Wow, two comedians.

Re:the face off article. Proposed initiative wont happen this year. 2011 is an off year. Therefore 2012.

What should bother you is the idea of fighting about the two proposals for the next two fking years.

At this point the safe areas appear to have the edge. They are adding surplus fish with two hatcheries and the only disadvantage is the waiting period for the fish to return and providing enough so the commercials will get an even trade for the harvest they would lose in the main stem.

If you go back and read the article on page two, it refers to Hudson who is playing the victim card about tribal fisheries. More likely, some of the tribe just dont want to give up gillnetting and they never wanted mark selective fish. (a battle they lost).

Selective gear must continue to move forward because the tribes in Washington are co-managers and they are required to reduce their ESA impacts. Tribes that will adopt it, not only for wild fish separation but species separation. (the muckleshoots did not net the Green last year, to protect wild steelhead) Yet, in order to get the sport harvest open on the green for humpys, sporties had to reduce the size of the hook to a half inch gap, to reduce snagging of the chinook, that the tribe was concerned about in NOF. This year the tribe is waiting for in season population updates before they fish, according to Steve T from the dept, who spoke to the Renton PSA club.

IF we could benefit from bay area selective harvest in Grays harbor County and Pacific County (where they dont use the CR allocation method) it benefits the fish if the tribes fish selectively. It keeps the season open longer for sports.

How can we pressure BC and Ak to stop fishing over lower 48 fish, if we will not adopt selective gear? By fishing near fresh water, they are catching mature fish and not our lower 48 fish. They could set slot limits and scan fish for clipped fish and tagged fish. Whatever is possible, they have more options than using gillnets. The Troll fishery is SE AK is a different animal.

Admittedly, the AK BC is just an idea with no knowledge of the agreement, but so far, we get back less than half the fish. Letting the perfect stand in the way of the good, over a few fish in the columbia is rather short sighted. It also affects Puget Sound. There isnt much point in spending a lot of money on habitat, if you wont let the fish get back to it.