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fisheries highlight the importance of bilateral agreements based on the principles 

 of conservation and equity. 



Paget Sound Petitioned Stocks 



Recently, a group of fishery biologists from the Washington Department of Fish and 

 Wildlife (PRO-Salmon) petitioned NMFS to list 9 Puget Sound salmon stocks under 

 the ESA. The petitioned stocks are: 



North Fork Nooksack River spring chinook 



South Fork Nooksack River spring chinook 



Dungeness River spring chinook 



White River spring chinook 



Discovery Bay summer chum 



Hood Canal summer chum 



Lower Dungeness River pink 



Elwha River pink 



Baker River sockeye 



In a recent joint assessment by the Washington slate agencies and Western Washington 

 Treaty Indian Tribes, these stocks were all listed as critical (i.e. at risk for significant 

 loss of within-stock diversity, or even extinction) (WDF et al., 1993). For stocks such 

 as the White River spring chinook, annual escapement has averaged only 100 

 individuals in recent years (WDF et al., 1992). These stocks are also harvested in 

 mixed stock PST and/or other Canadian and Washington state fisheries. For example, 

 Elwha River pink salmon are harvested in WCVI fisheries, U.S. and Canadian sport 

 fisheries in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and also in U.S. and Canadian preterminal 

 commercial net fisheries which target the more productive Eraser River pink salmon 

 stock (PROS, 1994). 



* Harvest restrictions aimed at protecting these stocks may need to be addressed 

 in future PST negotiations. 



Under current management plans, the WCVI chinook and coho troll fisheries (which 

 opened on July 1) are managed to address Canadian stock concerns (DEO, 1994b). 

 Catch guidelines for the WCVI troll fishery follow the previous PST annex harvest 

 ceilings of 360,000 chinook and 1,800,000 coho (DEO, 1994b). As discussed earlier, 

 abundance of southern U.S. coho stocks is at a record low. A WCVI troll harvest 

 guideline of 1,800,000 coho is unrealistically high, and has the potential to cause 

 overfishing of already depressed stocks. 



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