I just wanted to get out a couple of thoughts that I have had concerning river gill netting.
I moved here from Oregon, near Portland, fished all over that state and always had a WA liscence and love to fish all over this state as well. I work in the restaurant business and see first hand the buying and selling of fish. What I am getting at is the fact that supply and demand plays a huge part in the success of capitalism as it stands in America.
In Oregon, the sale of any wild steelhead is strictly forbidden, only farmed steelhead may be sold, on the retail market. Go to Pike Place Market tomorrow and you will see huge piles of gill net caught wild and hatchery steelhead, from your favorite peninsula river( imagine what you will see in 1 or 2 monthes when all the big natives arrive), selling probably for $3.99 to $4.99 a pound. The Indians are getting maybe $1 a pound, but the wholesalers are making the real money, all at the expense of our dwindling precious resource. If we can eliminate the demand, then we should see the supply slow as well.

I would love to see an effort here in WA to make illegal the sale of wild caught steelhead, make it illegal to wholesale wild caught steelhead to other states as well. This obviously would be very contraversial, but I think that given the current state of things and the element of change in our state government, that it is possible. We need to move towards sustainable harvest methods, and gill nets are not one of them. Sorry for being long winded, but I feel that this is very important and that we all need to stir the pot, so to speak.
tight lines to all, boycott wild steelhead sales!

i don't think that would help because the tribe would just throw them on the bank and sell the hatchery fish.the problem is the 6 day a week tribal netting that our government has allowed them to do.and also with all the tribal casinos, they are making a lot of money making them a powerful organization.it won't be easy to stop them.one solution i have is for the government to supplement their income,hell,last i heard the tribe was only getting..80 cents a lb.at that price we could buy them out.the money generated by sportsman who would buy there liscence to fish would easily pay that measly price.just a thought???

The indians may throw the fish on the banks for a while,or years, but they would ultimatly tire of this and give up. I also think that there is no fast cure here, and that to not try something , or to simply accept this as being un changable is a very sad state of affairs, especially when there is obviously so much passion about this subject. Stop wild steelhead sales.

I wonder if there is a 'trade' we could offer. The Indians really want slot machines in their casinos because they are the highest revenue producing game. The State won't allow it. Here in Colorado, slots are in all the casinos so it obviously is a state by state issue. Certainly, the tribes could profit far more off of year around slots than seasonal sales of fish for a buck a pound, less operational costs. I would imagine they would come out way ahead on this deal.

The way I see it, if your going to allow craps, blackjack, pulltabs (isn't this paper slots?), then who cares about one more game in the casino? They come out ahead and their people are better off, and the resource gets a huge windfall by not allowing nets. The commercial guys would have to be bought out, but I'm sure most of them have a price that would make that possible. It worked in Florida, Louisiana, etc. and now their fish populations are rocketing and they are a tourist destination, thus reaping huge dollar rewards per fish (THIS IS THE KEY, DOLLARS PER FISH).

Thoughts?

Steve

One more thought. People will wonder where the money would come from to 'buy out' the commercial guys. That is an easy call. With all of the netting pressaure off of the fish, we would see the need for hatcheries diminished over the very short future. The millions we pump into them year in and year out could easily go to the buyout program. Nobody likes to see jobs eliminated, but sometimes thats the way it goes (downsize our state gov't? how dare you). There should be enough savings to slide a number of those jobs over to fisheries enforcement, which would be nice.


[This message has been edited by Steve J (edited 12-08-2000).]

In the mid-80's, Pike Place Market and a restaurant were advertising/selling wild steelhead. One of the sport fishing groups got a few letters written to them, explaining the "game fish" status and special need to conserve this resource. Lo and behold, they listened, and stopped buying wild ones! Maybe a reminder is in order. (I realize the tribes don't have to honor the game fish rules, but the letters still worked.)
Similar success in the Spokane area a few years ago, when some non-Tribal folks were selling largemouth bass to fish markets.

Steve J, I like your plan. One other thing I would add is that if any of the bought out commercial guys wanted to remain in the biz, they could convert to charter fishing. If the runs recovered quickly, it might just wind up being a lucrative enterprise. If this area of the country became a "destination" fishery, someone would have to get the people to the fish.
A slot machine is the same as a net. It just targets a different species of fish (sucker). I would be in favor of trading nets for slots.

The tribes have said they will never sell their right to fish for any price. I have thought that some sort of system of tribes selling tags for steelhead might be better that netting the fish and selling them for $1.00 lb. The C&R clubs and consevationists could get together and buy a bunch of tags and use them on obvious bleeders or just take the fish out of potential kill fisheries. . The C&K guys could buy tags so they could keep fish. The tribes would get more money for the fish, conservationists could buy fish for escapment and C&K guys could keep some fish. Everyone would come out ahead. This would take alot of pressure off the non-tribal quota. Just an idea.

I think there is a way to preserve the Indians 'right to fish' but do it without nets and make it fair to all. BB had the right idea by immediately granting all of them charter lisences, heck they would make more in a day doing that than they do netting, and its easier work. Aside from that, some of the towns on the coast and elsewhere would be atracting tourists to come in and fish, rather than heading to Alaska and other fishing areas. The kicker is, when they come in off of that charter feeling great cause they have a limit of salmon/stealhead, they can clean up and then head over to the casino and dump a pile of cash into it. This could effectively rocket the amount of available cash the tribes now have. Instead, they have the non-vision we see today.

As far as my proposed trade, you all have been to fishing villages and seen the types of houses, boats, etc. that most live in. Pretty depressing to say the least. Ever been to Vegas? Seems theres a little more money to be made in gaming.

I've always thought if tribes had any business sense at all, they would pick a central location to all the tribes that falls on one tribes land near the population centers, and build a mini vegas. If they alotted a number of acres to each tribe and each built a unique casino, most likely in partnership with one of the big boys from L.V. or A.C., they would have a good operation. Its kind of like the 'mall' approach. Heck of alot easier than driving around somewhere else when you get tired of the shop your in.

Steve

I certainly enjoy all of the brainstorming on different ideas to help save some of these wild fish, but I cannot help go back to the thought of simple supply and demand. If no one can legally buy or distibute steelhead, then what will they do with them. Most likely they will throw them up on the bank as I have seen them do on the Skagit, but after years of this, I am sure they would tire. Still the fish would be killed by the nets, but possibly over time, their efforts would become fruitless.
Save our wild steelhead