WEST SEATTLE SCENE: Purse-seine fishing

| Seen at sea | West Seattle news

Several WSB readers were startled to see purse-seine fishing off West Seattle these past few days – the photo above was taken from Lincoln Park on Tuesday, and another one came in from Upper Alki today:

Purse-seine fishing uses a net to scoop up the catch, which in this case is the same fish that’s filled Lincoln Park’s north shore with people, pink salmon. According to this state Fish and Wildlife Department document, the commercial season in this part of Puget Sound is in its second of three weeks. We’ve run various photos of this type of fishing off West Seattle over the years, but they’ve historically been later in the year, like these scenes from November 2021.

Lucy August 27, 2025 (4:13 pm)

The nice thing about the purse seiners is that they scoop up fish and throw the smaller ones and the “other” fish back in the water alive. Gill nets kill everything. Big fish, little fish, seals, anything that floats into them. Everything chokes and dies.

PSPS August 27, 2025 (9:10 pm)

Not so “nice” if you’re a shark or a dolphin or a turtle.
- Dwg August 27, 2025 (10:02 pm)
  
  see a lot of turtles around puget sound?
- Brandon August 28, 2025 (7:57 am)
  
  Yeah don’t want to get entangled in those pods of puget sound dolphins
  - West Marge August 29, 2025 (1:10 pm)
    
    My daughter and I were down at the beach just a few weeks ago and saw a pod of porpoise. So, yeah, we have dolphins
Dane August 27, 2025 (9:50 pm)

Also not true. Gill nets are designed to catch fish of a specific size. A gill net used for pink salmon can’t catch a seal or dolphin. They can’t even catch a Chinook.
TQ August 29, 2025 (10:17 am)

That’s not really correct at all. Gillnets can be selective in regards to what they catch based on their mesh size.

Mike August 27, 2025 (4:37 pm)

Saw this yesterday. Thought it was a purse seiner.

Tracey August 27, 2025 (5:29 pm)

And here I thought a purse was seen fishing. Wouldn’t that be cool. Teach computers to think for us and purses to fish. Not a fisherman obviously.

anonyme August 28, 2025 (6:37 am)

Both purse seine and gill net fishing are non-discriminatory as to either size or species, regardless of the net design or mesh size, according to NOAA. Commercial fisheries like to say that purse seine fishing is more eco-friendly, but that’s just hype. Wherever there is human greed, deception is likely to follow. Meanwhile, Earth Overshoot Day fell on July 24th this year. Earth
Overshoot Day is the calculated calendar date on which humanity’s
resource consumption for the year exceeds Earth’s capacity to regenerate
those resources that year. There’s nothing humane about humanity.

TQ August 29, 2025 (2:53 pm)

Incorrect all around, if you’re going to spout off on a subject at least be somewhat informed or educated in it. Because spewing nothing but fabricated nonsense in it to push your false narratives isn’t a good look. Purse seiners can easily and successfully release any fish that is a non targeted species.

Sorry, comment time is over.