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