Too few pink salmon prompts Skagit tribe to close fishery

MOUNT VERNON — The Upper Skagit Indian Tribe has decided to close its pink salmon fishery because fewer pinks have returned to the Skagit River than anticipated.

The tribe in northwest Washington expected to see about 500,000 pinks return to the Skagit River to spawn but this week saw dismal catches, The Skagit Valley Herald reported Thursday.

“It’s a big disappointment,” said tribal natural resources director Scott Schuyler. As a steward of the resource, he said, the tribe took the drastic step on Wednesday of closing what would have been a four-day fishery ending Friday.

Based on previous catch records, this past week should have been the peak of the season. But on Tuesday, the average drift — a net dropped across the width of the river and allowed to drift downstream — brought in about a dozen fish, the newspaper reported.

That’s about 10 percent of what they expected, Schuyler said. So tribal fishermen will keep their nets out of the water because it doesn’t want to deplete the population.

Pink salmon, also called “humpies,” migrate every odd year, and state officials have estimated some 6.8 million pink salmon returning to Puget Sound rivers in 2015. They typically are found in marine areas in late June through mid-August, when they begin to enter Puget Sound rivers.

The state currently doesn’t have any restrictions on recreational fishing of pink salmon on the Skagit River, said Aaron Dufault, a pink salmon specialist with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. “We’re watching it closely as we can get a better handle on the run,” he added.

He said there’s been a lot of variability in pink salmon returns, with some rivers such as the Nooksack fishing stronger than others. The picture for other rivers isn’t as clear because it’s too early to tell.

The tribe’s Schuyler said he’s not sure why the returns have been so low. It could be that flooding in 2013 may have hurt egg survival that year, cutting into this year’s return.