Originally Posted By: Todd
salmon bake, you are the perfect example of why lots of very qualified advocates don't go anywhere near the CCA...and since you asked, I'll tell you what I've done for the LCR fishery, just one example.

I spent nine months traveling to Salem, Troutdale, and Olympia testifying at every meeting regarding the States' attempt to triple the allowable ESA impacts on wild steelhead in order to allow the commercial industry to increase their take of hatchery spring Chinook.

I wrote numerous papers for a few different groups...I represented six when I was at the last Troutdale meeting...I also participated with a few other groups in filing a 60 NOI if the States went forward with it, and helped gather several groups together who were going to sue the feds if they allowed it.

We were successful in stopping it from happening, and that not only preserved thousands of wild ESA steelhead from dying in the "tangle nets", it also preserved better fishing for us in both the LCR springer fishery, the LCR tribs fisheries for springers, and the steelhead fishing in the LCR, middle Columbia, upper Columbia, and all the tribs.



And tangle nets continue to kill thousands of ESA-listed wild winter steelhead each time Region 5 deems there are too many ESA-listed wild spring chinook encountered in the commercial test fishery. If the proportion of wild springers encountered is too high, chinook gillnet mesh is replaced with steelhead gillnet mesh (euphemistically called "selective" tooth or tangle gear).

The only reason to triple the steelhead impact is to accomodate the "tangle" mesh.

No tangle mesh?

No steelhead impact. PERIOD! (OK statistically indistinguishable from ZERO impact)

The push toward selective live-capture gear will be the salvation of the HUGE late-timed wild winter steelhead as well as the giant early timed 3-salt summers that we used to able to count on in SW WA tribs before Mothers Day.



Thanks to those gillnets (that CCA strongly opposes) those fish have been virtually wiped out.

Why would a staunch advocate of wild steelhead look upon the CCA agenda for selective live capture as anything but a Godsend for the Columbia's wild steelhead resource?
_________________________
"Let every angler who loves to fish think what it would mean to him to find the fish were gone." (Zane Grey)

"If you don't kill them, they will spawn." (Carcassman)


The Keen Eye MD
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