Gillraker,

My orginization is Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA). We are a 501c4 political action orginization representing anglers. What we are not is a group of people who want to come in and tell everyone how to run their state. Rather, we would like to take the information provided form all the anglers here and push that agenda at the political level. We use grass roots backed by direct lobbying. If you have the opportunity to see a copy of "the reel news" we are the cover story this month. We started developing a chapter in the state of Washington about this time last year, and currently I represent about 700 here. Our overall membership is about 100,000 nation wide.

RT:
The first thing we have to do is figure out what NMFS is currently doing. Obviously there has been a press release put out, but I am not really that trusting of those releases to tell the whole story. I have a message out to the RFA director but Jim is in Spain this week for ICCAT meetings (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna) and won't be back until next Tuesday. They work with NMFS all the time and should be able to get the whole story.

The Endangered Species Act is an area I am not real strong in. I know just enough to get by. I would appreciate help from those who know it well, legally and scientifically, so we can really make an educated decission. Not knowing all the information, it looks as if the options are:

1) List all fish, hatchery and wild, as protected.
This option would seem to open up the possibility of too many fish to be endangered except in places like the Methow river in central Washington where hatchery fish are considered vital to rebuilding.

2) De-list all fish and remove any ESA obbligations
This removes some federal control, but it also removes the public perception of fish in trouble. That seem as dangerous as anything to me.

3) Break down the hatchery and wild fish into different ESU's.
This option keeps things as similar to as they are now as we can find. But even as I sit here typing, I can think about questions about wild broodstock programs and hatchery management that would need to be considered.


Once we figure out what to do, that when we start making our impact. Since this is a federal decision, the agencies have to be concerned with the opinions of all the voters not just the voters in the Pacific Northwest. I can provide the infastructure for a grass roots campaign nation wide, and then back that up with direct lobbying by either Jim or Sharon or possibly the firm we retain called Washington Stadegies (or a combination of all three).