Port Gamble FY 2021 Harvest Management and Hatchery Planning

The project supported the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe’s (PGST) harvest management program. The natural resource director and finfish manager collaborated with other co-managers of fisheries in Hood Canal to provide sustainable harvest opportunities for PGST tribal members while protecting listed populations of Puget Sound Chinook, Hood Canal summer chum, and Puget Sound steelhead. The director oversaw harvest management to ensure consistency with the conservation objectives in plans guiding harvest of Chinook, coho, and chum salmon. The finfish manager participated in pre-season fisheries planning forums (i.e. North of Falcon, and Pacific Fisheries Management Council meetings) to exercise the Tribe’s co-management mandate. The finfish manager also participated in pre-season and in-season management of Fraser River sockeye and pink salmon fisheries. The harvest management project scope also included the development of annual fisheries agreements, updating recovery plans, and issuing both annual and in-season regulations. This included annual fishery planning with WDFW, NOAA, NWIFC, and Hood Canal Coordinating Council (HCCC) and associated technical and policy committees and groups. The Tribe had been developing a climate change vulnerability assessment which included both harvest and hatchery management. The results of this assessment developed recommendations that were incorporated into the harvest and hatchery programs. The Tribe defined adaptation strategies for potential restoration projects including riparian corridors, cold water refugia, and stream flow regulatory protections for critical salmon streams. The Tribe also continued with research projects on impacts of high temperatures and low oxygen on both salmonid smolts and adults.



This program also funded the planning and management of tribal hatchery programs producing coho and chum salmon. Implementing hatchery management plans in collaboration with other tribal and WDFW remained a particular focus to ensure plans provide treaty fishing opportunities, where feasible, and achieve recovery objectives under the ESA. The Tribe also participated in the Hood Canal steelhead supplementation project that assessed the feasibility of using innovative hatchery practices in recovering populations in the South Fork Skokomish, Duckabush, and Dewatto Rivers. This project involved collaboration with other Hood Canal tribes, NMFS, Point No Point Treaty Council, Long Live the Kings, and the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group.

The Port Gamble Tribes goal in Harvest management is to protect, restore and enhance the productivity, production, and diversity of PGST’s targeted fishery species with special attention to summer Chum, Chinook salmon and winter Steelhead and their ecosystems. Harvest management is vital for all utribes and states to participate in. The process currently in place puts checks and balances on tribal and state commercial fisheries to ensure that fishing rights are preserved while meeting escapement and recovery goals. The tribal harvest management program is critical to protect, sustain, and recover salmon and steelhead fisheries. Without this program in place, harvest rates may be exploited to a rate where recovery may be unattainable.