Okay, Bob... my apologies if i am violating any rules, but this is one issue I am passionate about, so I figured this post (borrowed from the Hey TRBO thread) deserves its own thread:

Just to set the record straight, I would like to share a few examples of exactly how "selective" the Cook Inlet sockeye gillnets can be. Consider first that nearly 22,000 kings have already been "incidentally" harvested by these "selective" nets... and that's just the ones reported. Countless others are retained for personal use or sold under the table. Then there are the "lucky" escapees that undergo varying degrees of bodily mutilation in their bold quest to make their way toward the rivers of their birth.


Let's start with a mild case of mid-body net-scarring. This is a classic injury as the area immediately fore and aft of the dorsal represents the area of maximum girth. If the fish is of sufficient size and strength, and not too badly tangled ( and that's a mighty big "if" folks), it can bust thru the mesh without much further damage.



This next guy didn't fare as well as the previous hen. His problems started just behind the pectoral fins. The net scars just got deeper as he pushed his way thru, until running into an impasse at the dorsal fin. At that point the fish thrashed violently, shredding the flesh on the dorsal fin right down to the bone and severely entangling everything aft of the dorsal in the net as well. Through shear determination (and thankfully dumb ignorance of the outright mutilation being inflicted by its attempts to escape) this powerful fish was able to bust its way through the "selective" mesh to cheat death for the moment. To me it looks like the fish was dipped tail first into a king-sized garbage disposal. Reminds me of a recent Mel Gibson movie I saw this spring. This salmon's body may as well have been filleted wide open to allow maximal penetration of the river's ever-flowing bacterial, fungal, and viral load. In other words, this fish is dead of overwhelming infection long before it is ripe enough to spawn.



Finally, I want to show another common injury whereby the fish gets "flossed" by a gillnet. The fish keeps pushing forward until the mesh lodges in the corner of the jaw, thereby snaring the fish across the eyes and over the top of the head simultaneously. Not pretty. Without the protection afforded by fish scales, the mesh lacerates through the naked skin surface, gouging out the periocular tissues as well as creating deep fungating ulcers on top of the head. Such injuries dramatically increase the fish's risks of acute orbital cellulitis, infectious encephalitis and ultimately neurologic damage that impairs its muscle function and swimming ability. Simply said.... it's dead... and long before it ever sets fin on a spawning bed.



Comments, anyone?