The Washington State Board on Geographic Names met on Oct. 30 and gave formal approval to the term “Salish Sea” as an umbrella name for Puget Sound, Hood Canal, Admiralty Inlet, Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Strait of Georgia. Its formal adoption by the state helps solidify the Squaxin view that the Tribe occupies the “Headwaters of the Salish Sea.”
It’s that time of year again when Squaxin NR staff puts on the chest wadders and walk a number of streams in the the South Puget Sound area counting the returning Chum and Coho salmon. We are in the streams 3 to 4 days out of the week count chum and hopefully finding some Coho too.
Joe Peters in Campbell Creek doing an adult spawner survey.
We are monitoring about 15 streams. The data collected is used to formulate the overall escapement for chum and coho in each surveyed region.
Fish Ladder from Lake Limmerick feeds into Cranberry Creek
Also 2009 marks the 10th year of installing a trap on Cranberry Creek. This trap is located above a fish ladder at Lake Limmerick. The target species in this trap is Coho, where we see up to 30 coho a year. A number of Chum also are encountered.
Fish Tech Bear Lewis scooping chum salmon out of a fish trap in Cranberry Creek
Squaxin Fish Tech. Danny Snyder sampling the Tribes coho fishery. Photo by Emmett O'Connell
This year the Squaxin Island Tribe closed the Arcadia Pt. area in Pickering Passage during its Treaty coho fishery to protect wild chum salmon. The area is well know by Tribal fishermen as a great place to intercept chum salmon as they begin to return to Totten and Hammersley Inlet streams.
In 2008 an unusually high number of chum were caught at Arcadia during coho season. This catch led the tribe to close its chum fishery for a couple of weeks in November to ensure enough fish made it back to Kennedy Creek to perpetuate the run. We manage our chum fishery based on the numbers of chum we see in the creek. If we are not making escapement we restrict and even close our chum fishery……….
See the story by Emmett O’Connell, information officer, NWIFC
October 15th was one of two days this year that the shellfish industry picked up garbage on beaches in South Sound. Four Choice High School students and their leader, John Johnson pitched in to clean up debris on the Twin River Ranch tidal marshland at the head of Oakland Bay.
In the phot0, Michael Hooton shows off the garbage pile. Taylor Shellfish will bring a boat in later in the day at high tide to collect the garbage for disposal.
This is the first time garbage has been picked up in the Twin River Ranch tidal marshlands. The effort was spurred on by the pending acquisition of the property by the Capitol Land Trust. The land trust intends to maintain the property for its fish and wildlife habitat value.
Video of Squaxin Island Tribe Fish Techs Danny Snyder and Bear Lewis sampling the Tribes coho commercial fishery.
Video recorded and provided by Emmett O’Connell, South Sound Information and Education Officer, NWIFC.
Lee Pilon of WDFW collecting Male Chinook milt.
On Monday September 21, WDFW staff with some help from Squaxin NR staff began spawning approximatly 100 female and 100 male Chinook at the Tumwater Falls Hatchery.
Will Henderson sorting male and female chinook for spawning
Joe Peters sorting male and female chinook
An estimated 500,000 eggs were taken and milt from 100 males to Minter Creek Hatchery for fertilization. Eventually these fertilized eggs will return to Tumwater Falls Hatchery as Fry.
All spawned fish and surplus fish went to a food bank.
If you have time go check out the spawning of the Chinook Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays around 8 am to 11 am at the Tumwater Falls Hatchery for the next couple of weeks.
Joe Peters and Will Henderson taking a break from sorting fish
Ocean sunfish or Mola mola are a rare find in the Puget Sound. These fish are generally found worldwide in temperate and tropical seas. They feed primarily on jellyfishes. Although the photo above is a small Ocean sunfish, they can get up to 2 meters in length and are known as the heaviest bony fish reaching over 2 tons.
For more information on Ocean sunfish (Mola mola):
From Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission Website:
The treaty tribes of western Washington look forward to continuing to work with Phil Anderson as director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).
Anderson was named the department’s permanent director Saturday by the nine-member commission….(read more at NWIFC website).
Photos courtesy of Taylor Shellfish staff and Phil Rousseau, a Simpson retiree. See also: http://picasaweb.google.com/clharrismeister/Orcas09?authkey=Gv1sRgCMzrlq-HwJngdA&feat=email# .
