There’s a bit of tongue-in-cheek about La Conner’s annual Smelt Derby, which celebrates its 50th anniversary on Feb. 28 in the Skagit Valley town on the Swinomish Channel.
There is, of course, a Rotary pancake breakfast, a fun run and fish prints for the kids, but the main event is the day’s surf smelt derby, with prizes for the largest and smallest of the herringlike fish caught from the docks that line the waterfront.
The diminutive smelt, while good eatin’ pan-fried, won’t ever compete with salmon in terms of Northwest stature, but that doesn’t mean they and their cousin, the sand lance, aren’t important to salmon and other sea life, shorebirds and to the interests of sports fishers, commercial fishers, Indian tribes, wildlife enthusiasts and those who depend upon their business.
It’s why Senate Bill 5166 is seeking $2 million for the most comprehensive study of surf smelt and sand lance ever undertaken in the state’s waters. Observations of the forage fish, which are preyed upon by salmon, shorebirds and are a base for the rest of the food web all the way up to orca whales and humans, have shown a decline in their stocks.
“Forage fish populations are plummeting, and the general belief is that this may be why some marine bird populations are plummeting, and why the salmon are smaller and the orca whales are hungry,” said state Sen. Christine Rolfes, D- Bainbridge Island, as quoted by the Kitsap Sun. Rolfes proposed the legislation.
Rolfes’ bill would require the state departments of Fish &Wildlife and Natural Resources to work together to survey the spawning grounds of the forage fish, using volunteers and veterans with the Veterans Conservation Corps. Smelt also would be added to the list of fish that will require a fishing license, which will allow Fish and Wildlife to better track where and how much smelt is being caught.
Similar surveys, including one of herring in the waters off Bellingham, showed a decline from 15,000 tons in 1973 to about 1,000 tons in 2012.
Among the possible causes of decline of forage fish are some of the same sources that may already be affecting salmon, orcas and other sea life populations, including point and nonpoint pollution from chemicals, oil spills, parasites, disease, a decline in food and increased shoreline development, the Sun reported. Smelt spawn in intertidal areas, making them vulnerable to impacts from shoreline development.
Environmental and sport fishing groups are backing the legislation, as should anyone with an interest in preserving our stocks of fish and the state’s recreation industry.
If something — and it’s more likely to be a combination of impacts — is causing a decline in a species that is the basis for everything else on up the web, then it’s worth $2 million to find out what’s going on.
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