This boat operated off Eagle Point and Open Bay near San Juan on Monday, August 18th. The commercial fishermen in the image were operating within their legal rights. However, if you look closely at the fish in the photo, you’ll notice hundreds of bycatch kings alongside the pink salmon. Meanwhile, recreational fishermen have been forced […]

The judge ruled that Fish Northwest has standing to challenge the 2023 and 2024 fishing regulations. The court then ruled that WDFW is required to complete a small business economic impact statement when enacting regulations. This is something that has long been required, and the WDFW has ignored. The court ruled that WDFW had the […]

Fish Northwest is not going anywhere. We intend to remain in the fight by continuing to advocate for Puget Sound recreational fishermen. Though in the end, our most recent lawsuits did not go the way we hoped, ultimately fell to the judges to force NOAA, WDFW, and the Treaty Tribes to follow the prescribed laws, […]

FNW’s final appeal in our latest lawsuit was denied. This is complex and I will break it down into chunks working backwards from the ruling two days ago. We asked The Ninth Circuit Court to reconsider their latest ruling found in footnote 1 of the last Court’s Memorandum, where Fish Northwest first argued on appeal […]

Outcomes Each North of Falcon experience is unique and the 2023-24 season decisions upheld that tradition. Most participants expect annual changes, reflecting a different mix of forecasted stock abundances. We hope for consistency in the process so that our public input to WDFW is meaningful and the final decisions are understood. WDFW works hard to […]

Yesterday at 5pm, Fish Northwest filed its appeal with The United States Court of Appeals FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT. In the appeal, FNW stated the following concerning the actions of NMFS as related to the ESA, in which NMFS: 1. Failed To Ensure Compliance with U.S. v. Washington (aka. Boldt). 2. Has Failed to Ensure […]

We would like to thank the East Jefferson Chapter of Puget Sound Anglers for their ongoing confidence in and support of Fish Northwest. Sadly this PSA chapter is dissolving, but while in the process of doing so voted to donate an additional $2200 to FNW in the support of our efforts. We are sad to […]

Intervention in United States v. Washington (aka the Boldt Decision) has proven an unsuccessful strategy for forcing the Treaty Tribes and WDFW to cease violating Court orders and the interests of the citizens of Washington State as represented by Fish Northwest. Neither the Court, the State, nor the Tribes even attempted to deny that the […]

Director Susewind agreed to unequal allocation of the allowable impacts on natural-origin Stillaguamish chinook and this was the primary factor limiting recreational fisheries for 2022-23. Recreational fisheries ended with an allotted impact on wild Stillaguamish chinook of just 3.4%, or 38% of the total allowable impact, whereas Agreed Tribal fisheries have 62% of the total […]

Any of you who are familiar with collective bargaining negotiating tactics will recognize this move by the Tribes during this year’s North of Falcon. It’s called “running the clock out”. It’s nothing new. We saw it two years ago when the treaty tribes refused to proceed with recreational chinook discussions until they got what they […]