Originally Posted By: OntheColumbia
Originally Posted By: billjr64

1. This is straight from WDFW website. Reading it and listening to what is going on lately I`ve drawn a conclussion. Sport fishermen are about to pay for the commercial fishermen`s switch to more selective methods.

2. When the nets go in the LCR fsports fishing suffers, this proposal will lead to LONGER commercial seasons due to nearly nearly no ESA impacts with these NEW methods that were outlawed in the early 1900`s because they were too effective.


Yes, it looks like the "endorsement" is WA anglers share. And for Oregon, in CCA's proposed ballot initiative, according to their press release, there is funding for the commercials through some yet-unknown mechanism.

Great. The commercials can't fund their own fishery experiments, to benefit themselves. So we anglers are going to kick in more money, to subsidize them more, to increase their competition with sport anglers.

Whatta Plan! It's a re-packaged version of what CCA took to the Oregon Legislature. With a subsidy added. Too bad it wasn't instead a straight buy-out of commercial licenses to settle the issue once and for all.

About that 'competition'. Notice the WDFW isn't talking about any caps on commercial harvest. Nor does CCA 's press release mention a cap to protect sport fishing as being a key point of their initiative.



I dont care how its funded. When the state buys out the fishing permits, it uses taxpayer dollars to accomplish the buy out. Complaining about where the money comes from, is a whiners argument. Sportsmen dont come close to paying for the fish, that is raised in the hatcheries. Sports are subsidized. 20% of your own power bill buys a lot of hatchery fish. Dont start crying about 9.00 dollars.

If you let the rest of the wild fish die, how much will it cost, to reseed the rivers with Alaskan Fish? (How long will the govt close those rivers? to protect those new Alaskan or BC live spawners? There wont be ANY HARVEST on those rivers. No tribal harvest will allow reseeding, but, then we would have to pay the tribes for lost harvest.


Commercial fisheries have been losing market share to fish farms. If they want to compete, they will have to find another way to produce fish, that dont impact wild fish, or create a nursery for sea lice. The Squaxin tribe, has a bay fishery with hatchery fish, that come back and mill around, looking for a creek. The catch a small portion of wildfish. My tin hat theory is that they dont want the wild fish problem. No wild fish, means you are free to crank out the hatchery fish and every river becomes a fish ranch.
Where will that money come from?


Edited by Lead Bouncer (12/31/09 01:16 AM)