Even if every nate caught by a sports fisherman for the last 20 years were released, we would be in the same situation we're in now. Sportsman are responsible for less than 1% of the decline of our native runs. It's the gillnets in the rivers and the gill nets in the salt water that is the problem. Get the gill nets out and every sportsman could keep their limit of natives (should they choose to) and the size of the run would continue to grow. Implementing full C&R will have no impact at all. A small percentage of released fish still die, that is a fact, a much larger percentage of released natives get caught in gill nets. I think many of the people that do keep natives do so because they think they might as well keep it because if it's released some indian will end up selling it for 15 cents a pound. It's hard to avoid that mentality. I've fished the Hoh several times and have seen gill nets strung completely accross the mouth of some creeks and streams that run into the Hoh. How is a released native supposed to get past that to spawn? Again it goes back to rights. As long as Indians have the right to retain natives, so should everyone else. It should be up to the individual to make the right choice.

[This message has been edited by WA fisher (edited 03-20-2001).]