January 2000
Contact: Tim Smith, Legislative Liaison (360) 902-2223

Situation

Several important marine fish species found in Puget Sound and in the Pacific Ocean off the Washington coast are in poor condition due to a number of factors, including historical overharvest, changing water temperatures and growing populations of marine mammals.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is developing conservation plans designed to recover the Puget Sound species without the intervention of the National Marine Fisheries Service, which administers the federal Endangered Species Act.

Meanwhile, seven Puget Sound groundfish and forage fish species have been proposed for federal protection. NMFS is scheduled to decide in February if the stocks should be protected by the Endangered Species Act.

The Puget Sound stocks in trouble are Pacific cod, walleye pollock, whiting, herring and quillback, copper and brown rockfish. The species have been declining for approximately a decade.

Conservation efforts to date have included:

• Drastic reductions in harvests
• Collaboration with NMFS and other agencies to find ways to deal with growing number of sea lions, seals and other marine mammals
• Establishing marine refuges where no fishing is allowed

In the Pacific Ocean, the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which manages fisheries in federal waters, has made dramatic cuts in commercial and sport fishing for lingcod, canary rockfish and another rockfish species known as Pacific ocean perch in 2000 because those populations are low. The PFMC has warned Washington it faces a "potential fishery resource disaster" off the coast.

Problem

WDFW in the past has relied chiefly upon harvest reductions to conserve declining marine fish stocks. Despite these reductions, stocks continue to decline. WDFW lacks the staff and resources to provide improved, science-based management for Puget Sound stocks and to assist the PFMC in its efforts to rebuild the Pacific Ocean stocks. WDFW has one vote on the 13–member PFMC and state scientists provide technical assistance to the federal body, which also manages fisheries in federal waters off Oregon and California.

Proposal

WDFW needs the resources to monitor and manage the stocks at risk on a scientific basis. That means the ability to detect changes in the populations as water temperature and other environmental factors change. WDFW also proposes to establish a network of no-fishing marine refuges where long-lived species, such as rockfish, have the opportunity to reach optimum spawning size.

The supplemental budget request is for $702,000 to hire 7.8 full-time equivalent biologists and technicians. The funds also would allow WDFW to:

• Hire laboratories to conduct genetic research
• Contract with the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission to conduct monitoring and evaluation work
• Hire a research vessel to do sampling up to 30 days per year

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