I wonder how you explain to Gov. Locke how 11 marked (either Ad clip or left ventral clip) sockeye were caught on June 29 on a commercial gillnet opening in the Lower Columbia. The regulations called for all marked sockeye to be returned to the water. At least 5 of the fish were proven to be Redfish Lake sockeye, if not more. There were suppose to be either WDFW or ODFW personnel on board but somehow they were late and the fishing vessel left without them. Oddly enough, NMFS had allowed a 5% bycatch rate on the the Redfish Lake sockeye (the same stock that they are trying to protect)but did not seem intrested in this situation. It seems funny how you can harvest endangered sockeye in the lower Columbia that are returning to Idaho but you have to release the "healthy" runs of the upper Columbia (Wenatchee, Okanogan, Osoyoos)if you happen to catch one upstream of the Snake confluence. And on top of all the habitat degradation, we wonder why there are fewer salmon and steelhead returning to our streams.


DaveD