On May 27, the same day Madrigal had trouble equalizing, the 11 boats from Tulalip brought in anywhere from just a few hundred pounds to almost 1,500 pounds apiece. This gap in skill and experience is evident at the dock after harvest. “It was really hard for me at first” Madrigal said, “A lot of people get licensed, dive once, and say ‘This isn’t for me.’” “We’re forced to dig fast,” said Hegnes, owner of the Rawdeal.įor divers, the time constraints make for a steep learning curve. While other tribes may open a tract for a few days harvest and monitor quotas by weight, Tulalip allows its divers to haul in as many pounds of geoduck as they can within a two- or three-hour window, depending on the area. “We started at 8 to 10 hours on restrictions 15 years ago and slowly reduced to two to three hours,” McHugh said. Tulalip has adopted what it calls “derby style” harvest, tribal shellfish program manager Mike McHugh said. Today, geoduck tracts are split up 50-50, with the state sharing annual harvest quotas with tribes who self-govern and regulate their own operations. It wasn’t until 1994 that another federal judge ruled that the same treaty rights applied to shellfish. The case forced big changes as it recognized the tribes’ demands to co-manage fisheries alongside the state. The Tulalips and other tribes across Washington had their treaty rights to harvest fish reaffirmed by the landmark 1974 Boldt decision. In other words, divers may only harvest a few tracts over the span of their lifetimes. Once that mark is reached, a tract won’t reopen for at least another four decades. The tracts are closed once 35 percent of the original amount of geoducks remain. The rate of harvest is slow enough to allow for healthy reproduction. Working together, state and tribal shellfish managers have calculated not only the rate of allowable harvest but also the stopping point. “With species that are long-lived, you have to be very careful about harvest.” “The idea is to have a focused harvest and then rotate to a new tract,” Sizemore said. ![]() State and tribal fisheries managers limit divers to areas where harvest is allowed. Geoducks are exceptionally long lived, known to reach 160 years in the U.S., and 168 years in Canadian waters. ![]() Numbers vary from year to year, but Sizemore estimates that Washington’s waters are home to 185 million pounds of wild geoduck, which bury themselves into the seabed and typically are only visible underwater during summer months, when their long siphons are extended to feed on drifting phytoplankton. “They’re typically found in the 2-to-3 pound range,” although some specimens have been found at nearly 9 pounds, said Bob Sizemore, research scientist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Scientists call the geoduck species found in Puget Sound panopea generosa. The Lushootseed word is pronounced “guay,” like Paraguay, paired with “dugh,” the “g” delivered hard and from the throat. The word geoduck (pronounced gooey-duck) is derived from Lushootseed, the ancient language spoken by the Tulalips and many other Coast Salish tribes. His excursion off Whidbey Island earned him close to $2,300. When he’s not diving, Madrigal works as a bookkeeper. “I’ve never had that issue before (problems equalizing). “It stressed me out a lot,” Madrigal, 33, said. ![]() Madrigal’s four seasons of experience give him 60 percent of the Rawdeal’s share.ĭespite the rough start, in 90 minutes of digging, Madrigal unearthed more than 400 pounds of geoduck. Depending on experience, a geoduck diver typically nets up to 70 percent of the money made from a boat’s total catch.
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