Most of the Columbia River gillnet boats are now owned by big-money investors looking for ways to write off large sums of business losses to counterbalance their gains in other areas. They're doctors, attorneys, people like that. This is why they continue to go out, year after year, losing large sums of money in the process. This is also why they will pay the premium to buy the tangle nets instead of fighting it.

If these were solely family operations then they would have quit a long time ago.

Last year with the price of silvers bottoming out the gill-netters were continuing to fish because it meant greaters losses=greater write-offs for the boat owners. In Portland when the homeless camp was being moved around town and they were headline news for awhile the gill-netters took advantage of the opportunity to get press about their "plight" and donated fish to the camp.

The arguement about "gill-netting for the family heritage aspect" is a cover for what is really going on, and what is really going on smells to no end.