RT & Todd,

Yep, fruit of the vine & crystal ball says that we (sport) & tribes catch MORE fish even if hatchery production is halved. Reason: non-treaty commercials retire on their buyout money - those that don't sell may just get legislated out - and the overall harvest rate on hatchery fish is limited by the allowable incidental harvest on ESA fish. Sport incidental mortality remains low under this scenario, and treay incidental mortality drops to zero (due to fish sorting at Bonneville). Harvestable number of hatchery runs will be about 80 to 90% of the hatchery run. Treaty fishermen can take everything that the sport fishery leaves, which is most of the fish, and the hatchery spawner need which is only about 10, maybe 20% of the run.

Money may not buy love, but it sure influences business decisions. The tribes would get the best of both worlds - exercising their cultural heritage of fishing and making more money from fishing, or at least catching more fish.

There are no losers, except for the loss of "psuedo" cultural heritage of non-treaty gillnetting. But they get bought out at fair market value. It's hard to call that hurt.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.