You make sense Vhawk, and I appreciate your tone and concession.


I once asked this question of why it couldn't be done with traps and weirs to some tribal officials. Their response was two fold and made me think. First was the fear that if they gave in on the time on the water and how they do it, they would pay hell trying to get it back; witness the Makah trying to whale now. Second was, how do you fairly allocate revenue from the fishing to individual fisherman. Now, with the nets, the ones who work the hardest, invest more time and resources get compensated more. I was a bit disappointed with the raw capitalism of it, but figured that it is the American way.

I understand that sporties get a minimal "share" and support the idea that we should be able to influence how that share is divided up. My interest as a sport fisherman is to limit or eliminate the Non-native commercial fishery, and to that end I support the non commercialization of the resouce. It is our right to try and do that, but I don't personally believe we have the right to tell the Natives how they can get their share.

If the CCA or any other group appears to be trying to take from the Natives in the guise of conservation it could ally the Natives and the Commercial fisherman, and we will surely get our butts kicked. However, if sportfishers came out steadfastly in support of Native fishing rights, and worked to use conservation science with the Natives, who (nets across the river or not) seem to be making more conservation headway than anyone, and are my neighbors, not some foreign import of animal rights activists that will turn on us in the future, it seems to this uneducated fool a reasonable strategy also. This is not possible if we alienate them at every chance we get.