A fisher was seen mending his net on the beach by VanderYacht Park. A rarely seen sight in Ferndale north of Hovander Park.
Ben Jules, Jr had made 10 sets before catching the underwater snag that tore his net Friday afternoon. By then he had two salmon in the boat including a king he posed with for a picture.
According to Jules, people assume he is fishing illegally when they see his gill nets this far north of Slater Road. Lummi Nation fishers typically set their nets between Marine Drive and the “big bend,” located a quarter mile north of Slater Road. But Jules is a member of the Nooksack Nation and he told Discover Ferndale they fish upstream from where the Lummis set their nets. He is easy to identify too, he said while pointing to the “NKK” suffix on his boat’s vessel ID which identifies him as a Nooksack tribe member.
According to Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission’s North Sound Information Officer Kari Neumeyer,
Click for more information
Click for more informationOne of the main misconceptions people have when they see a net is that it catches all the fish trying to swim through. That’s simply not true. Despite what the floats look like on top of the water, the nets do not stretch across the whole river.
Click here to view the most recently published List of Agreed Fisheries (PDF) as agreed on between Washington State and the tribes (relevant section about the Nooksack River through Ferndale can be found on pages 11 to 14).