WDFW stepped into the morass that is social media earlier this week when it posted a factual but not so well received note on its Facebook page.
Hey, everybody, it's wild-steelhead-killin' time on the Olympic Peninsula!
Feb. 16 is the opener for retention of native fish on eight streams, and while it may bring a bump to the economy out in Forks, the agency took some elbows, knees and assorted body shots in the hours and days afterwards.
The thread was most active Wednesday, but comments kept coming on Thursday and are up to 125 this morning.
Among the more recent retorts:
"Dislike dislike dislike!" said Luis San Diego, whose avatar shows an angler holding a very nice wild steelhead in the water, per the regs.
Holding a similar fish, luremaker Todd Ripley says, "Closing virtually the entire state to steelhead fishing, then promoting the 'great news' that you can go and kill a wild fish on the coast is a pretty foolish thing to do. The pressure on the OP is already going up due to everywhere in Puget Sound closing...now is the time to stop the sport harvest, not promote it."
"Your department is so totally worthless" and "This makes me sick" said Kirk Giloth and Brandon Robichaux.
Commenting on the image of the dead fish accompanying the blurb, Brad Hopps jibed, "That spent hatchery kelt is the perfect avatar for wdfw's 'steelhead "management.' Absolutley pathetic."
Such are the pratfalls for WDFW as it begins to put more and more emphasis on Getting The Word Out about itself and the fishing and hunting opportunities it manages in ways other than standard press releases issued from Central Command.
It's not the first time, of course, that its Facebook page has blown up. It's seen big responses to another touchy subject, wolves. A Dec. 5 post grew to a snarling 228 comments, and another from Nov. 22 was mauled with 298.
Similar to Canis lupus, wild steelhead are an especially sensitive topic in Western Washington which has seen numerous stocks collapse. Right now rivers throughout Pugetropolis, where winter-runs are listed as threatened, are completely closed -- you can't even go catch-and-release fishing -- and next year's seasons on them will be further tightened.
Retention seasons throughout the Westside have also been ratcheted back. According to the most recent catch estimates from WDFW, 592 unmarked steelhead were kept on the Coast during 2010-11.
That's down from 6,908 in 1995-96 and 3,839 in 2001-02, seasons when anglers also bonked nates on far more streams than today.
Should they all be closed for keepage? Some certainly feel that way. Others trust that the biologists out on the North Coast know what they're doing.
It comes down to a personal decision when you land a wild steelhead: Turn it back or bonk it?
Both are legal. Which is ethical?
I know what my decision would be: the nate goes back.
Always has, always will.
On the bright side, it shows that folks are paying attention to WDFW's new way of talking. Now, if only half of those would take the time to comment on the record or submit their own rule change proposals at the right times to effect the changes they want.
