Well, as the old saying goes, everyone is entitled to their opinion. Fortunatley, there are fisheries professionals in charge of the Queets Chinook broodstock program. Speaking as a fisheries professional, I happen to value their opinion more than, say, the "person on the street" if you know what I mean. You cannot argue with success or accurate data and this program has both.

Not every gillnet is fished like you, apparently, think it is. And despite what you may think, the use of gillnets is a common broodstock capture technique, for all kinds of different species in all sorts of rivers around the State... Queets Chinook is no exception. Also in contradiction to your opinion, the pre-spawning mortality rate is extremely low for these wonderful fish. Again, you can argue with me... but you cannot argue with success and quality data.

The term gillnet is used to describe the location that the fish is usually entagled... the gills. But not every gillnet is designed to entagle fish around the gills. The gillnet mesh size used in broodstock capture programs is usually smaller than that used for catching fish commercially. Broodstock gillnets are also "hung" differently with more web per length of net than normal. All of this is designed to entangle fish around the snout and/or fins (as opposed to the gills) and the fish will sometimes roll itself up in the web but not actually be "hung up." Because the broodstock crews are right on top of the fish when they hit the net, and becasue they cut the meshes holding the fish immediately, the captured fish is usually out of the net in less than one minute, in a tube (calms them right down) and placed in oxygen enriched water for the ride to the transport truck.

I know these facts do not support the typical rhetoric on this site... but that is precisely why I bother to transfer this type of knowledge.

Not everything is as it seems. People think they see something "bad" and they perpetuate the myth. I suggest we ask questions first... before we rant about what we think we saw.

But, as I have stated above, this is just my opinion. But I have supported my opinion and offered an explanantion of what the sleds and the gillnets are likey doing in the Queets, in the Park. They are collecting fish that are used to produce prodgeny that are tagged which generates a tremendously valuable type of data needed to better management our local wild Chinook stocks.

Have a good day.