Fish Northwest is committed to the conservation and preservation of Puget Sound salmon stocks while restoring and expanding fishing opportunities for Washington’s anglers, their families, and businesses. We believe that the future of recreational fishing opportunities depends on the conservation and recovery of wild salmon along with the science-based production and harvest of hatchery fish. This can only be achieved if we stop the overharvest of wild fish and use selective fishing methods to harvest hatchery fish. This can only happen if the overharvest of wild fish is stopped and the use of selective fishing methods to harvest hatchery fish is employed. At the current time, NMFS is approving exceedances of rebuilding exploitation rates (“RER”) in non-selective fisheries conducted in rivers and terminal areas. For example, in 2021 Puyallup River Chinook is harvested at a rate that exceeds the RER by 35 percent. The Nisqually River Chinook are harvested at a rate that exceeds the RER by 36 percent, and Skokomish Chinook at a rate that exceeds the RER by 41 percent. Most egregiously, Green River Chinook are harvested at a rate that exceeds the RER by 222 percent. All of these are approved without any apparent quantification or analysis of the increased risk of exceeding the RERs. It is clear that NMFS will approve any exceedance of the RER, and that the “maximum” exploitation rate is meaningless. This must stop and Fish Northwest has filed an injunction asking the courts to do just that. We expect a court date in the second or third week of August.