Lorraine Loomis, chairwoman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, issued the following statement on May 4 regarding the failure of the state and Treaty Tribes to reach final agreement on this year’s fisheries.

The state and Native governments are co-managers of the state’s fisheries. Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission members include the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe and the Suquamish Tribe.

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The Treaty Tribes are extremely disappointed that after decades of successful co-management of treaty and non-treaty salmon fisheries, the Treaty Tribes and state have not yet been able to reach a final agreement on this year’s fisheries.

Negotiations between the federal government, the Treaty Tribes, and the state are continuing and we are hopeful that we will yet be able to reach agreement. The Treaty Tribes submitted their proposed fisheries to NOAA in April following the final PFMC meeting and have received preliminary approval. As a result, certain limited Tribal fisheries on spring chinook are going forward now. These fisheries are the same fisheries that the Treaty Tribes have conducted in years past with state and NOAA/NMFS agreement.

The federal agencies have considered the biological impacts of these fisheries on listed species and have concluded that these fisheries will target harvestable levels of spring chinook and “will not jeopardize any listed species [and] would not adversely modify any designated critical habitat ….” This conclusion is based on modeled impacts to steelhead and chinook that are significantly less than exploitation rates that NMFS has approved in the past or recommended limits for this season.

Tribal treaty fisheries are essential to the Tribes’ subsistence, economy, culture and way of life. The spring chinook fishery in particular is important to the Treaty Tribes because it is the first run of salmon to return for the season. These fisheries allow the Tribes to exercise their treaty rights within conservation objectives developed by NOAA and agreed to by the Treaty Tribes and state. These fisheries will not impact the long-term sustainability of salmon runs.

We are disappointed that some sportsmen may protest our treaty fisheries. All winter and spring, sports anglers in Puget Sound have targeted immature chinook salmon called blackmouth. Some of these blackmouth are spring chinook destined for Treaty Tribes’ terminal fishing areas in rivers. If sportsmen wanted to spend their energy more productively, they could work with the Tribes to protect and restore salmon habitat, which is being lost faster than it can be restored, and is the main cause for the ongoing decline of salmon across the region.