In my mind, the only meaningful chinook savings in using tangle nets is PERHAPS a lower encounter rate as the gear may not be as efficient in capturing the fish.

Once encountered, the release mortality comes from the unavoidable physical handling of an already stressed fish. Suspending entangled fish mid-air while busy dealing with other fish already on board... yeah that's real healthy. Just bringing fish over the roller is another added stress. If the fish isn't moving/thrashing, it's probably good as dead. If it is still thrashing, it must be manhandled to disentangle it from the webbing, further contributing to the stress factor. A rec guy isn't even allowed to remove a salmon from the water!

OK it's out of the net, now what? Live boxes? Well, we've all seen how consistently they were (NOT) used in the video. And with all the coho they will have to be dealing with, how much time and care do we expect them to spend on handling/reviving the economically worthless (to them) wild chinook bycatch.

Finally, there's the issue of recapture. Let's be intellectually honest here. When 20+ nets are strung completely across the migratory channel, a released king is as good as dead. This is especially true in the narrow bottleneck we know as area 2A. If he's not dead the first time, he will be by the second or third recapture. The only lucky ones are the ones released from the closing set of the fishing day.
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"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
Long Live the Kings!