Hairlip,

By law there is no non-tribal commercial steelhead fishery...the only ones they catch in nets are in the Columbia River, and they are caught incidentally during legal salmon fisheries, not as targets. The to catch is controlled by the feds through the ESA, as all those fish are listed.

As noted here and elsewhere, the WSC is intimately involved with trying to stop as much of the incidental bycatch of those fish as is possible. The only way to stop it completely would be to pass another B.A.N. Initiative so as to completely outlaw commercial fishing.

While the WSC would probably support such a measure, it's way outside of our charter to take the lead on such a project.

As far as the tribal share goes, as you know, no one but the United States Congress can stop them from catching it with nets. Negotiations can work, though, and part of the push for WSR is to get that rolling. Remember the statement from the Quileutes when WSR passed? They were afraid that the general public would "resent" them for exercising their treaty rights now that WSR had passed.

D@mn right! With WSR they are the ONLY ones directly harvesting wild steelhead...of course it makes them look bad...and it would open the door for negotiations.

On the other question, in no way, shape, or form have I given any advice or consultation to anyone on the Commission about this rule. I've been asked several times about that on this BB and others, and the answer has always been the same..."no". They have their own attorneys...

On a different thread I wrote a very long rant about being tired about being asked questions like that about making the sportsmen "ben dover". Please read it...it talks about all the stuff that I am doing with the WSC right now, and asks for everyone else to step up and either get your own clubs involved, or join one that is involved, or get some work done on your own.

There is A LOT more going on RIGHT NOW than just wsr, this is one of many, many issues that the WSC is dealing with. Check them out on the other thread.

Fish on...

Todd