Final Joint WDFW/Tribal Wild Salmonid Policy

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The goal of this Wild Salmonid Policy is to protect, restore, and enhance the productivity, production, and diversity of wild salmonids and their ecosystems to sustain ceremonial, subsistence, commercial, and recreational fisheries, non-consumptive fish benefits, and other related cultural and ecological values.²

Purpose of Implementation Policy

Participation by Tribal parties in this Policy extends to all areas where such Tribes have co-management responsibilities in treaty fisheries.³ The Department shall be solely responsible for implementation of this Policy in areas where no tribal co-management responsibilities exist.

The Tribes and Department will approach fishery and hatchery management in the context of regional or other planning processes such as the Puget Sound Salmon Management Plan and Hoh v. Baldrige framework planning and by using the existing or additional processes for technical review of matters between the Department and affected tribes in regional, comprehensive, or statewide forums.

When addressing salmonid management matters within the existing frameworks or new setting, the Tribes and Department will have both formal and informal management principles and guidance in addition to the joint policies, performance standards, and other management principles contained in this document. By agreeing to this joint policy, the Department and Tribes do not forego their governmental power to seek particular goals or specific measures that may further sustainable fisheries, be more protective of salmonids, or more desirable for a particular management issue or other governmental purpose. However, the Tribes and Department intend to do so while working within the general goals of this joint policy and other management frameworks. Therefore, the Department and Tribes reaffirm their commitment to a spirit of cooperation and coordination that will be necessary to successfully address goals of this joint policy.

Performance Standards

1. In each watershed region, for each species, populations and/or management units to which MSH management will apply shall be identified and the pertinent management agencies shall establish escapement goals designed to achieve MSH. MSH shall be calculated by using long-time series of accurate spawner and recruit statistics for each population. When such statistics are not available, MSH may be calculated by using historical production, habitat availability, or the best available methods for calculation.

2. The State and Tribes will seek agreement on the total escapement rates, escapement levels, or escapement ranges that are most likely to maximize long-term surplus production for wild populations or combinations of wild populations or management units. These rates, levels, or ranges will be based upon achieving MSH and will account for all relevant factors, including current abundance and survival rates, habitat capacity and quality, environmental variation, management imprecision, and uncertainty, and ecosystem interactions.

3. For other resident and anadromous trout and char, managers may employ wild fish release and other approaches that can maintain high abundance as agreed upon in watershed or sub-regional management plans that may be developed between the Department and the affected Tribes after consultation with affected stakeholders and pursuant to applicable law and court orders. Where an affected Tribe has not chosen to participate in such management, the Department may continue to rely on the escapement approach for wild managed populations contained in A Basic Fishery Management Strategy for Resident and Anadromous Trout in the Stream Habitats of The State of Washington adopted in 1986.

4. It will not be necessary to physically measure spawner abundance for each and every stock, though every stock will need to be covered by the inventory process. Index stocks that are typical of stocks within an area may be used to estimate abundance for the entire area. Surrogate measures such as standing stocks, random samples, stock composition or other measures may be substituted for actual measures of spawners. Evidence of the utility of such surrogates will need to be established for their use.⁵

5. If spawner management goals are not achieved for three consecutive years, or if the five-year moving average of spawner abundance falls below 80% of the goal, a management assessment including all factors responsible for the failure to reach this goal (e.g., forecast harvest rate estimates, environmental variation or spawner enumerations, appropriateness of spawner abundance goals, loss of habitat quantity and quality) will be completed within six months to determine the cause(s). The Department and affected Tribal parties will cooperatively design and implement appropriate actions to return spawning levels to, or above, the goal. Actions will include any necessary measures to meet the goals of this Policy.

Performance Standards

General requirements for genetic conservation in this element call for:

1. No stocks will go extinct as a result of human impacts, except in the unique circumstance where exotic species or stocks may be removed as part of a specific genetic or ecological conservation plan.

2. The biological characteristics and structure within and among populations, as monitored by such things as spawning and rearing distribution, life history traits, habitat associations and genetic traits and differences, will not change as a result of human influences.

3. The number and distribution of locally adapted populations should be allowed to expand as a result of such management actions taken to: increase spawner abundance from previous wild generations, minimize negative impacts of hatchery strays, reduce genetic selection from fishing, and recoup access to lost spawning and rearing areas.

4. In some areas, the number and distinction of separate locally adapted populations may decrease as a result of successful habitat rehabilitation efforts to restore and connect damaged habitat; in such cases the total abundance of the "new" spawning population in its habitat will increase.

5. Fishery selection for salmon will be minimized to insure that population characteristics such as adult size, timing and distribution of population migration and spawning, and age at maturity are similar between the fished and unfished portions of the population. This means that the population will not be changing over time as the result of harvest influences except that a population may change back to its natural patterns as a result of this policy and other management actions. For the salmonids that have multiple spawning capabilities, the primary goal will be to prevent any significant harvest caused shift to sexual maturity at a smaller size and/or age.

6. Habitat will be protected so that both the distribution and amount of habitat is sufficient to maintain local adaptation and genetic diversity. Genetic diversity may be measured both in terms of diversity at the level of gene composition and the maintenance of key life history characteristics. Key life history characteristics include such things as timing, age at maturity, habitat use, how long an anadromous fish remains in freshwater, stream, river, and lake rearing characteristics of freshwater populations and other such characteristics that provide for local adaptations and diversity.

7. Sanctuaries, or refuges, may be established by agreement where populations can be protected from most of the effects of habitat, harvest and hatchery influences. It will not be possible to protect populations from all of these influences all the time, but it may be possible for some populations to be largely protected from many of these influences. These protected populations serve two important functions: (1) they may provide a comparison for measuring the changes in unprotected populations so that we can see the impacts of our actions, and (2) may be a source of fish if a related neighboring population is changed too much to recover naturally.

Performance Standards

The standard for ecological interactions is "no significant negative impact" on wild populations. Actions will be taken to minimize risk, which will be estimated for each species within individual regions. There will be flexibility in using hatchery programs. There are four key goals and considerations for applying this policy:

1. Maintain wild salmonid populations at diverse, abundant levels that naturally sustain salmonid ecosystem processes and diverse indigenous species and their habitats. This will primarily be done by meeting the spawning escapement goal, but hatchery carcasses may be used for this purpose during rebuilding phases.
   

2. Maintain healthy populations of indigenous animal and plant species within levels that sustain or promote abundant wild salmonid populations and their habitats. A healthy, balanced ecosystem requires that all the parts be available in the right amounts. Where there is a lack of species diversity it may be necessary to increase populations by providing the proper habitat characteristics.
   

   Alternatively, human caused changes to many ecosystems have created situations where there is an excess of predators. Healthy predator populations (e.g., marine mammals, birds, fish) may be controlled as necessary when they are an important factor in not achieving spawner escapement goals. Consistent with applicable law:

   1. Animal populations that are not marine mammals can be controlled if: (1) they are not indigenous to the watershed of concern and have been determined to be a cause of mortality of salmonids; or (2) they are abundant due to human caused changes to the ecosystem and are taking otherwise harvestable fish. Such predator control will follow management plans developed and approved by the Department and affected tribes and federal agencies with jurisdiction.
      

   2. Abundant pinnipeds causing mortality of salmonids can be controlled based on agreements with the federal agencies with jurisdiction, the Department, and affected tribes.

3. Hatchery or other enhancement programs shall avoid significant negative impacts due to predation or competition on the health and abundance of wild salmonid while minimizing the risk to other indigenous non-salmonid populations. All hatchery and other fish culture programs will follow specific ecological risk assessments and management plans to avoid adverse impacts on wild populations. Where co-management responsibilities exist, the affected Tribal parties and the Department will jointly review and evaluate salmonid populations that currently exist outside their historical range to determine if they pose an unacceptable risk to indigenous species and ecosystems. If they do, then the affected parties will agree upon and take steps to remove or reduce the risk.
   

4. Control the numbers, varieties, habitat changes, and distribution of non-indigenous species or stocks that allow them to compete with, prey on, or parasitize salmonids and other indigenous species. Introductions of fish populations will be managed to avoid significant adverse impacts on wild populations. This policy requires the affected Tribal parties and the Department to conduct an appropriate joint ecological risk assessment of the current distribution.
   

Performance Standards

1. Harvest management will be responsive to annual fluctuations in abundance of salmonids, and will be designed to meet any requirements for sharing of harvest opportunity.

2. The allowable incidental harvest impact on populations shall be addressed in existing preseason and in-season planning processes as described in policy number 1.

3. Where a population is not meeting its desired spawner abundance level, the State, in managing the non-treaty harvest, may give priority to non-treaty fisheries that can minimize their impacts on weak stocks and increase their harvest on healthy stocks by: (1) using gears that can selectively capture and release stocks with minimal mortality, or (2) avoid impacts by eliminating encounters with weak populations (proven time/area closures, gear types). This must be done consistent with meeting treaty and non-treaty allocations and in accordance with agreed mass marking policies.

Performance Standards

1. Meet policy goals articulated in the criteria under the Conserving Genetic Diversity and Ecological Interactions sections.
   

2. Meet criteria in Salmonid Disease Control Policy of the Fisheries Co-Managers of Washington State.
   

3. Each hatchery program will be conducted under a complete operational plan that describes the specific operational components, production goals, measures to control risk, monitoring and evaluation, and performance audits.
   

4. Appropriate uses of different kinds of artificial production techniques, to include, but not be limited to, the situations below, will be based on meeting the goals, policy statements and performance standards contained within this policy. The policy recognizes that a hatchery program may fall into one situation now, but it may need to change to another as habitat and population status change.
   • In areas where suitable environmental conditions are restored or are being restored and recovery of naturally reproducing populations is a goal, artificial propagation may be used in conjunction with other rehabilitation measures to assist in recovery of populations.
   • In areas where viable naturally reproducing populations have been extirpated, and restoration of natural populations is a goal, artificial propagation may be used in conjunction with other rehabilitation measures to assist in restoration of populations.
   • In areas where habitat has been permanently lost, or restoration is presently unfeasible, artificial propagation for mitigation may be used to establish and maintain fisheries and/or to conserve genetic characteristics of native wild salmonid populations.
   • In areas where cultured fish will have no significant negative impact on natural populations, artificial propagation may be used to establish and maintain fisheries.
   • In areas where wild stocks are healthy, cultured fish programs will be designed to maintain the health of wild stocks.
   • Fisheries enhancement can provide fishing opportunities in certain areas when such enhancement is consistent with overall fisheries management policies that protect native stocks.
   • All recommended guidelines for genetic diversity and ecological interactions should apply in aquaculture programs where there is a likelihood of adverse interaction with wild populations.

5. Mass marking of hatchery produced coho salmon will meet the Requirements, Criteria, and Condition of the Stipulation and Order Concerning Co-Management and Mass Marking. Mass marking of chinook and other anadromous salmon will occur according to agreements on comparable implementation plans. Hatchery fish may not be marked for reasons such as: (1) broodstock development or maintenance, (2) Treaty/non-Indian allocation problems that cannot be resolved by other methods, or (3) an agreed to wild stock supplementation program. Proven and agreed to mass marking technologies must be utilized.

Resident hatchery salmonids released from WDFW facilities will be adipose clipped, or identifiable using proven technology any time they are planted in fluvial habitats, or (2) where there are significant wild population in lakes and reservoirs, provided these releases do not interfere with Indian Treaty Rights.

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² Tribes have proposed a shortened version of the Goal.
³ Tribes have proposed additional words on this sentence.
⁴ Tribes propose additional reference to "where parties agree" in this sentence.
⁵ Tribes proposed additional sentence regarding agreement to index stock use.
⁶ Tribes proposed slightly different formulation of genetic conservation policy and words in the performance standards.
⁷ Tribes proposed wording that harvest "consider" the genetic conservation and ecological interaction policies.

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