May 27, 2011: NOAA Fisheries has signed a biological opinion approving a harvest resource management plan (RMP) that describes how the state of Washington and its Puget Sound Indian tribes will conduct the harvest of Puget Sound Chinook. The harvest plan is designed to allow a limited catch of Chinook, while providing sufficient opportunity for the population to recover.
Feb. 2, 2011: NOAA Fisheries announced that new scientific information and preliminary analyses about the Southern Resident killer whale population and the extent of their reliance on salmon – particularly large Chinook salmon – strongly suggest that Chinook abundance is very important to survival and recovery of these whales. This relationship has potentially serious implications for salmon fisheries and other activities that affect the abundance of Chinook salmon. Any ESA approval of the Puget Sound Chinook harvest management plan is unlikely to be effective beyond the end of the 2013 fishing season.
Dec. 29, 2010: NOAA Fisheries announced availability of its proposed evaluation and pending determination on a proposed harvest resource management plan (RMP) that will guide the Washington co-managers in planning annual harvest regimes as they affect ESA-listed Puget Sound Chinook, for management years 2010 - 2014. Harvest regimes will be developed to achieve stated objectives for each of fifteen management units. This plan describes how these guidelines are applied to annual harvest planning. The plan guides the implementation of fisheries in Washington under the co-managers’ jurisdiction, but also accounts for harvest impacts of other fisheries that impact Puget Sound Chinook, including those in Alaska and British Columbia, to assure that conservation objectives for Puget Sound management units are achieved.
NOAA Fisheries evaluated the RMP per protective regulations under Limit 6 of an ESA Section 4(d) rule. That rule provides limits on the application of "take" prohibitions. This means that the take prohibitions would not apply to the plans and activities set out in the rule, if those plans and activities adequately address the criteria in the ESA 4(d) rule. The comment period closed Feb. 22, 2011. See the Federal Register notices, below, for more information; or contact Susan Bishop, 206-526–4587.
Contact: Susan Bishop, 206-526-4587
