To piggy-back ib Rirguy again (a really smart dude who has been around the block a lot) not only is the gill net itself low-tech and inexpensive but so is the boat. It is a portable one-person show.

To put it in rec terms, would you rather have a really spiffy, fully loaded boat capable of doing the Big Blue in most any condition but be confined to there and have to take three or four of your closest buddies out every time. Or, hip boots, set of various sized rods, and have access to anyplace you could walk or wade?

The Indian fishery is actually closest to the ideal commercial harvest. Localized and terminal. The further you move away from the river itself, the more problems arise in mixed stocks and timing.

For example, the NI commercial fishery on South Sound chum use to occur primarily in areas 10 and 11 where all the SS stocks were mixed. But, they all didn't have the same timing. The NI fishery could, and used to, clobber Kennedy Creek which was the earliest Fall chum. Completely missed Skookum, which was the latest. Fisheries in the appropriate inlets would allow for each stock to be optimally harvested while going lightly or not at all on those in trouble.

The whole management paradigm for Pacific Salmon needs a very holistic review. Won't happen because those doing the most damage have the most money and influence (and I don't mean the Tribes).