If Ive got this right, you alll see a correlation between tribal casinos, tribal members casino cash disbursements, and tribal commercial fishing.
Could be right, maybe.
If all it took to suspend tribal commercial fishing, was the almighty $buck, it could only cost about $4.8 billion per year. In the scheme of all things federal, thats not a lot, but the federal fish guys would rather spend that money in a manner more self-perpetuating and benefical. Besides, federal $$ is a simple matter of power brokerage, and the Pacific Northwest doesnt have that much influence or clout.
And with the onset of commercial fish ranching, commercial "wild" fishing may become all but extinct, before the runs do. So what's the problem?
The problem is that the most harmful tribal fishery is not the tribal indians themselves, but non-indians, somehow connected to the tribes by marriage or whatever, fishing because that's the only way they know to make a living, or at least the easiest. They dont qualify for federal $$ or casino $$, so they'll continue to fish, and regardless of the price per lb.. If the price is down, they'll simply harvest more to make up the $difference.
Then there's the international fishery on the high seas. You aint seen a war like the one we could start by shutting them down. There are simply too many mouths to feed on the western rim of the pacific, dependent upon "our" salmon, who dont care about our petty little domestic problems.
Another day I'll get into the matter of predation by protected marine mammals, but right now Ive got writers cramp.
I wasnt gonna post this, but this morning's coffe got the best of me. So, so much for one man's point of view...