Commercial fishing won a big battle in the war over the Columbia River spinger allocation. At the last minute Oregon caved in to the commercials even though they were leaning towards favoring the sports catch all along. The WDFW, of course, will side with commercials as they always do. The end result will be more commercial netting and less sports opportunity on this popular fishery. Since the spring Chinook bring the highest prices for the commercials they can piggyback on the sensational fish farming scare of the past week to really promote "wild" fresh salmon. The NET result will be the possibility of another year of commercial catch rates going way over predictions and then sports seasons being curtailed due to the "emergency". The other NET result will be more killing of ESA listed fish including the fragile steelhead stocks.

Funny isn't it how much attention was given to the study showing that farmed salmon are bad and how little attention the studies showing the potential and real harm to Columbia River stocks get.

The argument made by the commercials was that they had to spend alot of money on the new tangle nets and they need a way to recoup that investment. Geez I spent a fortune on my fishing gear too but can't use that argument to get more time on the water.
The commercial bias is alive and well and MUST be stopped. Get out to the North of Falcon meetings coming up and make it to as many WDFW commission meetings as possible.