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

All tangled in the nets on the Columbia

by The Editorial Board of the Oregonian
Saturday April 11, 2009, 3:44 PM
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/04/all_tangled_in_the_nets_on_the.html

Threatened salmon are dying, sportfishing is crimped and an outdoor retail chain goes belly up

It stinks what passes for salmon harvest policy on the Columbia River. Everyone smells it -- lawmakers, gill-netters, sport fishermen, fish commissioners -- but all the Northwest has done is hold its collective nose.

Here's what's going on: Oregon and Washington still allow gill nets, the least selective way to fish, in the main stem of the Columbia River. The gill-netters can't help but catch and kill threatened species of salmon and steelhead. This incidental take of federally protected fish forces the curtailment of sportfishing, gutting a major Northwest industry. Guides, boat dealers and tackle manufacturers are hurting; just this week one of the region's largest retailers of fishing equipment, Joe's Sports, Outdoor & More, went out of business.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of hatchery salmon roll upriver, flooding into spawning areas and interfering with the recovery of the threatened wild species of salmon and steelhead.

All of this makes no sense, none, yet it keeps going on. The gill-netters, backed by the seafood processors and restaurants they supply, have spent decades now locked in a fierce dispute with sport fishermen over the relative share of fish that each side is allowed to harvest. This tug of war has so poisoned river policy that both sides cannot recognize that their stubborn stances are hurting them both, and damaging wild salmon.

Snip. Read more here: http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/04/all_tangled_in_the_nets_on_the.html

There is room now, and always will be, for commercial salmon fishing on the Columbia River, if properly managed. Ultimately, though, gill-nets must be moved out of the main stem of the river. If it ever made sense to allow nonselective fishing on threatened salmon and steelhead, then kick everybody off the river while hatchery fish surge upstream, it doesn't any longer. All it does now is stink.

Salmon proposals to restrict Columbia gillnetting

Other anglers still would be allowed on main river
Statesman Journal
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009903280327

The brouhaha over Columbia River spring-run Chinook salmon has been joined in the Oregon Legislature.

More than 200 people — almost everyone in the lobby overflow area watching on TV monitors sporting orange CCA (Coastal Conservation Association) ballcaps — turned out for an informational session to hear about a half-dozen bills dealing with commercial gillnetting in front of the members of the House Committee on Sustainability and Economic Development.

The two bills that have the broadest support among angling, sportfishing and conservation groups would move commercial gillnetters off the main river and into lower-river Select Area Fisheries Evaluation (SAFE) juvenile salmon release sites in sloughs and side channels.

Here is an overview of what's in the pipeline, beginning with the two that have the broadest support the sports side:

House Bill 2734 and companion Senate Bill 554: The so-called "SAFE for Salmon" legislation is the brainchild of Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association and several conservation biologists. It would require that all non-Native American gillnetting move into SAFE areas.

Companion bills HB 2579 and Senate Bill 527: These are the CCA's babies. Both would require only fixed fishing gear (basically traps) or small-mesh nets known as seines for taking commercial salmon.

The most obvious trap sites would be fish ladders, and because of the volume and flows on the Columbia, seining operations would of necessity move commercial netting into SAFE areas.

Both sets of bills are touted as lessening — some at the hearing said eliminating — the incidental take of federally protected non-hatchery wild salmon by commercial netters.

It's the allowed incidental deaths of listed salmon that caps the sport and commercial catches, proponents of the bills argued at the hearing.

So cutting the losses by the more lethal gillnetting would mean more fish for both sport and commercial anglers.

Gillnetters representatives at the hearing were vehemently opposed to moving off-river, saying that there isn't room in the SAFE areas for the fleet. And, they argued, with the reduced quality of the SAFE-area salmon, they couldn't make enough to make it a viable fishery.

Two other bills go farther.

HB 2781 and SB524: Would prohibit any non-Native American commercial nets in the Columbia for taking salmon, steelhead or sturgeon.

And there's a wild card in the deck that didn't come up during the hearing. HB 3323 would change turn the tables not just on the Columbia, but statewide. It would make guides and charters operators commercial anglers.

So that anyone who takes paying customers to fish for salmon, steelhead or sturgeon would need to be a part of what's known as a "limited-entry" fishery.

In other words a 450 cap on the number of resident licenses accompanied by hefty license ($250) and annual renewal ($50) fees as well as an "endorsement" fee ($250) and annual renewal charge of $125 to fish in each of four regions in the state.

SAFE for Salmon Lobby Day and Bill Hearing on March 26th

Speak out for Salmon in Salem!
SAFE for Salmon Lobby Day and Bill Hearing on March 26th
8 AM-3 PM

The SAFE for Salmon bill, HB-2734, will be heard by the House Committee on Sustainability and Economic Development on March 26th. This is a key point in the campaign for better conservation and better fishing. We are within reach of achieving historic progress for fish and fishing -- ALL fishing.

The time has come for your voice and presence to be felt in Salem!

The campaign has gotten this far and the backs of friends and colleagues who have sacrificed time and treasure to push our cause in the Capitol. Now, on the horizon of this historic hearing, we need to launch our most aggressive lobbying effort yet and we need your help to do it.

SAFE for Salmon invites you to participate in the SAFE for Salmon Lobby Day in Salem to achieve better fishing and better fish management on the Columbia River.

Think only professional lobbyists can lobby? Think again! Legislators are most influenced by constituents who take the time to visit the Capitol to support an issue. In short, the most effective lobbyist is you! USE YOUR VOICE!

Lobby Day is an exciting opportunity to join hundreds of other concerned anglers and activists in direct meetings with your elected officials to promote SAFE for Salmon. To date, the campaign has made significant gains in Salem and legislators are aware of the problems plaguing the Columbia River fisheries. Now, they need to hear from their constituents. They need to hear from you!

Lobby day will show our elected representatives the massive levels of support for our proposal on the date of its hearing and will stress the need for immediate action.

Festivities will begin at 8 AM in the Chinook Room of the Capitol. There will be a morning briefing on tips for successful lobbying and an overview of SAFE for Salmon, delivered by Jim Martin, which will prepare you to meet your elected officials and advocate for SAFE for Salmon. Coffee and refreshments will be served.

Lunch will be provided before moving en masse to the hearing room at 1 PM. Your presence at Lobby Day and our bill hearing can help us achieve a new and better day for fish and fishermen in the Northwest. Please donate a day for better fishing for a lifetime.

R.S.V.P. by March 23rd to:

Colin Cochran

safeforsalmon@gmail.com

503.631.4747

Include in your reservation:

· Your name and phone number

· The names of your State Representative and State Senator

· Or your residential address so we can identify your elected officials. This information will help us in making appointments.

For more information on SAFE for Salmon, please visit our website at www.safeforsalmon.com

See you in Salem!

Kind Regards,

Colin Cochran

Campaign Director
SAFE for Salmon