Should fish guides and charter buisiness be considered in the commercial quota for the amount of fish they are aloted to catch.
There has been some debate that the guides who fish in Washington state are really a form of commercial fishery which is for profit the same as a gillnetter or troller.
What are the opinion's of the members of this board who are out fishing throughout the state and have you ever heard this discussed in the past. and also add some pros and cons for having guided fishing on our waters.

Two separate catagories there, one guides, and two charters, although both profit from a sportsfisherman paying to be taken on our waters for the opportunity to catch fish. Both need to be kept seperate from the "commercial" fishing industry. One caters to the sportsfisherman, and the other to our comodity food market. Studies have shown that we(as a region) have been losing money at a staggering rate supporting our comercial salmon fishery, while the sportsfishing industry is a money maker for the entire community, hotels, gas, food, equipment, car, tire, trailer repair, etc.... I list these facts only to support my opinion that "commercial" and guide/charters are very different, not only in what they do, but what they offer the community and the region.
While both profit from the quality of the fishing, and can be catagorized as "commercial", as such, they need to be seperated when talking about regulations, effects on the fisheries, etc...
I also think that within guides/charters, there are some big differences. With charters, there are a limited number of licenses available, and the entry into the business is very limited and expensive. When talking about guides, just the opposite is true, most licensed guides in Washington are "one-man-shows", working out of homes, and even without any substantial investment in equipment. I believe that the public also understands the difference, as most people that want to "go catch a salmon" will make the charter their choice, while the fisherman that wants to see a scenic area, learn some water, some techniques, will seek a guide. Those clients also know that they may not even catch a fish!~ Another difference is with flyfishing guides, these guides may not kill a fish the entire year!! A charter captain would go bankrupt in no time with that philosophy! I am not saying one is better than the other, just pointing out inherent differences, and serve very different needs/consumer demands.