News Release

Elwha River tribal ceremonial & subsistence fishery for coho salmon to open fall 2024

Date: May 1, 2024
Contact: Tiffany Royal, 360-621-5934
Contact: Mark Yuasa, 360-902-2262
Contact: Molly Pittman, 360-565-3005

Port Angeles, Wash. –The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Olympic National Park, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced that a tribal ceremonial & subsistence fishery for coho salmon on a section of the Elwha River will be open for a limited time during the fall of 2024.

Additionally, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Olympic National Park, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife have agreed to extend the closure of other recreational and commercial fisheries in the Elwha River until June 2025. Recreational and commercial fishing will resume when there is broad distribution of spawning adults above the former dam sites, spawning rates allow for population growth and diversity, and a harvestable surplus of fish are returning to the Elwha River.

From late September to late October 2024, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe will conduct a limited harvest of adult coho salmon in a ceremonial & subsistence fishery on the lower 3 miles of the Elwha River. The timing of this fishery is designed to minimize impacts to non-target salmonid species, particularly federally listed Chinook and steelhead.

The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe completed its first post-dam removal ceremonial & subsistence fishery for coho in October 2023, harvesting 177 coho salmon.

The ceremonial & subsistence fishery for coho salmon will be strictly regulated and include a mix of handheld gear and river nets. Nets will be limited to half the span of the river. Tribal fisheries biologists and enforcement officers will intensively monitor this fishery for compliance with regulations and to ensure that impacts to non-target species are minimized. The data biologists collect from this fishery will be crucial in developing future in-river commercial and recreational fisheries for coho and other salmon species.

For more than 100 years, the Elwha River dams blocked salmon access to more than 90% of the river. Since the initial phase of dam removal in 2011, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Olympic National Park, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife suspended all fish harvest on the Elwha River so salmon populations could recolonize their former habitats and rebuild their populations. In the 10 years since complete removal of the Elwha River dams, multiple salmon species have shown positive signs of recovery. Coho salmon recovery has been a success story, thanks to the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe’s hatchery and fish relocation efforts during and after the dam removal process.

The Elwha River system has been central to Elwha Klallam culture and lifeways since time immemorial. Until the early 20^th century, Elwha Tribal fishers relied on subsistence fishing in the Elwha River to provide a wealth for their families. This ceremonial & subsistence fishery will provide an opportunity for Tribal fishers to continue to access local fish from their namesake river, while ensuring continued recovery of coho salmon toward a self-sustaining population that can support recreational and commercial fisheries in the near future.

“WDFW supports the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe’s exercise of treaty rights in this ceremonial and subsistence fishery, and we are excited for what this means for recovery of coho salmon in the Elwha River,” said WDFW Coastal Region Fish Program Manager James Losee. “We also look forward to a time when fisheries are expanded to include commercial tribal fisheries and non-tribal recreational opportunities and are continuing to monitor salmon recovery progress.”

“We started late last year but our fishery was a success,” said Tribal Vice Chairman Russ Hepfer. “I think our opener revitalized our youth to participate in salmon fishing. That is important to keep our traditions and culture alive. More importantly, it keeps our Treaty fishery alive. We hope to learn from what worked and what didn’t to make our C&S fishery even better this year. I look forward to it. My son and I set netted near the river mouth and was good to see him fishing on the river with me.” 

Elwha River fish recovery monitoring is a long-term, cooperative effort involving the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Olympic National Park, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Each year, project partners evaluate spawner abundance, distribution, and juvenile production throughout the river system using a variety of tools including sonar, redd surveys, snorkel surveys, tangle net surveys, and smolt trapping.

The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Olympic National Park, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife continue to evaluate Elwha River coho salmon population data to refine long-term management objectives for their recovery. This includes an Elwha River coho salmon escapement goals that provide for future commercial and recreational harvest opportunities.

Mountain lakes in the Elwha basin within Olympic National Park and Lake Sutherland will remain open to sport fishing from the fourth Saturday in April through October 31.