Colville Tribes, States Test 'Selective' Commercial Fishing Gear To Reduce Wild Fish Mortality

Posted on Friday, October 16, 2009 (PST)
http://www.cbbulletin.com/361285.aspx

The notion of harvesting fish from the Columbia River basin with "selective" commercial gear is gaining attention, with central Washington's Colville Tribes among those taking the lead. The ultimate goal is to boost the harvest of hatchery fish while aiding in the conservation of imperiled wild salmon and steelhead stocks.

By picking and choosing what's harvested, fishery managers could better control the straying of hatchery fish onto spawning grounds, and also pluck out enough wild fish to enhance gene pools at hatcheries. The latest science indicates that a mingling of hatchery and wild fish on the spawning grounds can reduce the fitness of the natural
population, while an infusion of wild native genes can likely improve the hatchery product.

"I think it's going to take time, but I think it's going to move forward," the Colville Tribes' Joe Peone said of the desire to see selective techniques employed upstream and downstream by sport and commercial fishers. Peone is director of the tribes' fish and wildlife department.

In the mid-Columbia region where the Colvilles fish, the ability to live capture fish would aid in the recovery of stocks that are protected under the Endangered Species Act, such as Upper Columbia wild spring chinook salmon and steelhead. The wild fish could be released to continue their spawning journey and marked hatchery fish harvested to fill tribal members' stores.

The ideal is to identify gear that can be obtained at relatively low cost and can be operated with high catch rates and high fish release survival.

"You can use a whole range of gears in different areas," Keith Kutchins told the Northwest Power and Conservation Council during an August presentation about the gear testing. Kutchins supervised the testing last year and again this year. Considered would be beach and purse seine netting, fishwheels, weirs, hoop nets, tangle nets, dip nets, angling,surface Merwin traps and other alternatives.

Tribal tests using a variety of gear are continuing for the second season with positive results. For five days in late September tribal researchers deployed a purse seine in the reservoir above Wells Dam on the mid-Columbia to test, primarily, its effectiveness at harvesting steelhead without harming protected members of the run.

The score? Some 68 fin-clipped hatchery steelhead "keepers," seven unmarked wild fish that were released, and zero wild steelhead mortalities.

The catch was modest given the enormity of this year's steelhead run, but tribal fishermen proved once again that they could catch and release wild fish relatively unharmed with the purse seine.

"I'd say we've had a real good year," Colville biologist James Ives said of the spring, summer and fall gear testing. One disappointment was the inability to land larger numbers of steelhead from what is a banner 2009 run. Through Oct. 9 a total of 38,709 steelhead had been counted swimming up Priest Rapid Dam's fish ladders. That's the second highest count on record.

The count upriver at Wells Dam through Oct. 13 includes 8,280 wild steelhead and 15,756 hatchery origin steelhead. But, "it was really slim pickings. We though we would catch a lot of steelhead but it just didn't happen," Ives said. "We just didn't find them."

The following week the tribes used a "tangle" net, catching another 44 steelhead, including 33 hatchery fish and 11 "natural origin" steelhead. Unfortunately, six of the wild fish died, leaving that gear with a 55 percent mortality rate for steelhead. Tangle nets had been used in 2008 to catch summer chinook with an 80 percent survival rate. The tangle nets have a smaller mesh than traditional gill-nets so that netted fish are less likely to "gilled" and suffocated.

"Purse seines are the way to go" in most instances for steelhead and performed well on other species as well, tribal biologist Michael Rayton said. The tribes will spend more time this fall using tangle nets to target coho salmon.

Using the purse seine this summer and fall the tribes harvested 2,394 summer chinook, including 1,196 hatchery origin and 1,198 natural origin fish with only four mortalities. That amounts to a 99 percent direct survival rate, according to preliminary data compiled by the researchers. They also caught 62 summer chinook with tangle nets and released 24 of the fish that were of natural origin. The survival rate was nearly 88 percent.

The tribes also caught 14,422 sockeye this summer, about 500 with a tangle net and the rest with the purse seine. The summer-fall chinook or the sockeye are not ESA-listed. But the tribes' want a sufficient number of the wild fish to escape spawn and keep the populations healthy. The 700-foot long purse seine is deployed in a J or U shape, extending down into the water 40 feet. As it fills with fish, the ends are pulled together to entrap salmon and other stocks.

"You can go through and pick those that have an adipose fin and let them swim over the cork line" to continue their journey, Kutchins said. Most of the hatchery fish are marked with a clipped adipose fin.

Tribal officials are promoting the use of selective gear and showcasing their results. They presented this year's preliminary research data to the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission as well as to the NPCC. Peone said that about 30 different people, most of them fishery managers, came out during August to watch the tribes' gear testing.

Much of the test fishing took place at the confluence of the Columbia and Okanogan rivers and in the Okanogan and at its confluence with the Similkameen. "We've been up there and people have been out with us," the WDFW's Eric Kinne said of the learning process related to selective fishing. The state agency this year launched its own tests of live capture gear.

The WDFW this late summer-early fall targeted tule fall chinook and early-run coho using the same purse seine boat, Dreamcatcher, used by the Colvilles. The boat was specially outfitted for the tribes and was leased this past season. But, the tribes intend to buy it, Peone said.

The state is testing three selective gear types -- purse and beach seines and a floating Merwin trap. All corral fish while leaving them free-swimming. Once contained, fish can be identified and released by type or species with a minimum amount of handling.

"Instantaneous mortality is next to none," Kinne said of the state's gear tests. And again the purse seine did best, sweeping in about 100 fish per day, including tule and bright fall chinook, coho, steelhead and a few small sturgeon. The beach seine netted about 70 fish per day and the Merwin trap only 16 total, Kinne said.

The one-year pilot study is supported by $200,000 in federal funding. If selective gear is employed it would allow commercial fishers to catch more hatchery fish overall by reducing the mortality rate. Impacts (mortalities) on listed wild fish serve to limit both sport and commercial harvests.

It is estimate that standard mesh gill-nets cause a post release mortality of 30 percent for steelhead and 40 percent for spring chinook salmon. The estimates for smaller mesh tangle nets are 14.7 percent for spring chinook and 18 percent for steelhead. In the fall the estimated steelhead mortality is 66 percent when gill-nets with 8-inch mesh are deployed and 59 percent with 9-inch mesh.

The WDFW says the pilot study is likely just the first step in a multi-year effort to identify -- and likely modify -- commercial fishing gear for possible incorporation into fisheries. The state contracted with commercial fishermen to conduct the tests.

Shifting to more selective gear is consistent with principles developed by the Hatchery Scientific Review Group and with the state's Conservation and Sustainable Fisheries Plan, Kinne said. The HSRG says selective fisheries should be used to control the number of strays on spawning grounds and help fortify hatchery broodstock.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will be testing more selective gear as well in the coming days, evaluating the effectiveness of using tangle nets on coho salmon.

The Colvilles would like to see some of the returning salmon get through the gauntlet of fisheries that the fish face in the ocean and in the lower Columbia.
"We're at the end of the line," Peone said. Funding for the Colville gear testing was approved as part of the NPCC's 2007-2009 fish and wildlife program budget and guaranteed in May 2008 with the signing of a memorandum of agreement that calls for continued testing through 2010 and deployment of selective gear, if appropriate through 2017.

The MOA was signed by the tribes, the Bonneville Power Administration, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. BPA provides funding for the Council program and for much of the work called for in the MOA. The selective fish gear evaluation and deployment is earmarked for $2.8 million over the 10-year span.

COMMENTARY: How fishing can help wild salmon recovery

Wednesday, September 30 | 6:19 p.m.
BY BRYAN IRWIN, CCA Pacific Northwest (http://www.ccapnw.org)

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife recently invited anglers to "contribute to wild-salmon recovery" by catching up to six hatchery coho a day. You might ask, "How will more fishing bring recovery?"

The key is that anglers can fish "mark-selectively." Their gear allows most salmon to be released relatively unharmed, so the anglers can keep the hatchery fish (identifiable by a clipped adipose fin) and safely release wild "unmarked" salmon to spawn.

This is welcome news for wild salmon recovery and sports anglers alike, but also underscores the need for commercial fishing gear with a similar capacity for mark-selective harvest.

WDFW's efforts to target hatchery fish for harvest follow salmon recovery science.

The Hatchery Scientific Review Group, an independent group of scientists, studied wild salmon populations and recommended ways to restore them.

The HSRG identified increased mark-selective fishing as a key to both wild salmon recovery and hatchery reform efforts because it allows wild fish returns to increase while simultaneously reducing the proportion of hatchery fish reaching the spawning grounds.

Many scientists believe excessive "straying" of hatchery fish into natural spawning areas negatively impacts the fitness and productivity of wild salmon populations.

In some Washington rivers, excess hatchery strays exceed the HSRG guidelines by more than 200 percent.

Unused returns of hatchery fish can also represent a waste of public resources.

For example, nearly 75,000 surplus hatchery coho returned to the Cowlitz River hatchery last year alone.

If we fail to harvest commercially these fish more efficiently, the likely alternative to address the level of hatchery straying is to cut hatchery production, which would have a profound effect on recreational, commercial and tribal fisheries.

A selective commercial fishery is important to provide salmon to the public and help harvest the large number of hatchery fish that return each year, while enabling endangered wild salmon populations to recover.

Read the rest at: http://columbian.com/article/20090930/SPORTS04/710019956/-1/SPORTS

Colville Tribes' Selective Fishing Gear Tests Show Low Wild Summer Chinook Mortality

http://www.bluefish.org/gearlows.htm
by Staff
Columbia Basin Bulletin, February 6, 2009

Central Washington's Colville Tribes have seen early successes in tests of selective fishing gear that they say can increase the viability of wild salmon populations by allowing increased spawner escapement and lessening the straying of hatchery fish on to spawning grounds.

The tribe is now encouraging others -- sport and commercial fishers on the lower Columbia River, in particular -- to jump on board.

"We as salmon managers must begin to use our harvesting efforts and methods as a tool to ensure the abundance and security of this precious resource," the tribes' Joe Peone told the Columbia River Compact last week. "The Colville Tribes believe that harvest management must step up now and make a positive contribution to summer chinook viability."

The Compact, which sets Columbia mainstem commercial fishing seasons, is comprised of representatives of the Oregon and Washington department of fish and wildlife directors. The two states also co-manage mainstem recreational fisheries.

The Upper Columbia summer chinook stock is on a bit of a rebound thanks to hatchery supplementation programs and habitat improvements. The 1980s and 1990s were bleak with average returns of only 19,800 and 15,500 adults respectively, according the Jan. 26 ODFW-WDFW joint staff report.

The summer chinook became hemmed in when the completion of Grand Coulee Dam in 1941 blocked access to more than 500 miles of upper Columbia habitat. The summer chinook's range was further reduced with the completion in 1961 of Chief Joseph Dam 50 miles downstream.

No commercial fisheries for summer chinook were allowed between 1964 and 2005; no sport fisheries were allowed between 1974 and 2001. Since completion of the Columbia River hydro system, summer chinook redds are found in the Columbia, Wenatchee, Okanogan, Methow, Similkameen, Chelan and Entiat rivers, according to the joint staff report.

The 2009 preseason forecast is for a return of 70,700 adult Upper Columbia summer chinook to the mouth of the Columbia

Seasons set in recent years have not required live-capture commercial equipment or catch-and-release sport fishing. The Colville Tribes say selective fishing is needed to assure needed wild summer escapement to spawning grounds and provide broodstock for hatchery programs.

"... our modeling assessments indicate that the Colville Tribes' selective fishing alone cannot ensure sufficient escapement of wild summer chinook in the face of high ocean and river exploitation" Peone said of needed wild returns to the upper Columbia and Okanogan rivers. He cited ocean and lower river harvests that target nearly 70 percent of the summer chinook and the travails of passing over nine mainstem dams, which cause 15 percent mortality.

The tribes last year started evaluations of selective fishing gear with the encouragement, and funding, from federal agencies charged with assuring protected salmon and steelhead stocks aren't jeopardized. Those stock listed under the Endangered Species Act include endangered Upper Columbia River steelhead and spring chinook salmon.

The tests were approved as part of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council's 2007-2009 fish and wildlife program budget and were cemented in May with the signing of a memorandum of agreement that calls for continued testing through 2010 and deployment of selective gear if appropriate through 2017.

The MOA was signed by the tribes, the Bonneville Power Administration, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. BPA provides funding for the Council program and for much of the work called for in the MOA. The selective fish gear evaluation and deployment is earmarked for $2.8 million over the 10-year span.

The MOA project narratives say "live-capture selective fishing gears have the potential to harvest 20 to 60 hatchery fish for every wild fish or non-target fish mortality. These gears allow tribal harvests to therefore occur at much lower mortalities to ESA-listed species. Use of the gears also remove excess numbers of hatchery-origin fish from escapements, thereby increasing the productivity of the natural spawning populations."

"Results should also have wide applicability throughout the Columbia Basin to increase harvest of hatchery stocks while providing increased survival of listed wild populations."

So far the Colville's have only been tested the gear on an unlisted stock -- the Upper Columbia summer chinook. There were 479 hatchery chinook caught during tribal ceremonial and subsistence fisheries last summer using beach and purse seines and small mesh tangle nets. Also swept in were 297 unmarked wild fish that were released. Only 26 wild summer chinook were killed -- 25 of them in the tangle nets.

Peone said that the tangle nets might not be an option in summer when the river water is too warm and the fish become easily stressed while tangled in the small-mesh gill-nets. The fish can't be left in the nets for long. The tangle nets are used on the lower Columbia during spring chinook fisheries and could be appropriate upriver in spring as well, Peone said.

The seines performed with a direct mortality rate of well below 1 percent, according to Steve Smith, a consultant for the tribes. The purse and beach seines basically encircle the fish and allow hatchery fish to be plucked out and fish without a fin clip left in the water. Keith Kutchins supervised the seining operation, which leaves the captured fish, essentially, free swimming.

"He said they're very calm. They're not stressed," Smith said. The purse seine experiment in all netted 544 sockeye salmon and 314 hatchery and 112 wild summer chinook without a wild fatality. The beach seining netted 28 sockeye, 184 hatchery chinook and 99 wild chinook. One wild summer chinook died.

The fishing took place at the confluence of the Columbia and Okanogan rivers and in the Okanogan and at its confluence with the Similkameen.

A summer chinook hatchery supplementation focused in the Similkameen and the Okanogan releases a total of 476,000 yearling fish annually from net pens. And in good years the wild component, which includes adult returns that are the progeny of supplemented fish, can make up 60 to 70 percent of the run. The summer chinook are produced in Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife hatcheries.

"It's about the most successful chinook hatchery program in the entire basin" in the good years, Smith said. He did acknowledge that occasionally, overwarm water conditions and other factors can cause dieoffs.

The Okanogan is in an arid ecosystem and has a relatively flat pitch in comparison to many Northwest rivers.

"But it's tremendous habitat," Smith said, comparing it to southern Idaho where mainstem spawning fall chinook salmon once flourished. One of the problems with the habitat is sedimentation that has settled into spawning gravels.

The sedimentation problem is something the tribe hopes fish will fix themselves. A proposed Chief Joseph Hatchery, also earmarked for funding in the MOA, would allow the production an additional 2 million young summer chinook, of which 1.1 million would go to the Okanogan system and others (600,000) would be released at the base Chief Joseph Dam to feed terminal fisheries and in the Columbia.

It's projected that the increased production will result in an increased adult return above Wells Dam of from 6,000 to 29,000 annually.

"We're going to be using them to clean the gravels," Smith said of eventual increased numbers of wild fish thrashing the river bottom clean before depositing eggs.

The Colville Tribes call the late season salmon summer-fall chinook. The earliest arrivals seem to find their way higher up toward the headwaters and in tributaries.

"The later they get there the lower down they spawn," Peone said. The tribes have in recent years been outplanting some yearling spring chinook in the Okanogan, where that stock had been extirpated.

The summer chinook "harvestable surplus" is split annually between upriver and downriver non-Indian fishers and tribes. In recent years the Colville subsistence and ceremonial fisheries have not been able to harvest their entire allocation so have offered a share back to the states. That allows non-tribal fisheries more fishing opportunity.

"..., what is clear now is that granting harvest allocation from the Colville Tribal selective fishery to non-tribal non-selective fisheries only increases the mortality to wild fish, which is unacceptable to the Colville Tribes," Peone told that Compact.

He urged the states to immediately initiate research on selective fishing gears for commercial fisheries and to plan for selective sport fisheries this summer.

The states "are on the cusp" of having to consider implementing lower Columbia marked-selective summer chinook fisheries every year, according to Heather Bartlett, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's Salmon and Steelhead Division manager. The WDFW bases such decisions on such factors as mark rates in each fishery, availability and feasibility of appropriate selective gear and broodstock management needs.

Until last year relatively low mark rates made selective fisheries unfeasible. Bartlett said the mark rate should be at least 50 percent for a selective summer chinook fisheries to be worthwhile. Last year anglers caught about 2,000 chinook in more than 50,000 angler trips or 1 fish per 25 trips. If every other fish caught had to be released, the kept-fish rate per unit of effort would be halved.

The overall mainstem harvest strategy adopted by the states and tribes "hedged our concerns for assuring abundant escapement and providing harvest," Bartlett said. That harvest framework limits all non-treaty fishing to minimal levels when the run size is below escapement.

At levels of low allowable harvest, up to a 50,000 run size, harvest opportunity should be allocated almost exclusively to upstream areas, to meet Colville and Wanapum needs as well as provide recreational fishing in the upstream areas which typically have limited salmon angling opportunities.

Mark rates are now "at the borderline" of justifying marked-selective sport fisheries, Bartlett said.

Columbia River Salmon: Selective Fishing for All

by Virginia L. Ross, guest opinion
Saturday May 16, 2009, 8:30 AM
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/05/columbia_river_salmon_selectiv.html

Whether we buy, catch or just marvel at salmon, we need to unite now to save 13 stocks of wild Columbia River salmon and steelhead from extinction. The best, most immediate route to recovery is to minimize our deadly harvest impacts on these wild fish.

Regrettably, our view of salmon harvest reform is distorted by the battle for salmon allocation among three user groups -- sport, commercial and tribal fishers ("Salmon standoff," April 26).

Our concern should focus more directly on the fish, not the fishers. What the wild fish need for recovery is selective fishing by all harvest groups.

In 2000, Congress appointed the Hatchery Scientific Review Group, an international, independent group of scientists, to study wild salmon and steelhead populations and recommend ways to conserve and restore them. The group strongly recommended increased selective fishing as a key to both wild salmon recovery and hatchery reform.

Selective fishing reduces damage to wild fish and removes more hatchery salmon from the river. Uncaught hatchery salmon often stray into and overwhelm wild spawning habitats, where they compete with wild fish for spawning territory. By cross-breeding over time, hatchery fish also dilute precious wild fish genetics. Harvesting more hatchery fish makes economic sense, too. Wild fish are more productive spawners, so selective fishing maximizes investments in habitat. A far worse solution looms: Major cuts in hatchery production to help restore wild fish would dramatically reduce harvest opportunities for all.

The Oregonian's editorial board recently made clear that gillnets used by our commercial fishers and most tribal fishers are "the least selective way to fish" ("All tangled up in nets," April 11). By design, gillnets kill and injure wild fish at alarming rates of up to 40 percent or more. Some tout "tanglenets," gillnets with a smaller mesh size, as a viable alternative, but they also kill far too many non-commercial steelhead and wild salmon. Sport gear causes the least damage and is highly selective but is not efficient for commercial harvest.

The answer? Consider the example of the Colville Tribe in the upper Columbia. Using a refitted gillnet boat and a small-mesh seine, the tribe captures all its salmon alive and selects only hatchery fish for harvest, releasing wild fish unharmed. Opportunities are ripe, but the constant fish allocation battle drains our time, energy and money.

It's in everyone's interest to fish selectively if we are going to fish at all. Indiscriminating nets that suffocate and kill wild salmon and steelhead before harvest should step aside in favor of live capture gear. Gillnets gained their monopoly decades ago under a banner of conservation. Now wild fish recovery demands they make way for new fishing methods. Bold political vision and leadership in Salem and Olympia can unite us with a new goal: selective fishing for all. As a society we will harvest more hatchery fish, maximize our hatchery and habitat investments, and most importantly restore and recover our fragile wild salmon and steelhead runs.

Virginia L. Ross is a Portland attorney and wild fish advocate.

CCA Oregon / Stephen H. Smith HSRG Presentation 3/26/09

CCA Oregon, Tualatin Valley Chapter invites you to hear Stephen H. Smith of the Hatchery Scientific Review Group speak on selective harvest and give his presentation on the scientific method for recovering wild salmon through selective harvest reform. Assisting CCA Oregon at a March 26th hearing in Salem on this topic, Stephen presented some of the findings of the Hatchery Scientific Review Group with an excellent powerpoint that highlighted the new live capture harvest method now being employed by the Colville Tribe in the Upper Columbia River.

Click To Play

Come to the CCA TV Chapter meeting to meet Steve and find out much more about selective harvest gear testing and wild fish recovery.

COASTAL CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION
Tualatin Valley Chapter
MAY MEETING NOTICE

DATE: Monday May 18th, 2009 7:00PM

PLACE: Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue Building
20665 SW Blanton Street
Aloha, OR 97007

AGENDA:

6:00 – 6:45 pm Board of Directors Only

6:45 – 7:00pm Social Time

7:00 – 8:00 pm GENERAL MEETING

8:00 – 8:15 pm Question/Answers & Drawing

8:15 – 8:30 pm Adjourn

Gov. Kitzhaber Supports Safe for Salmon

Here is

To Members of the Legislature:

I am writing in support of House Bill 2734/Senate Bill 554, the SAFE for Salmon Plan. It is time to end the decades-old acrimonious conflict between the sport and commercial fishing industries; and to replace it with a long term vision for the Lower Columbia fishery.

The decline and volatility of Columbia Basin salmon, steelhead, and sturgeon populations has reached unacceptable levels. Thirteen of eighteen salmon and steelhead species that migrate through the Lower Columbia are now federally listed as threatened or endangered. Commercial gill nets in the lower Columbia main stem kill a high proportion of the wild fish that are unintentionally tangled ("by catch"). The subsequent reduction of endangered wild fish moving into the upstream spawning grounds forces federal regulators to constrain sport and commercial fishing which, in turn, harms communities around Oregon whose economies rely in part on those industries. At the same time the tens of thousands of hatchery fish moving upstream spawn with wild fish hampering the recovery of these native stocks.

HB 2734/SB 554 offers a "win-win" solution by prohibiting gill nets in the main stem of the Columbia but allowing them in "SAFE" areas located in bays and sloughs along the edge of the river. A portion of juvenile salmon hatchery releases would be moved ("directed") from tributaries to the SAFE areas to provide a stable source of fish for commercial harvest by the gill netters. At the same time, the unintended yet indiscriminant killing of wild fish by gill nets would be dramatically reduced; more wild fish would move upstream reducing the pressure on federal agencies to curtail sport and commercial fishing; and this, in turn would help relieve the economic burden on Oregon communities which rely in part on these industries. Furthermore, this approach would enhance recovery efforts of endangered fish by reducing the number of hatchery fish straying onto the wild fish spawning grounds.

Directed commercial fisheries have successfully been taking place in SAFE areas for two decades now. They are effective and non-controversial and provide a much needed product for the seafood industry. The concerns of commercial gill netters that the return of hatchery salmon to safe areas might not be sufficient to maintain their industry can be addressed by phasing this program in over a number of years with way points to access the size of the returning runs of hatchery fish and thus ensure the continued viability of this important part of our natural resource industries.

We have reached a crisis point for Columbia River fisheries and the businesses it supports. Our wild fish runs are disappearing as are thousands of jobs that depend on sustainable fishing seasons for survival. We must craft a solution that will protect and grow our wild fish runs while stimulating economic growth and sustainable job creation in communities throughout our state. I have been deeply involved in salmon recovery issues throughout my career in public service; and the SAFE for Salmon framework offers a way to provide enhanced runs of wild fish; more sport fishing opportunity, a stable supply of fish for commercial harvest, and conservation benefits.

John A. Kitzhaber, M.D.
Oregon Governor
1995-2003

End the Gillnet Monopoly: Pass HB 2734 & HB 2579

(To each member of the House Sustainability and Economic Development Committee)

I'm writing to request that you please pass out of committee two bills Oregon urgently needs: HB 2734 and HB 2579. These bills will combine to help transform the Oregon commercial salmon fishery from a subsidized monopoly employing destructive, indiscriminate gear to a modern, selective commercial salmon fishery of which Oregon can be proud.

You will find further information on the damage caused by these nets in the Pacific Northwest and around the world here: http://www.gillnetskill.com

A history of the establishment of the Columbia River gillnet monopoly and why it should be replaced can be found here.

Please also watch this 1 minute video to understand the nature of gillnetting and why it is so damaging to fish before they can be sorted.

Gillnetting: Is it mark-selective?

I am a native Oregonian who wants to both fish for salmon and buy salmon in stores and restaurants. I am equally interested in both ways to enjoy salmon, but I refuse to buy gillnet caught Columbia salmon or sturgeon because I know of the great damage this gear causes. More and more Oregonians are waking up to the facts. But by voting these bills out of committee, you will be taking a leadership role in modernizing this fishery, and your constituents will notice.

In short, the gillnet fishery is archaic, wasteful, hard to enforce, and highly damaging to our precious wild fish resources. Please make Oregon a pioneer in selective salmon fishing technology by ending Columbia River gillnetting and replacing it with a safe, sustainable, mark-selective commercial fishery such as the one currently practiced by the Colville Tribe in the upper Columbia basin.

Thank you,

Virginia Ross, J.D.
Portland, Oregon

PS Here is my recent letter to the Oregonian editors responding to their outstanding editorial on this subject All Tangled Up In Nets (4/11/09). I urge you to read the editorial.

The editors are right….it stinks! Indiscriminating gillnets, several football fields in length, monopolize commercial salmon and sturgeon fishing on the Columbia River (“All Tangled Up in Nets” 4/11/09). A select few hundred fishers pay about $75 annually to deploy these deadly nets on the Columbia a few weeks a year. By design, gillnets entangle, injure and too often kill the non-target, ESA-listed, wild, and non-commercial species they encounter, before selection and sorting are possible. Sadly, gillnetters focus more on conserving their monopoly than conserving wild fish. They turned down a grant of nearly $500K to adopt live capture gear.

It’s time for change. Urge your representatives in Salem to pass both HB 2734, to permanently remove these dangerous nets from the Columbia River, and HB 2579, to re-authorize gear capable of live capture and sorting of fish. As a pioneering state with a proud heritage of innovation and sustainable natural resource management, Oregon should not wait one more day.

VL Ross