The Nez Perce Tribe opened its ongoing gill-net fishery without a federal permit allowing its members to catch and kill protected wild steelhead.

But the tribe isn't the only government entity operating steelhead fisheries in the Snake River basin without take permits from the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Both Oregon and Washington lack formal permits allowing sport anglers licensed by the states to incidentally kill wild steelhead while fishing for their hatchery cousins.

Idaho has such a permit but has conducted previous steelhead seasons without one.

Take permits are required for a wide range of activities that could result in the harm or death of fish protected by the Endangered Species Act. For example, the permits are needed for the operation of hatcheries or dams, dredging projects, timber sales and fishing seasons. The permits allow those who hold them to kill a certain number of the protected wild fish without violating federal law.

Although Oregon, Washington and the tribe lack take permits for steelhead fisheries in the Snake River, they each have permit applications filed with the agency in charge of protecting threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead runs. A National Marine Fisheries Service official said the agency is in frequent contact with all three and is monitoring the fisheries.

"All of the parties are carefully watching and tracking how things are going. We have an obligation to protect the fisheries resource," said Rob Jones, chief of the hatcheries and inland fisheries branch for the NMFS at Portland, Ore. "We also have an obligation to comply with our treaties and also take our obligation to provide public fishing opportunities seriously and are not interested in getting in the way of public or tribal fishing for no good reason."

Jones said his agency collaborated with the states and tribes on the design of their fisheries and would seek a stop to fishing if harvest on wild runs became too high.

"We are certainly going to speak with the tribe or state about what to do including whether the fishery should close immediately."

The agency has a backlog of take permits. The process is lengthy and is supposed to include a public comment period. But fishing seasons and other activities often start before the process can be completed.

"It's a common problem. The states, the feds and the tribes are all short-staffed and are faced with much, much more work than we can complete in a timely manner," he said.

"It's not uncommon for us to get a proposal from the states or tribes for a fishery but there is just not sufficient time to get it through the system and public comment period and dot all the i's and cross all the t's before the fishery starts."

A fisheries manager for Washington said the state submitted a permit application for its Snake River steelhead fishery with the federal agency but it wasn't acted on

"We have done everything in our power to get what they need in front of them for their review," said John Whalen, regional fish manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife at Spokane.

The tribe opened a commercial gill-net season targeting hatchery steelhead last month. Tribal members who are issued fishing permits from the tribe are allowed to use gill nets to catch steelhead in the Snake and Clearwater rivers. The tribe, working with NMFS officials, has given itself a quota that essentially dictates fishing will end if and when tribal fishers catch 1.75 percent of the wild run of steelhead in the Snake River and its tributaries.

Gill nets work when fish nose their heads through the openings in the mesh nets while trying to swim upriver. If a fish is too large to pass through the nets, its gills are snagged when it tries to back out. The gills become inoperable and the fish suffocates.

Sport fishing seasons are known as selective. Anglers are required to use barbless hooks so they can release all wild steelhead they catch. But fisheries managers assume some of the released wild fish die from injury or exhaustion.

Last week the tribe reported its fishermen had caught one fish, a wild steelhead, in the ongoing gill-net fishery. Last year, tribal fishermen caught one hatchery steelhead during its gill-net season.

The take permit held by Idaho allows 3.2 percent of the wild run to be killed in its fishery. Fisheries managers assume about 5 percent of the wild fish caught and released by anglers end up dying. Based on those numbers, anglers are allowed to handle, or catch and release, about 65 percent of the wild run without exceeding the state's permit.

Even though Oregon and Washington lack take permits, their fisheries are conducted based on similar numbers.

Tribal officials say their fishery has being analyzed in real time, versus state fisheries more often analyzed after fishing has ended. To that end, the tribe is pointing out Idaho, in recent seasons, has exceeded the number of wild fish anglers licensed by the state are allowed to handle.

"It's not something we want to bust their chops on," said David Johnson, director of the tribe's fisheries department. "We are just trying to let the regular angler know that 'yeah, just in your catch-and-release, in your hook-and-line fishery, you have an incidental impact you might not be aware of.' The fact of the matter is hook-and-line fishing has more impact on wild runs than the tribe's proposed fishery."

Pete Hassemer, anadromous fish manager for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at Boise, acknowledged the state has exceeded its handling rate for wild fish from time to time. But he said the state's take permit is conservative because it's based on a higher mortality rate for wild fish than is likely occurring. He also said its end-of-the-season projections of the number of wild fish handled by anglers are also high.

Part of that is due to a tribal program that leads to the release of many hatchery fish each year not marked by having their adipose fins removed. The fish are not marked so they can escape the sport fishery and have a chance to spawn in the wild. The program, known as supplementation, is designed to boost wild runs.

But Hassemer said when those fish get caught and handled by sport anglers they are considered wild even though they are not. The state determines its wild fish handling rate by interviewing anglers and asking them how many wild fish they have caught and released.

"Because we do not ask anglers to distinguish between wild fish and unmarked (hatchery) fish, we believe it does bias our estimate of take high. We don't know how much," he said.