19 



have already heard from three Federal agencies. The reason there 

 aren't more is because there is no room. 



Mr. Bob Turner, Director of the State of Washington's Depart- 

 ment of Fisheries. 



Mr. Turner. 



STATEMENT OF BOB TURNER, DIRECTOR, WASHINGTON 

 DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES 



Mr. Turner. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



I, too, appreciate the opportunity to speak to the committee and 

 the committee's appreciation for the salmon resource in the North- 

 west and our need to maintain and recover the populations in this 

 region. They are, as Congressman Wyden pointed out in his com- 

 ments, a cornerstone of the economic and the cultural and the rec- 

 reational fabric in the Northwest. 



I think a poll taken about a year-and-a-half or two years ago 

 showed that some 90 percent of the people in Washington have 

 some strong attachment to the salmon resource in one way or an- 

 other. They are a canary in the coal mine, and they indicate to us 

 what is happening in our overall watersheds. 



Wild fish resources in particular and the habitats that they 

 depend upon must be protected and restored if we are to maintain 

 viable and healthy fisheries as well as all the other cultural values 

 we attach to them. The wild fish also provide us the breadth of the 

 genetic diversity in our stocks so that our grandchildren are going 

 to enjoy the same benefits that we can. 



I agree with Rollie Schmitten that to protect and restore these 

 stocks we must all work together. There are more, far more than 

 only three Federal agencies involved in that effort. Fisheries man- 

 agers together, like all other governmental agencies, have imple- 

 mented dynamic public policy as it has grown and matured 

 through all of the years and the decades, and fish management 

 policy has shifted dramatically as has other major public policy. 



We have been trying to adapt to the development of hydroelec- 

 tric facilities, to substantial timber harvest from river basins and 

 riparian areas, and to increased awareness of the limits we must 

 place on harvest capacity to protect the resource. Now, today we 

 are growing in our awareness and our ability to adapt to the En- 

 dangered Species Act. Through all these changes in public policy, 

 many fish stocks in the region remain relatively healthy. 



Naturally reproducing populations still account for over half of 

 the total salmon production originating from Washington's water- 

 sheds. Nevertheless, most stocks experience periodic problems, and 

 many of the wild stocks are severely depressed. They demand our 

 attention. We have a joint challenge of accommodating growth and 

 development in a manner that protects our resources while increas- 

 ing our concern about wild populations and their genetic diversity. 



Fishers themselves have a double sacrifice: one of constrained 

 fisheries to meet these challenges; the other budget constraints 

 that actually lead to closing the hatcheries that provide abundance 

 upon which fishers depend. As we have already indicated, fish sur- 

 vival is affected by a wide variety of factors. 



