Just as on the Columbia River, in an effort to prop up the economic disaster that the non-tribal commercial fishing fleet is, negotiations are taking place to take fish from one place and give them to the tribes (or other interests) so that the non-tribal commercials can get theirs in another place...

...and sportfishermen, not to mention the very conservation and perpetuation of the runs, are being sold down the river to get it done.

This must be addressed, loudly and clearly, at the public meetings are coming up on these issues.

The Commission, while mindful of the economic needs and wants of the commercial fishing industry, doesn't seem to be willing to do this on their own, but the Department has their ear all the time...we only get it at short and random periods.

We really need to make the most of those times, and we really need to ask the Commission to be partners in NOT selling off the fish runs and the sportfishermen to make a quick political buck for the ailing commercial industry.

While the leadership at the Department is so harvest oriented that I don't think they have room to think clearly about sportfishing interests, sportfishing dollars, and the relative low impacts of sportfishing to get those much bigger sportfishing dollars, they don't make the decisions.

The Commission does...and we have to remind them, forcefully, that their charter is NOT to rubber stamp the destructive policies of their Department heads, but it is to look out for the resources and citizens of the entire state.

They are not our enemy...they are the ones who make the decisions, and we have to get them on the side of the most economic, recreational, and conservation/perpetuation ideals that we can present to them.

Our support for them making the right decisions gives them the wherewithall to stand up to the blatant waste of economic and natural resources for the small economic gain of the few, gives them a political and moral crutch to lean on when they say NO to the Director and the policy guys who continue to push these decidedly poor policies.

Write letters, send e-mails, and GO TO THE MEETINGS...and remember, we need to get them on our side, not attack them...they are the decision makers, not the policy makers who come up with these hare-brained schemes.

Fish on...

Todd