Congratulations Nate! Like you, I have no connections with the fishing industry. However it seems to eat up a lot of my disposable income and what little free time I have. You can be assured that next year I will be applying to be on the Sportfishing Advisory Board and maybe the Stealhead and Cutthroad Advisory Panel. Keep us posted on your findings.

I have only attended the one Sportfishing meeting and it appears that Preston is correct that they only focus on salmon fishing. I wasn't aware of the Steelhead and Cutthroat Advisory Panel either. I do know that the same request for nominations as the Sportfishing Advisory Board was also asking for nominations for a similar entity related to Commercial Fishing. I am surprised that these groups exist and so many of use were unaware. It doesn't seem that WDFW has been making this process very public.

Preston. In further reviewing the list of members given to me by Pat Patillo with others who know more of the players in this game, I am of the opinion that many of the most outspoken people may not have been members of the board at all but were sitting in like myself. I don't know many of the names on the board but you may recognize some. I have since been told that a number of the members are, as you say, charterboat operators, guides, resort owners and marine trade association members. This is just my opinion, but these guys are every bit as "commercial" as the netters. They make a living off of this resource and their primary interest is likely to be the almighty dollar and not the conservation and restoration of the resource. Am I off base in this assumption?

There was however, a very heavy contingent of people from the commercial fishing industry involved in the discussions. I don't know these people by name but it was very apparent that they were commercial fishermen and there agenda was to be sure that we (they) catch every last fish of the non-tribal 50%. There was an older lady that appeared to be a representative from a netting group, 3-4 gillnetters from the Grays Harbor area and a couple of netters who were familiar faces (don't know names) that we came toe to toe with during I-696 debates and rallies. I will request a list of attendees from Pat and try to list them in a later post.

Members of the board are as follows: Dan Ayers, Bordy Bentler, Larry Carpenter, Mark Cedergreen, John Edmonds, James Hearn, John Hjort, Rich Kato, Gary Krein, Dan Leinan, Clyde McBrayer, Chris Mohr, Keith Robbins, Bill Robinson, Jack Scherting, Dave Shorett, Butch Smith, Fred Swanstrom, Frank Urabeck, Steve Watrous, Ed Wickersham, Vernon Young and Phil Anderson.