CFM,

Are you indirectly suggesting that sportfishermen who participate in the Columbia R. spring chinook fishery ought to have a rescucitation tank on board to revive the fish they release? The commerical guys do.

There's a fairly obvious reason that you can't apply the exact same rules to both types of fisheries, and that's that the fisheries are quite different.

Non-tribal commercial fisheries aren't allowed to harvest their quota from upstream portions of rivers, while sportfishermen are. Should we allow the commercials up there, too, or should we restrict sporties to the salt water and lower Columbia, as well?

Seems that it would only be fair!

There are numerous other examples that could be made, but I think the point is clear.

I think that your premise is good, that commercials ought to bearing proportionate burden for the damage they do to fish runs, but insisting that the rules be exactly the same is not going to get the job done.

Lobbying for additional time, place, and manner restrictions on commercial fishing is necessary, just realize that the exact same ones we as sporties are restricted to are not the same ones that the commercials should be restricted to.

Fish on...

Todd.