Purse Seiners in Puget Sound

On my way home yesterday (by ferry to VI), I noticed at least 5 groups of purse seiners right off east side of Vashon Island. I've only lived on the island for 10 years, but it was the first time I've seen nets and big boats working this far south. I know the chum are running, so I suspect they are getting some. There were two pods of Orcas sighted off the south end of the island last week. I'm sure they were looking for the same thing (hopefully, they got their share!).

But really? Purse seiners? Anyone out there know about commercial fishing boat regulations/restrictions in Puget Sound? I'll be looking for some info on this cuz it just looked weird to have these big boats out there with very large nets down.

Ok, here's a little statistic I found while researching this issue:
"During the 2006 and 2007 seasons, gillnetters caught an average of 725 chum salmon per hour of fishing time, while purse seiners caught an average of 4,893 chum salmon per hour of fishing time."

So, gillnetters are the guys bringing local fish to local residents. They won't let them fish on Thursdays or Fridays. So much for fresh fish at Saturday markets around Puget Sound.

Purse seiners can't fish on those days either, but..... who cares about freshness when they put 'em into a freezer and ship 'em to China!!! 

Seiners have always worked Puget Sound. Last year there were boat getting 70k per set during the sockeye craziness.
There is not difference between where the fish coming off the seiners are going vs the gill netters. Almost all those boats off load to tenders and the are brought to shore for processing. Fish that is caught on Tuesday probably wont hit a supermarket shelf till Friday or later. Here is a rough time tine for you:
Tuesday fish caught by fishing vessel and off loaded to tender.
Wednesday or Thursday tender off loads with shore plant.
Fish is dressed same day at shore plant b/c roe is big money right now, $8-13/lb green depending on quality.
Thursday fish is trucked from primary processor to the seafood distributor.
Friday fish is sent out to stores stores will hold fish for 2-5 days trying to sell it.
(this is assuming that the store is local is Seattle. Much of the chum fresh business is in Cali so add 2-4 days for transporting, 6 for east coast)
So a general rule of thumb is all fish is 4 days to 2 weeks old by the time you buy it in the supermarket.

... and I doubt any of the PS chums are going to China b/c the price is stupid high right now. I know that one plant alone processed about 500k round last week. So far fishing has been light and the price high this year.

I knew I asked the right crowd! Thanks FG! Sounds like you're in the business. Apparently there's been some local gill netters down this way that are complaining about unfair fishing practices. Regulations favor the big purse seiners, etc... So I was just wondering whether fishing regulations for those big guys are the same here as they are in open water. Can any commercial fishing boat fish PS? Do they have to follow the seasonal rules, just like us folks in the little itty bitty boats? 

I don't know about differences in types of commercial fishing, but I do know the tribes take a lot more than subsistance levels of fish, and they kill-net a lot of river mouths.  Some tribes (and individual members) are better about following/enforcing the rules they negotiate with the state than others.

OK Fungunnin, been wanting to ask, how do you know so much about the industry?  I'm guessing you work in it?  I always enjoy you ifo.

The salmon fishing in PS falls into two major categories, the Cowboys and the Indians, (before you get grumpy about the verbiage it is nomenclature commonly used in the industry).
Both groups use seiners and gill nets though the the natives have a higher % of gill net boats and only a few seiners that the Lummi Tribe operates. All the openers are for a specific length of time and there for if you are able to harvest fish faster you could theoretically catch more fish. Seiners are much more expensive to own and operate and almost all of the boats you see working down here are up in Alaska during the summer. A gill net boat can be a part time thing and are much easier to operate and easier to make money with during a slow season.
Most of the tribes set their own seasons and regulations often working with WDFW. Some do a great job at policing their fishermen some do a good job and some do a crappy job. A guy in out office had a conversation with a fisherman last week that was stripping fish for roe on the water and dumping the carcasses over with no desire to retain the fish even if he could get paid for them. It sucks how little some people care about the resource that employs them. As a gross generalization I would say the quality of the fish that the cowboys bring to market is a definite step about what the native groups do, but several tribes are working to change that.

I work for a secondary seafood processor. We specialize in net weight fish portions for food service and retail, mainly focusing on salmon, halibut, swordfish, mahi, and tuna. I specialize in Northwest species and over see and coordinate all of our productions in Washington, Canada and Alaska.
Before my current job I did retail seafood in Seattle and Bellevue.
If you have a fish info or handling question feel free to fire them off and I'll do my best to answer them or find you a good answer. There is a lot of misinformation in the seafood industry so take everything you hear with a grain of salt and try to find a secondary source to back up anything that you are unsure about the validity of.