2008 Wild Salmon Hall of Fame Winner Announced

In a gala ceremony hosted by the Pacific Northwest Salmon Center of Belfair, a new inductee was announced for the Wild Salmon Hall Fame. The 2008 winner is Christine Keff, Chef and Owner of Flying Restaurant in Seattle.

Chef Christine Keff has dedicated her culinary career to sustainability and sustainable seafood. She has been serving only wild-caught salmon since 1996 in her award-winning restaurant Flying Fish, establishing herself as a leader in seafood sustainability and the food service industry. She and her staff have been sharing the story of wild salmon and sustainability from the Northwest one plate at a time.

Christine Keff launched her culinary career in 1978. She worked in New York City for 10 years, developing the concepts, menus and assisting in the full design and development for 3 restaurants.

From 1987 to 1988, Keff traveled extensively throughout the United States and Asia, spending time in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia before relocating to Seattle where she had a vision to combine her culinary travels with a passion for the fantastic products of Pacific Northwest. Achieving a lifelong ambition, Chef Christine Keff opened Flying Fish in July of 1995. In 1996, she took farmed salmon off the menu. She has received national attention as Seattle's seafood expert.

In 2005, Flying Fish marked it's 10th anniversary with celebratory events and monumental undertakings that include Keff's subsidizing of an 18-acre farm in the Kent Valley, south of Seattle, which provides the certified naturally grown produce for the restaurant and converting 100% of the restaurant's raw ingredients to being 100% organic or harvested in the wild. When Keff is not attending meetings, speaking on organics or seafood sustainability or representing the Pacific Northwest at national conferences as the area's premier seafood expert, she is teaching cooking classes at Flying Fish. She hosts cooking classes/luncheons every year to which local fishermen are invited to discuss life as a commercial fisherman and the importance of wild salmon to the Pacific Northwest. Chef Keff offers educational information to consumers on subjects such as sustainability, the sources of her products and how they were harvested.

Chef Keff regularly offers her time and talent to numerous fundraising & non-profit groups that include support of Seattle's Neighborhood Farmer's Market Alliance, Lifelong AIDS Alliance, Share Our Strength, the Women's Funding Alliance and Long Live the Kings.

Four other finalists were honored at the event: Don Bayes, Rick Endicott, Dick Knight and Earl Sande.

Don Bayes has given much of his professional and personal life to salmon. Don Bayes worked as the agriculture and conservation teacher at the Stanwood School District from 1967 to 1999. As an educator and active community member he has taught thousands of students the importance of conservation, raised thousands of dollars for salmon projects, and established a continuing stream restoration program that has sparked international recognition. In 1978, he developed a plan using the degraded Church Creek, a tributary to the Stilliguamish River, as a living laboratory for his students. Through a program that continues today as a part of the school district's curriculum, students have learned first hand about their watershed and seen it improve from their activities. Don was awarded a gold medal by the Washington State Future Farmers of America for "Building Our American Community" in 1989. Also in that year, the Washington Department of Ecology presented Don with its "Citizens Improving the Environment Award."Although Don is now retired, he is still charging up and down the stream, meeting landowners, working with students, and helping us protect our watersheds.

Rick Endicott lives and breathes salmon. As a lifelong resident of the Hood Canal and an employee of Long Live the Kings, Rick demonstrates his love for fish, the landscape it inhabits, and his commitment to the restoration of both, every day. For 15 years, Rick was a hatchery manager for the WA Dept of Fish & Wildlife. In 1993, Long Live the King's purchased property on the Lilliwaup Creek and Rick became the manager of their Lilliwaup Hatchery with the goal of salmon recovery. Since 1998, he has staffed the Hamma Hamma Winter Steelhead Project, which has resulted in the return of a Steelhead run that was imperiled just 10 years ago. He has been a board member of the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group since 1994. Rick shares the work of Long Live the Kings and HCSEG with key stakeholders, partners, and community members, and he hosts visitors to the Lilliwaup Hatchery and Hamma Hamma River, where he shares the principles of "Hatchery Reform" and the ways in which hatchery rearing, in conjunction with habitat recovery, can be a part of the solution to declining wild runs.

Dick Knight was a lifetime fly fisher and fly tier, and an avid volunteer with a passion for photography and videography. He is well known for his beautiful underwater photography of salmon in their natural habitat. After retiring as an environmental engineer, he moved to the Skagit Valley. He immediately offered his knowledge and expertise to local organizations working to protect and enhance salmon populations. He spent 10 years as a passionate and extremely dedicated volunteer, helping the smallest non-profit to local, state and federal agencies. Dick passed away on September 4th, 2007 at the age 72 leaving behind a legacy of community members who were introduced to the wonders of our rivers and creeks through his knowledge. With his passion for capturing salmon on film, he left us with a vast collection of beautiful photos and videos. He created the spectacular video "Salmon in the Skagit." At the time of his death, he was the current President of the Regional Fisheries Enhancement Group Coalition and founding member and President of the Skagit Conservation Education Alliance. He volunteered for the Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group, the Skagit Conservation District, People for Puget Sound, The US Forest Service, North Cascades National Park, the Skagit River Interpretive Center, and the North Cascades Institute.

Earl Sande grew up near Tahuya on the waters of the Hood Canal. He is a lifelong fisherman and hunter with a passion for history and salmon restoration. Growing up, Earl worked with his Grandparents, Uncle and Father in a boat building business on Hood Canal building cedar strip boats and the famous Sande Ace. It was here that he learned the mechanics of boats, but also of the treasure of wild salmon and the fragile environment that was in need of management. In 1988, Earl started his own business, Earl's Marine, working on Mercruiser sterndrives. He has worked on over 10,000 boats over the last 37 years. He sat on the Board of the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group from 1994 to 2007. Earl has volunteered for many salmon projects, raising and releasing Chinook salmon from "Remote Salmon Incubators" in the Union, Tahuya, and Dewatto Rivers for HCSEG. For over 8 years, he has been writing a column for Terry Mosher's Sports Paper. The columns have covered subjects from frogs to oysters, but the primary focus has been salmon.

This year marks the 6th annual Wild Salmon Hall of Fame awards, established by the Salmon Center to recognize individuals across the Pacific Northwest for their dedication to Wild Salmon. Selection criteria used for the award are: 1) Demonstrates a passion for Wild Salmon either in career or volunteer work; 2) Enhances public knowledge and appreciation of Wild Salmon; Creates a tangible, measurable outcome such as a book, artwork, event, or significant project, and 4) Fosters a positive influence in their profession or the community.

David Montgomery, Director of the Quaternary Research Center and a professor in the Department of Earth & Space Sciences at the University of Washington was the keynote speaker for the event. He is the author of King of Fish: The Thousand Year Run of Salmon and Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations.

Guests also heard from Chris Endresen, State Director for Senator Maria Cantwell who spoke about Sen. Cantwell's efforts toward salmon protection. The Senator has just sponsored the Pacific Stronghold Conservation Act of 2008 which will establish a federal program through an interagency, state, tribal and non-governmental-organization Partnership Board to support the protection and restoration of a network of the healthiest remaining wild Pacific salmon ecosystems in North America-"Salmon Strongholds." These Salmon Strongholds will sustain core centers of wild salmon abundance, productivity and diversity, reflecting a basic principle of conservation biology: protect the best, first.

The event was sponsored by Kitsap Bank, Waste Management and Petersen Chiropractic and included silent auction donations from Sage Fly Fishing, Bay Street Outfitters, Olympia Federal Savings, Nanstad Winery, Fish Tale Brewery, North Bay Mortgage, Morningside Bakery, Starbucks and by Board of Directors of the Pacific Northwest Salmon Center. Nominations for the 2009 award will be accepted beginning in January. Contact Michelle Hori at 360-275-2763 for more information.