Despite vanishing steelhead, state won't delay fishing season

SULTAN — A count of wild winter steelhead on the Sultan River came in at an all-time low in 2018.

State biologists counted just 28 of the fish, considered by the federal government to be a threatened species.

County scientists thought they’d found a simple way to help the trout recover on this key tributary. The state could delay the summer fishing season on the Skykomish a few weeks, until the majority of the fish are done spawning and off to the ocean, out of anglers’ reach.

But the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said fishing doesn’t make a large enough impact on the fish to delay the season.

In 2019, the count recorded slightly more fish, 55, but it was still the second-lowest number on record.

In the broader Snohomish watershed — the Snohomish River and all its tributaries, including the Sultan — the wild winter steelhead population has dropped by thousands since the 1980s, earning its threatened designation under the federal Endangered Species Act in 2007.

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/despite-vanishing-steelhead-state-wont-delay-fishing-season/?utm_source=DAILY+HERALD&utm_campaign=a579ee0656-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d81d073bb4-a579ee0656-228635337

I guess the state wants the revenue from fishing tags.