Status of the Hoodsport Beach Seine Fisheries: Report to the Legislature

This report provides a five-year analysis and status update for the Non-Treaty beach seine chinook fishery, and implications to future beach seine opportunities. In 2016 the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) implemented a new, experimental beach seine fishery, targeting a summer Chinook run to the Hood Canal, Marine Catch Area 12C. Under existing Emerging Commercial Fisheries Act regulations, WDFW was able to issue experimental fisheries permits for this new fishery. The Chinook beach seine fishery at the Hoodsport Hatchery was designated as an experimental fishery allowing for limited participation to selected permit holders.

The five-year progression of this Chinook fishery saw increased participation and harvest, managed as a quota. Regulations were set during each years’ North of Falcon process. WDFW monitored and collected data from each season, allowing the fishery to be rigorously studied. This level of engagement has played an important role in understanding how small-scale, terminal area experimental fisheries can best be implemented. WDFW is continuously working to adaptively manage salmon harvest opportunities. Beach seines may offer a unique means of fishing in near-terminal areas where other gear types may not be suitable, while still providing for the economic viability of the commercial sector. With the information we have gathered during this experimental fishery, WDFW feels confident in its ability to prosecute future beach seine fisheries.

WDFW is supportive of maintaining the Hoodsport Chinook beach seine fishery in its experimental fisheries status. While the Agency will continue to explore constituent interest in creating a separate beach seine license, any future beach seine fisheries are dependent on a harvestable surplus available to co-managers while ensuring the conservation and recovery goals of natural stocks throughout Puget Sound