to public comments received on the proposed rules. The rules, once adopted, will be set forth in the Washington Administrative Code (WAC). The management period for each fishing season typically ends in April and begins anew each May.
Coded-wire tag (CWT): Coded-wire tag is a tiny piece of stainless steel placed in nose of juvenile salmon and recovered from adults that return to estimate where the fish is from. Each tag is inscribed with a binary code that identifies its specific release group.
Constraining stock: Wild salmon for a particular river that is estimated to be the most over- impacted that will limit (or reduce) fishing opportunities.
Critical exploitation rate ceiling (CERC): Maximum fishery impacts allowed when a stock is in critically low abundance (see Escapement LAT).
Dockside sampling: This is a method the WDFW sampling unit uses to gather information on effort (number of anglers), kept and released Chinook and coho (number of marked and unmarked fish), and other fish species kept and released for the site on the day sampled. Sampling usually occurs five days per week when fishing areas are open for salmon.
Effort surveys: WDFW conducts boat or aerial surveys during salmon fisheries. WDFW staff conduct boat surveys on the water and ask what species anglers are targeting and where anglers will be taking their boat out at the end of the day. WDFW uses this information to determine how to distribute the dockside sampling effort and how to weigh the use of individual sampling sites. Aerial surveys are conducted in marine areas that are too large to effectively survey by boat, sampling staff conduct aerial surveys to obtain information on the location, number, and type of recreational fishing boats.
Emergency Fishing Rule Change: WDFW rule change resulting from in-season management actions based on monitoring of fishery resources. These can include additional days on the water, early closure of a fishery, or changes in bag limits. The updates reflect changes to the Sport Fishing Pamphlet. Rules found in the pamphlet are in effect unless superseded by a rule change. These are critical rule changes that require immediate action and are good for 120 days or less. Recreational emergency Fishing Rule Changes are distributed via email and posted to the WDFW website. All emergency rule changes—recreational and commercial—are also archived online.
Encounters: Number of fish harvested plus released fish. Encounters contribute to impacts against protected stocks, including catch and release mortalities.
Escapement: Number of wild salmon returning to the spawning grounds for a particular stock.
Escapement Low Abundance Threshold (Escapement LAT): A threshold of returning salmon that represents increased management responsiveness to avoid a stock entering critical status. For additional information see section 4.2 in the Comprehensive Management Plan for Puget Sound (PDF) Chinook (PDF). Salmon stocks are managed to allow enough mature salmon to escape harvest (called “escapement” or “conservation objective”) and return to freshwater to spawn.
Exploitation Rate (ER): An ER is the maximum allowed proportion of a salmon stock that can be removed by a fishery. It is a percentage of total mortality (i.e., in fisheries and on spawning grounds) that occurs in fisheries, including landed and non-landed fishery mortality components.
Exploitation rate ceiling (ERC): Maximum allowable rate of returning wild salmon that can be killed to achieve spawning escapement objectives that are consistent with current habitat function. For additional information see section 4.4 in the Comprehensive Management Plan for Puget Sound Chinook (PDF).
Federal Endangered Species Act (ESA): Establishes protections for fish, wildlife, and plants that are listed as threatened or endangered; provides for adding species to and removing them from the list of threatened and endangered species, and for preparing and implementing plans for their recovery; provides for interagency cooperation to avoid take of listed species and for issuing permits for otherwise prohibited activities; provides for cooperation with States, including authorization of financial assistance; and implements the provisions of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna.
Fishery Scalers: The relationship between the anticipated impacts to stocks in a fishery, and the FRAM (see definition below) base period impacts to stocks for that fishery (marine area and timestep). It’s an adjustment to the modeled base period impacts to stocks based on change in catch or effort.
Fisheries Regulation Assessment Model (FRAM): Used to combine forecasts and harvest of fisheries to estimate number of wild fish that will return to the rivers to spawn.
Forecast: Estimated number of adult salmon that will return.
Impacts: The cumulative effect on protected salmon stocks or runs from harvest and other sources of mortality, including catch and release mortalities from encounters. Impacts are severely restricted by the Endangered Species Act, exploitation rates, and other conservation measures.
Jack salmon: Salmon that return to freshwater and spawn one to two years earlier than the other adult salmon within their brood year. Jack salmon are commonly smaller in size.
List of Agreed Fisheries (LOAF): Set by WDFW during the North of Falcon process. These fishing dates cover all fisheries from May 15 of a given year to May 14 of the following given year. These season summaries are not meant to be comprehensive regulations; more details and regulations are included in the annual Washington Sport Fishing Rules pamphlet and is usually available by early summer.
Lower Columbia Natural Tules (LCN Tules): Lower Columbia Natural Tules Chinook (sometimes called LCR; Lower Columbia River; tule).
Mark-selective fisheries (MSF): A hatchery targeted fishery where wild fish are released.
Mixed stock fishery: These are fisheries that take place in areas that encounter multiple stocks of potentially different species, geographic or genetic origins or any combination of these variables. The proportion of stocks encountered in these fisheries may differ both season to season and year to year. Mixed stock fisheries offer a challenge to fisheries managers due to the difficulty in targeting fish of a specific stock.
Modeling: A mathematical representation of a stock or fishery based on data.
Mortalities: The number of dead salmon accounted for in a model.
NT: Non-treaty fisheries (sport and commercial including net and troll).
North of Falcon (NOF): The process to establish salmon seasons for state and tribal fisheries that occur north of Cape Falcon on the northern Oregon coast and encompasses Oregon and Washington (Columbia River, Coast, and Puget Sound).
Release Mortality Rate: Percent of fish released that die due to physical or physiological damage caused by a fishery encounter. In Puget Sound recreational fisheries, WDFW uses a 10% release mortality rate for legal-sized Chinook and a 7% release mortality rate for coho. Different release mortality rates may be used depending on gear types, location of fishing, species encountered, or for sub-legal sized salmon. For additional information, see Appendix 6 and Appendix 7 in the Fishery Regulation Assessment Model.
Resident fish: Hatchery or wild salmon, often Chinook or coho, that remain in or near the waters of the Salish Sea instead of migrating into the open ocean. Typically, smaller, and sleeker than salmon that migrate to the open ocean.
Selective gear fishery: A fishery with gear restrictions in place, such as single barbless hooks, or use of artificial lures only.
Southern United States (SUS): Washington, Oregon, and California; terminology used in salmon season-setting process and defined by all marine fishing areas south of the British Columbia-U.S. boundary.
Southern U.S. pre-terminal exploitation rate (SUS PT ER): Fish caught in marine waters within the southern U.S.
Terminal area fishery: A fishery conducted in the river of origin or directly adjacent to the river of origin where there is typically only one fish stock present. Terminal salmon fisheries in Puget Sound include the Tulalip Terminal Area Fishery, Sinclair Inlet and Port Orchard, and East Elliott Bay.
Test fishing: In some marine areas, WDFW sampling staff conduct a “boat test fishery” which is representative of the same time, area and fishing methods used by recreational salmon anglers. WDFW conducts test fishing to obtain the ratio of the four size and mark status categories (legal marked, legal unmarked, sub-legal marked and sub-legal unmarked). Sampling staff also collect other biological data during test fishing.
Total exploitation rate (Total ER): Refers to Alaska, Canada, and southern U.S.
Treaty fisheries (T): Tribal ceremonial/subsistence and commercial: net, freshwater net, troll.
Voluntary Trip Report (VTR): The Voluntary Trip Report program is working to increase angler participation in all selective Chinook and coho fisheries occurring in Marine Areas 1 through 13. WDFW uses these reports to maintain and increase salmon fishing opportunities. Learn more in the WDFW Puget Sound Recreational Mark-Selective Chinook Salmon Fisheries (PDF) brochure (PDF).
Find additional common salmon terms on the Pacific Fishery Management Council website.