I found the paragraph below just as interesting - "NMFS breaks law". A judge declared they were not properly taking into account the 'by-catch' of non-targeted species by ocean bottom draggers. Could this ruling have an effect on the 'by-catch' of sturgeon during springer gillnetting seasons? And visa-versa? I hope so!

This has not been the first time the NMFS has broken the law either! Both Treaty and Federal laws mandate an equal split of harvestable salmon and steelhead on the Columbia R. and NW Wash. rivers. Yet they have gone along with unfair demands by the Tribal Commissions who have pressured them with threatened lawsuits to get many times more allocation than sportfishers.

RT

[ 10-29-2001: Message edited by: RT i ]