FleaFlickr2 - for not knowing about dredging you have made some very good and reasonable conclusions...just a few comments

Mercury - The Left likes to say that pioneer miners are the ones that put the mercury in the rivers in the early days of mining. Truth is that HG is expensive and dumping it in a river to try and get it to stick to the gold is a extremely inefficient way of mining. Gold is found in rivers that run through mineralized regions. In addition to gold you can find naturally occurring silver, copper iron AND mercury. I am sure there were some accidental spills but almost all the HG in our rivers is naturally occurring, not from mining. This is proven because some rivers that have no gold values are contaminated by HG. A gold dredge will capture anything that is heavier than the surrounding gravel. I dredged the south Umpqua river in Oregon a few years ago for one week. I came home with a little under 1.5 oz. of gold about 25 pounds of sinkers and bullets. I also got about an ounce of HG and I did not bother tracking all the steel. I sell the HG and gold and I melt down the sinkers to make bullets. Nothing is thrown back in the river

Mining vs. fishing - the point I was trying to was that our regulations and practices are designed to not kill any fish and killing fish is what fish is what fishermen are allowed to do. No matter how a fish was killed or what was done with it afterwards does not change the fact that the fish is dead.

Fees - I was working with the committee that helped create the first Gold and Fish book. At that time the miners offered to pay a reasonable permit fee. The WDFW declined to apply a fee because the administration would cost more than the revenue received. The fee proposed by this new bill is $150 for anyone who wants to do any kind of prospecting, including just a pan and shovel. This is very unreasonable..

Lastly - I am obviously strongly pro-mining but I work hard to promote legal activities and the use of best practices. There is no reason why mining and fishing cannot co-exist and still have a healthy resource...IF both parties pursue their sport legally.