Originally Posted By: AuntyM

...It's far more labor intensive than fishing with a gillnet. It takes a whole lot more time to catch, then hand sort these salmon and as we all know... gillnetters are not particularly interested in fishing if they have to work harder for longer hours for the same amount of fish.
That's also why they aren't jumping for joy to switch methods and why they're resisting.

They believe it will DECREASE the amount of fish they are able to catch unless they treat it like a REAL job.


It's not the labor, it's the capital investment. The gillnetters want to be subsidized for new gear.

Additionally, two articles last week in the Washington media show pretty clearly the commercials want an additional subsidy -- additional ESA impacts for the 'alternative gear' guys as a reward for making the change.

Of course, those extra ESA impacts will not be coming out of the gillnetter's existing share. No, of course not. You will instead see the gillnetters lobbying WA/OR commissions to shave a couple points off sportfishing's share and transferred to this experimental alternative gear fishery.
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