Todd,

The 1979 U.S. Supreme Court ruling lumped on and off reservation treaty fishing all together, along with commercial, ceremonial, and subsistence as part of the 50% treaty fishing right. So I don't think the fishing location in Fife is relevant. What counts is whether the Tribe officially opened the water to fishing for a specific purpose. If they didn't then it's poaching.

X-Floridian,

A net in river is factually no more a good or bad thing than a hook in a river. It's a matter of values and to whom the values belong. Catching a fish never did a fish any favor. What matters to the health of any fish population is its productivity and having sufficient spawning escapement to achieve that productivity. Fish in the population above that necessary to seed the available habitat are called "surplus production" by fisheries management. It is from that number of fish that harvest can be taken, whether it is treaty, non-treaty, commercial, ceremonial, subsistence, recreational, or incidental catch and release mortality. How surplus production is used or not used is a human value judgement and has next to nothing to do with biology or ecosystem management.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

[This message has been edited by Salmo g. (edited 03-27-2001).]