I just sent the following to newstips@kgw.com - did you catch the DEAD adipose fins on the evening news?

I find it distressing that you feature footage of
native fishermen gillnetting on the Columbia (April
24) without mentioning that they are killing
endangered wild salmon.

Unlike sports angling, gillnets cannot be selective
for hatchery-raised fish. They kill everything. Your
story clearly showed dead wild fish. The law requires
sport anglers to release the wild fish unharmed.

I would like to see an attempt to raise public
awareness about the impact of gillnet fishing. Anyone
who buys these fish is contributing to the extinction
of Columbia River salmon.

Phish on
Good idea way to try to raise public awareness!!!
Dances

PS Phish on I used your wording when I wrote my e-mail to them Hope you dont mind. Now if every one will chip in and help!

[ 04-25-2001: Message edited by: danceswithfish ]

I am going to shoot one off to them as well. Thanks for the addy.
I think everyone on this board should send a similiar email, maybe they will put together a story.

OK, did it. Here is what I wrote them.......
"On April 24th you ran a story about the Native Americans gillnetting the spring salmon on the Columbia. At no point did you mention the fact that they were netting and Killing native salmon. I think many people are in the dark about the problems associated with gillnets and the native salmon they kill. The native americans claim that this is their sacred fish and pledge to restore the runs, than they turn around and slaughter the fish in their nets. And they do so only to turn a few bucks.
I, and many other people would love to see a news story about how the Native Americans are gillnetting the remaining spring salmon that everyone is trying so hard to protect.
Thank you.
"

[ 04-25-2001: Message edited by: The Reel ZaQ ]

I also sent them an e-mail. Hygraded some of the things from the posts above and also added my two cents worth. If they get enough respnse hopefully they will do a story.

Way to go Phish. Writing a letter seems to get more attention than anything else. I'll send them off an e-mail too.
Mark

www.firstcastjigs.com

The only problem I can see is that up above the dam its legal to keep wild salmon. When I was there checking things out, every sports fisher I talked to was keeping the wild salmon too. Does that make us just as gulty as the Indians? In your guys opinion if the law says its legal to keep the wild ones is it morally ok? Should we be writing letters protesting this when we the sportsman have been keeping them too? What your take on this?

Sockeye,
I though that the river was closed above the dam? Or did it open late?

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/ODFWhtml/RecReports/sncolmar.htm

"The Columbia River from Buoy 10 upstream to Bonneville Dam will reopen to the retention of adipose fin-clipped chinook salmon, adipose fin-clipped steelhead, and shad effective Wednesday, April 25 through Sunday, April 29, 2001.
All non adipose fin-clipped chinook and all non adipose fin-clipped steelhead must be released unharmed."

"The Columbia River from Bonneville Dam upstream to the Oregon/Washington border above McNary Dam is closed to salmon and steelhead angling."

I sorry I meant the wind river and drano lake areas. People are keeping wild salmon because according to the law its legal. From some of the people I talked to all of the fish they kept were non-fin-clipped.

Non-clipped Wind/Drano fish are hatchery origin, aren't they? The fish the Indians are netting could be wild endangered Snake River salmon.

Sockeye, thanks for hte clarification I thought maybe I had missed something and neede to be heading above Bonneville. I read it right after all

Krome Brite

Not all fish in Drano are of hatchery orgin. The reason why Drano is such a good spot is a lot of upriver fish dip in and hang out for a while. Especially in the summer months when the main stream columbia is much warmer and the oxygen content of the water is lower than that of Drano. Drano is fed by cooler more oxygenated water, then what the columbia is at the drano location. That goes for many rivers that drain in the columbia "dip-ins" steelhead(for example) have been tagged more than 10 miles up a river, only to go back down the river and continue their migration up the columbia main stream. Fish will hang out in drano in the low water years for a while.

[ 04-27-2001: Message edited by: Mike K ]

Just a little reminder here on the fin clipped issue above the dam. According to the biologists I have talked to at Draino and the Wind. Indian hatcheries and some of the Federal hatcheries do not fin clip their fish as it is cost prohibitive. So the indians can claim that they are not targeting native salmon, only those fish they raised in their hatcheries. I know this is BS but it is their way of saving face to the general public. Dont it just p!$$ you off to know that some of those native fish you released below the dam are hatchery fish that werent clipped? Its not only time to write letters to the media, but to your representives as well.

I have said it before, and I will say it again....When the state gets off their collective ass(and the indians, too, for that matter) and start marking ALL hatchery salmon, I will release non-clipped salmon, whether it's legal to retain them or not. The supposed science they practice is a joke. They are messing up their own numbers by only marking SOME hatchery fish. Of course, it doesn't affect indian netting. How many fish were caught below Bonneville that weren't clipped were still hatchery fish?? A ****load!!! As always, we sit back and take what few crumbs they throw us.....