Tony Overman/The Olympian
Teresa Barron, a biologist with Skokomish Tribal Fisheries, unloads chum salmon to be given away Thursday. Low prices are leaving the tribe with many fish to donate to families and food banks.

Tribe has fish to spare

With salmon prices so low, Skokomish donate catches

RUTH LONGORIA, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published October 26, 2001

"It's frustrating. We've been making a real effort to get the fish distributed." -- Dave Herrera, Skokomish Tribal Fisheries manager

SKOKOMISH -- The Skokomish tribe is offering free coho and chum salmon from this year's harvest to South Sound food banks.

It sounds like a no-brainer: hungry people, free fish, feed the masses.

However, although many nonprofit agencies were called, few are making use of the free fresh fish.

"It's frustrating. We've been making a real effort to get the fish distributed," said Dave Herrera, Skokomish fisheries manager.

This is the first year the Mason County tribe has made fish from the Hood Canal salmon runs available to social service agencies and food banks.

The salmon are harvested primarily for their eggs, which bring treaty fishers about $5 per pound.

With salmon prices too low to make a profit from selling them, the fishers are happy to donate the fish to those in need, Herrera said.

Tribal fishers could supply plenty of fish for food banks from late July to mid-November, he said.

"There's plenty of people who could use the fish, but there are a few difficulties," Herrera said.

One problem is cold storage -- something many food banks don't have.

"Storage space is limited, but there are other problems as well," said Maj. Charles Gillies, commanding officer of The Salvation Army.

Volunteers generally are not available on short notice to pick up fish or clean and gut the fish in preparation for cold storage, Gillies said.

"Usually, it's a snap thing when the fish come in; you can either do it now, or forget it," he said.

About 60 fish were handed out to tribal members Thursday because none of the food banks contacted could arrange to pick it up, Herrera said.

Rik Godderz, executive director for the Refugee and Immigrant Service Center in Olympia, said timing is a problem for their organization.

More to come

Tuesday, Godderz will pick up a load of the free fish for Vietnamese, Cambodian and Hispanic immigrants who are served through the center.

"Our intent is to get the fish out right away. We're confident that we can have 30 to 50 family representatives show up to pick up their fish at the center, but we have to have enough notice so we can let our clients know," he said.

"I don't want to pick them up and then be left standing there with a truckload of fish."

Ruth Longoria writes for The Olympian. She can be reached at 360-754-5435.

To learn more

For information about free salmon for those in need, call Dave Herrera at 360-877-5213, Ext. 508.

Recent immigrants or clients of the Refugee and Immigrant Service Center can call Rik Godderz at 360-754-7197.

On the web:

Skokomish Indian Tribe

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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