Washington releases northern pike response plan

Washington fisheries officials have drafted a plan that lines out how they’ll respond if northern pike invade more waterbodies in the state.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is taking public comment on its draft Interagency Northern Pike Rapid Response Plan, which outlines how the agency will work with tribes and other government agencies to manage the spread of northern pike and develop long-term management plans for the predatory species.

Chris Donley, WDFW’s Eastern Region Fish Program Manager, said the rapid response plan is meant to give officials clear guidelines for dealing with any new finds, particularly in the portion of the Columbia River basin that is home to anadromous runs of salmon and steelhead that could be especially vulnerable to the introduction of pike.

“It’s the structured approach to how we’ll respond to the fish as they expand into other parts of the basin,” Donley said.

Northern pike are a non-native, predatory fish species with big teeth and a voracious appetite. They can live longer than 20 years and grow to more than 45 pounds.

They were illegally introduced decades ago in river systems in Montana that drain into the Columbia basin, and they’ve since shown up in the Pend Oreille and Spokane rivers and in the Columbia River upstream of Grand Coulee Dam.

Pike have also been found in Lake Washington in King County. In recent weeks, the fish was also detected in a pond on San Juan Island.

Because they feed on other fish, pike pose a threat to species that fishery managers want to preserve, such as salmon and rainbow trout.

In some cases, WDFW has used an EPA-approved fish poison to eradicate the fish in some lakes. Poison operations were conducted on Fish Lake in Spokane County in 2012 and in the Lead King Lakes in Pend Oreille County in 2015.

But that solution isn’t right for all waterbodies where pike are found, in part because the poison affects all fish in a waterbody and not just pike.

WDFW and tribal officials have been gillnetting the fish in the Pend Oreille River and Lake Roosevelt for years, hoping to crater the population and keep it from spreading downstream.

Donley said tens of thousands of pike have been caught by the nets in each effort, and the work has shown some signs of success.

In the Pend Oreille River, he said, fish species like trout, bass and whitefish that are easy prey for pike have rebounded, and anglers are seeing far fewer pike. In Lake Roosevelt – the reservoir on the Columbia River behind Grand Coulee Dam – the catch rates of pike in the gillnets has decreased significantly.

But eradication via gillnets is impossible, which means the effort has to continue. It also means there’s still a risk that the fish could eventually get washed downstream by high water or be illegally transported into the lower Columbia system, where Donley said they would pose a major threat to salmon and steelhead.

“They’re voracious predators, and they’re going to eat a lot of smolts,” Donley said. “We’ve already got enough problems with salmon survival.”

A pike detection in the lower Columbia River would likely involve coordination between WDFW, the state of Oregon and tribes that haven’t worked with the state agency on controlling the aquatic predators before.

The plan is meant to build a structure for the response to such a detection, and to make sure all the appropriate governments are involved in the process.

The draft released Thursday lays out processes and protocols for reporting and confirming the presence of pike in a waterbody.

It also lays out what comes after a detection is confirmed, such as setting up an incident command system and deciding what actions are best for controlling the invasion.

WDFW’s draft plan is available online at wdfw.wa.gov/publications/02490. Public comment is open until March 19.

Comments can be submitted online at publicinput.com/NPikePlan; by emailing NPikePlan@PublicInput.com; or by mail to Lisa Wood, SEPA/NEPA Coordinator, WDFW Habitat Program, Protection Division, P.O. Box 43200, Olympia, WA 98504.