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tidal influences, add to difficulty in consistently meeting escapement goals. 



Incidental overfishing in the terminal fishery also results when the fishing 

 period of a harvestable stock overlaps with the presence of a non-harvestable 

 species or the wild component of the same species. For example, in 1988 a 

 strong return of hatchery coho was predicted but wild Chehalis coho were 

 predicted to fall Bhort of the escapement goal (Samuelson 1989), and terminal 

 fisheries were regulated in an attempt to selectively harvest the hatchery 

 fish. However, run reconstruction (Dick Stone, WDF, pers. comm. ) , as 

 illustrated below, showed that both hatchery and wild Chehalis coho 

 experienced the same harvest rate. 



Chehalis system coho Hatchery 



Terminal area catch 

 Terminal area run 

 Exploitation rate 



Fortunately in this case, the terminal run size was initially underestimated 

 and as a result the wild escapement goal was met. 



Poaching 



This perennial problem adds much uncertainty to fishery management. Poaching 

 includes all forms of unreported catches and, although it causes inaccuracies 

 in post-season run estimates, does the most harm by reducing the number of 

 Bpawners. The topic raises many virtually unanswerable questions. Does it 

 make sense to account for poaching in managing terminal fisheries? Does 

 annual variability in poaching contribute to the difficulty in predicting run 

 sizes? Was poaching a major factor in the historical decline of the catches? 

 What can be done to control poaching? 



Poaching may have extinguished the native Wynoochee spring Chinook run in the 

 early 1950s, shortly after a road was built to the Wynoochee Falls 50 miles 

 upriver (Dick Stone, WDF, quoting Jack Thompson, pers. comm.). Poachers 

 desire fish for personal food, and roe for bait, either for personal use or 

 for sale. 



LOCATION, QUANTITY, AND UTILIZATION OF EXISTING HABITAT 



Habitat information is briefly reviewed here. Data from the FWS habitat 

 survey begun on March 1, 1992, will totally meet the requirements of this 

 section, and will be reported and analyzed in Volume II. 



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