Fish company makes upriver connections

The Kuller Fish Company of Skamokawa signed what might be considered a unique fishing contract with the Ten Nation Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation this past month.

The Kuller/Colville contract creates a first-ever joint venture agreement between a commercial fishing company and the Native American tribes. Both parties say the contract will benefit the Indians as well as the commercial and sports fishermen industries in the years to come.

“It’s a process that will take time to get going - but in the long run even salmon benefit from this contract,” said Marty Kuller, “ because it gives the Colvilles greater control over their select harvest program.”

The contract requires Kuller fishing to provide the Tribes with training and the technologies that allow them to both catch more of their hatchery-reared salmon while at the same time releasing the wild salmon back into the upper Columbia River.

"But first”, said Colville Fishery Manager Dale Clark, “We need Kuller to help us improve our fish harvest capabilities.”

The contract amounts are still under negotiation between the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bonneville Power Administration and Washington Fish and Wildlife. Kuller said his portion of the contract requires his company to provide the tribes with training, new fishing technologies and techniques, as well as a new boat.

“I’m bringing my experience from fishing in Alaska to the Colvilles,” said Kuller. “A lot of the waters on the upper Columbia are very similar to fishing conditions in parts of southwest Alaska.”

Kuller said the Colvilles will benefit from learning about different net sizes and their applications, and how and when to apply them. The contract will also allow Kuller to introduce new fishing capture-and-release strategies.

“I and my partner John McKinley also plan to show them about the new electronic technologies available to find, track and catch fish,” Kuller said.

Another of the contract’s benefits will help the tribe improve its natural fish habitats along the Columbia through the process of removing and cleaning up river debris.

Called “ snagging” by the lower Columbia commercial fishing fleet, its the process used on the lower Columbia by commercial fishermen for years in which they drag a special net along the bottom of the river that captures logs, stumps, and general debris which are then removed from the river.

“We’ve been doing this for years in our drifts on the Columbia,” said John Mckinley. “The Colvilles need this technique up in their waters because the river up there is filled with debris from years of runoff.”

Kuller said his company will also provide the Colville tribe with a new fishing boat specially designed and adapted to fish the shallow waters of the upper Columbia.

Over this past winter Kuller said he and McKinley worked on the boat. “I had the hull shipped down from Alaska,” he said, “and John and I completely re-outfitted the boat.”

Kuller said he calls the re-design a “pocket seiner." Once an aluminum herring skiff, the boat is now outfitted with mast, crows nest, boom and hydraulic roller winch. And the redesigned boat is very similar to that of its larger cousin to the North - the Puget Sound purse seiner.

“The boat’s mid-mounted engine should allow complete maneuverability,” said McKinley.

The design is an attempt to make the capture of salmon more fish friendly. Purse seine fishing is the method of circling a school of fish with a net, creating a purse effect. And this purse design will allow the Colville tribes to selectively harvest their salmon.

“It’s really quite a simple, gentle method of separating fish,” said Mckinley. “All the tribal fishermen and women have to do when a wild salmon is spotted in their net is drop one side of the net and let the fish swim out.”

Over the years the Colville tribes have tried various fishing methods to capture fish and while a few have worked, none well enough to provide the amounts of fish needed to feed the Nation's 10,000 members.

“ I think this boat might be the answer,” said Tribal Mgr. Fishery Manager, Dale Clark. Clark said the boat ought to work well in their waters and once tribal fishermen get the hang of it and learn the new methods and technologies they should be able to catch fish in the amounts needed by the Colville Nation.

One development section in the contract not involving Kuller Fishing directly, but that both parties feel will affect everyone fishing on the Columbia River, is funding for a new fish hatchery the Colvilles are building.

“We are about ready to break-ground on our new hatchery,” said Clark, “and when finished we should be able to produce hundreds of thousands of salmon to release back into the river.”

Coville tribal representatives said that they hope everyone will view their efforts to work with Kuller Fishing, and build a new hatchery; as the Colville Nation doing its bit to help strengthen a dwindling natural resource.