CnF,

Liberal guilt? I doubt it; just rational and objective. I wouldn't want to get over that. I think I am living life to the fullest. I fish, and that provides me endless satisfaction. And I also find amusement, perverse I suppose, in the endless rantings about Indian fishing.

You must admit; Potter's got a point. The Quinault Tribe gillnets the Queets, Quinault, and Humptulips Rivers, and all these rivers have, in general, healthy wild runs of salmon and steelhead. If treaty Indian gillnetting were inherently inconsistent with fish conservation requirements, how could this be?

The facts are different than what some of us prefer to believe. Treaty Indian gillnet fishing is not inherently at odds with fish conservation. - - As long as the requisite number of adult spawners escape the fishery to successfully reproduce. Treaty Indian gillnet fishing is directly at odds, however, with the maximum possible sportfishing opportunity and success that would be possible in the absense of the nets. That is a key difference in impact. The impact that seems to have many of you upset is the impact to the sport fishery, which is reduced by the amount of the treaty catch, moreso than any impact to fish conservation.

I fish rivers that are gillnetted by treaty fishermen, and I catch some fish. Do I think I might catch even more fish if the nets weren't there? Of course I do! But we're a nation of laws, and the law protects treaty fishing. Just as it allows dimwits like Shrub to become president (small political editorial). So accept it.

Actually, I rather suspect that as long as there are any adult salmon and steelhead lost to causes other than an angler's hook, there will be ranting on this and other bulletin boards. It's human nature. It's so much easier to look outward for the cause of all the problems we perceive. Not so pleasant to turn inward and discover that each one of us contributes, in some way, to the causes associated with the abundance, or lack thereof, of fish.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

[This message has been edited by Salmo g. (edited 12-21-2000).]