ARLINGTON — After a treacherous four-year journey, the coho are back — just in time to get clubbed to death.
That scene horrified one Arlington resident who saw a few young men hitting the spawning salmon with sticks and rocks this weekend in Portage Creek just west of town.
Bill Blake, the city’s environmental coordinator, said 87 coho were counted Sunday, although how many were illegally killed or harassed was not clear. Blake said the resident who reported the incident did not want to be identified for this story for fear of retaliation.
Each fall in Snohomish County, wildlife agents respond to several complaints a week of people harassing spawning salmon, said Capt. Bill Hebner of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The destruction defies common sense, Hebner said.
"Common sense pretty much tells people that stoning, kicking, breaking and pitchforking fish is not an appropriate thing to do," Hebner said.
People who witness such harassment can call their local dispatcher for the Washington State Patrol. In Snohomish County, that number is 425-259-2407. The dispatcher will then contact the appropriate agent for Fish and Wildlife.
Blake said he hopes to do some education in nearby neighborhoods such as the Heartlands to avoid a repeat of the salmon bashing during the Thanksgiving holiday.
"A lot of these people are moving in from other places, and they don’t understand," Blake said. "They haven’t been brought up with" spawning salmon.
But newcomers can’t take all the blame.
Typical offenders are teenagers who get carried away after stumbling across the spawners, Hebner said. Others are less coincidental, harvesting the eggs for commercial value.
If common sense and education don’t work, state law steps in with some deterrents. Salmon molestation is a gross misdemeanor with a minimum fine of $500 and a maximum fine of $5,000 and up to a year in jail.
Fines are more typical, but jail time is not out of the question. Sgt. Rick Hawkins, a sheriff’s deputy in Darrington who has caught people pitchforking and shooting spawning salmon, said one incident led to a 20- to-30 day jail sentence.
For salmon fans, losing spawners so close to reproduction is tragic. The fish have defied long odds to make it back to their native streams. As eggs, they have dodged floods that can bury them with silt or rip them from their nests in gravel beds. As they grow, they have to survive long migrations and countless predators — birds, bigger fish, nets and hooks.
Once back to spawn, they have to jump culverts and fight each other for the best spots in the streambeds. And then, just before they release their eggs, somebody clubs them, rubbing out thousands of potential new salmon.
"It’s disheartening," Hebner said.
Reporter Scott Morris: 425-339-3292 or smorris@heraldnet.com.
To report a wildlife violation, call the local Washington State Patrol dispatcher toll free at 425-259-2407. A different number previously setup to report poaching is being phased out.
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