I don't think this statement is entirely true. Subsidies don't just take the form of cash payments. It costs this state around $40 to produse an adult salmon, when all costs are considered. When they allow them to be harvested by commercial fleets and sold at a net loss to the state, that is in effect, a subsidy.

You may be right about the shift from ma and pa fishing operations to larger fleet operators, but that is market forces at work and we anglers make up a small portion of the market. The same thing has happened to the American farm. Gone are the family farms to be replaced by large agri-business. It may not be right or desirable, but that's just the way it is. Government intervention into free markets has historically had very little beneficial effect, except to a very small group. On the whole, government intervention has hurt American consumers. It's called "specialization of labor". You build, make, harvest whatever YOU can do best and for the least amount of money. If somebody else can do it cheaper or better, then that's what THEY sould be doing and you should look for something to do that you're best at.

You can't stop time, and you can't stop people from looking for the best deal. Right now, the best deal for fish consumers is not the best outcome for netters. That's the free market. It's not perfect, but have you seen how the communist and socialist countries are doing?