Both this gillnet ban initiative and Gov. Kitzhaber's proposal, mutually exclusive or not, are just smoke and mirrors that won't do anything to help recover ESA fish in the Columbia River.

LB, not sure why you think there's any pressure on tribal fishers to go to seines, because there's not...not any...they could care less what you, the Governor, or the CCA thinks about seines. They only get cues from the Feds, and only a little.

Citori, the Governor's letter is exactly the opposite of "the day the gillnets died"...he's trying to make sure that they don't.

This is just all window dressing, and pretending there's any recovery involved takes a level of misunderstanding that is, unfortunately, common among sportfishers...it hasn't changed in decades, and isn't likely to change, ever, unfortunately.

The effects that the various fisheries have on ESA recovery for the great majority of the Columbia River stocks is approximately "zero" in comparison to all the other things that are causing the decline of those fish stocks every single day, and those who control the actual causes of decline love seeing actual time and energy being put into quibbling over the crumbs.

If you want to make an actual effect on whatever damage the commercial fisheries are doing to the runs (and there certainly is some, it's just not really any worse than what the sportfisheries are doing, and both pale in comparison to the actual damaging causes), then do what is the only thing that makes sense...

Get rid of the non-tribal commercial fisheries in the Columbia River entirely. They serve no purpose other than to enrich a few on the backs of the many.

Period.

The "the public deserves fish!" argument is lame, not to mention wrong, on two levels.

First, no they don't...just like they don't deserve commercially hunted elk, or ducks, or whales.

Second, if they simply must buy a spring Chinook, then the tribal fishery produces plenty of fish for the public, since that's what the tribal fishers do with their catch, sell it to the public.

Killing the fish in one type of net instead of the other doesn't do jackshit.

Why sporties would waste so much time and money pursuing something that is such a waste of time is beyond me, but I suspect it is mainly centered around the fantasy that gillnets are why we have ESA fish runs in the Columbia River.

Fish on...

Todd

P.S. The fact, however, that the Governor would talk about using the fish to accomplish the most economic benefits, which is clearly by allocating them to the sportfishery, is by far the best part of this entire discussion...and lends further reason to get rid of the non-tribal commercial fisheries altogether, not just re-paint their boats and call it good.