Rich

It has always been about $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!

The big money in the past, (commercial dollars) has always spoken the loudest and you can bet your last dollar the commercial boys used the Magnuon Act to it fullest to promote there own fishery.

Only recently with the certain species being listed under the ESA, has that begin to change. In my opinion, the problem is that the "Magnuon Act" is still being used to justify the indiscriminate taking of species, because no one has yet challenged it or how it's management is being missed used by WDFW. You got to remember that it wasn't that long ago when we were being managed under two different methods and agencies (WDG and WDF)

When it came to fish, WDF had always had the clout and powers to maintain the MSY mindset (commercial mindset). In the past, WDF overruled WDG on anything that effected salmon and there harvest. Harvest was there one and only goal, and they did it at the highest MSY possible. That's why we had so many hatcheries on river systems that really didn't need them. They needed the "water" from those rivers to run the hatcheries for the commercial fisheries. Any fish that sport fishers caught were just excess hatchery needs!

When the big merger was made, most of the top fish managers in WDF pretty much held onto there jobs, and we are still operating under many of there old mindsets and policies. We are now slowly moving away from some of there "old ways", and people (sport fishers) are finally beginning to understand what the real imbedded problems are.



Cowlitzfisherman