Many salmon harvest and hatchery activities are co-managed by NOAA Fisheries Service and Northwest states and tribes. State and tribal representatives participate in several key public fish management processes and sit on associated technical committees. Tribes, states and other federal agencies work together to improve artificial propagation practices and management.
During the mid-1800s the U.S. government entered into a series of treaties with groups of tribes that resided throughout the northwest. These treaties apply to four Washington coastal tribes, 16 Puget Sound tribes, and five tribes from the Columbia River Basin. The treaties, among other things, reserved the right of fishing. Tribal fishing rights are the subject of much controversy and litigation, but have been upheld repeatedly through the federal courts. (Subsequent to ratification of the treaties, additional tribes were recognized by Executive Order or Congressional legislation.) NOAA Fisheries Service regularly interacts, communicates, and coordinates with more than 30 tribes in the Northwest.
The decline of salmon stocks that are the target of tribal fisheries, and their subsequent listing under the Endangered Species Act, created potential for conflict between conservation needs of the fish and the federal government's trust responsibility for tribal fishing rights. The Secretarial Order of June 5, 1997, American Indian Tribal Rights, Federal-Tribal Trust Responsibilities, and the Endangered Species Act, seeks to clarify the federal government’s trust responsibility to the tribes as its agencies administer the ESA. The obligations under the treaties and trust responsibilities to all affected tribes require careful consideration and a continuing need to balance conservation and trust obligations.
There are several approaches under the Endangered Species Act to address tribal and state "take" of ESA-listed species that may occur as a result of harvest and hatchery activities. ESA Section 10 provides for permits to operate artificial propagation and fishery harvest programs. NOAA Fisheries Service's innovative Section 4(d) rules provide exemptions from take for resource, harvest and hatchery management plans.
