Grays Harbor Anglers Required To Release Chinook Sept. 22

OLYMPIA - To help ensure spawning goals and management objectives are met for wild chinook salmon, anglers will be required to release all chinook beginning Sept. 22 in Grays Harbor Area 2-2 (east of the buoy 13 line) where the fishery will close for nearly a week the following day (Sept. 23).

The salmon fishery will reopen Sept. 29 with a daily limit of three salmon, but anglers will be required to release all chinook.

Ron Warren, regional fish program manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), said the changes were necessary to help meet spawning goals for wild chinook salmon returning to the Grays Harbor basin.

"Angler effort and catch have been much higher than we anticipated since the fishery opened Sept. 16," Warren said. "With those increases, it was necessary that we take these steps to ensure enough wild chinook salmon make it back to the spawning grounds."

Warren reminds anglers that Grays Harbor Area 2-2 (west of the buoy 13 line) is already closed to salmon fishing.

For more information, check the emergency rule change at https://fortress.wa.gov/dfw/erules/efishrules/erule.jsp?id=1363 .