On Weds. and Thursday I fished the lower Columbia out of Cathlamet. The fishing was terrible, but there seemed to be lots of fish aroound - at least according to my electronics. Near Skamokawa I saw a strange looking boat, recognized it from a distance as a purse sein type boat and went over to see what was going on. WDFW was conducting selective harvest research from this miniature seiner using an approximate (my guess) 500 foot long net. I watched intently as they finished one drift and carefully sorted the wild fish from the hatchery. My estimate, again, was about 70% Coho and a15% each of steelhead and Chinook from a catch of about 35 fish. I was impressed by the effectiveness of the gear. I also chatted with the crew a little bit and they said that on one drift they landed 82 total fish! I watched them use a dip net to release the wild fish with very little stress to them. It also appeared that the type of seine that they used imparted almost no scale loss. I thihnk this type of gear may have a real future for selective fishing on the Columbia. At least if someone says it does not, I know that will be false.