A huge thank you to everyone who helped out and participated in the 2011 Resurrection Salmon Derby.

The business owners who made everyone feel welcome, are the Sons of the American Legion, who cooked an awesome breakfast and fired off the starting cannon, Friday Harbor Seafoods for the weigh-in, the Port of Friday Harbor, the Yacht Club and all the volunteers from Puget Sound Anglers who made sure all ran smoothly.

We had over 200 anglers from all over the Northwest and Canada, and all commented how impressed they were with Friday Harbor and the people who work and live here.

These sportfishermen bring a huge monetary boost to our economy in a down time of year and they’ll be back in the summer to spend more time here with their families. That means more dollars in food, goods and services, lodging, fuel and tackle supplies to the town.

The proceeds from the tournament will go to local salmon hatchery programs that are facing deep funding cuts.

It is through grassroots effort like this that we can keep producing healthy salmon for orcas, fishermen, and the entire San Juan Islands ecosystem and economy.

This derby was a selective retention fishery, with only marked, hatchery origin chinook legal to boat. The relatively small amount of fish weighed in during this event is dwarfed by the amount of good we can do by resurrecting healthy stocks of salmon, and improving their habitat.

Looking forward to next year.

Kevin Klein

San Juan Island

(Resurrection Derby Chairman)