"if" or "when" they come up with a way to lets say cut the mortality down to around 10 percent do you think it will save any more fish than the methods they are using right now ?

do you think the state will lower the impact given to commercial fisherman or will it stay the same and allow them more of the same fish we are fishing for ?

how do you think the wind and drano fishing will be after the fish start comming back clipped and the commercial netters target the surplus fish in the lower river ?

do you veiw selective commercial fishing as a conservation tool ?

I personally believe that with the technology we now have and the proven successful farming of salmon, that there should be NO commercial salmon fishery.... At least with nets.
If that were the case, I think our rivers would again be bulging with salmon ready to spawn, and many biologists would be looking for work.

JMHO

MasterCaster

I see the gillnetters on the Chehalis doing just that for sturgeon. ON my way home from work today I pulled over to watch a fellow finish setting up the net.

He tended it and caught one undersized within about 10 minutes. Kind of scary though, how efficient those things are. The undersized was released quickly because he was almost right on top of it when the floats went under.

It seems everyone thinks gill net when talking about commercial salmon fishing and the mortality rate. Ever stop to think about the troll fishery? 60,000 king salmon for the coast this year. How many shakers are killed to get the quota? I think the numbers would shock you! Just food for thought.

Do you guys honestly think a fish cares how it dies? A dead fish is a dead fish is a dead fish.

We may value a fish from one stream more than a fish from another, but it doesn't matter to the fish.

It doesn't matter wether its killed on the open ocean by a comercial troller, by a gillnetter in the straights, by a moocher in the bay or by hooking mortality from a catch and release flyfisherman in the river. Its a dead fish that didn't get to spawn.

I think selective fisheries are the hot thing right now, but whether they will help depleted runs or not remains to be seen.

And you guys that think gillnets can't be selective, when do think was the last time the Muckleshoots caught an endangered stilly king gillnetting the green river? How many of us that fish blackmouth all winter can say that?

One thing that is clear is that the commerial and tribal guys are very good at catching their allotments. If you want them to catch less fish, then their allotments need to be decreased. Restricting their methods by eliminating gillnets, etc will not significantly decrease the number of fish they catch. They'll just switch methods.

My gripe about gillnets is that it selects for small fish. My gripe against commerial trollers is that they select against the aggressive bighters. I'm all for the more traditional set gear. Those are the ultimate in selectivity. Bring back the fish traps and wheels and reef nets.

My $0.02

Nice post! Hey, I'm the one that just got my butt chewed on by some folks who seem to think that gillnets are not selective. Gillnets are very selective.

A very good and correct statement! I wish more people would see this.

Well, no. Gillnets are selective only to the mesh size of the net. Big mesh nets are selective towards big fish. Small mesh nets are selective towards small fish.

What you meant to say is that our fish management people/agencies foolishy allow a mesh size that is somewhere right in the middle...desgined to be extremely selective towards the average size steelhead/salmon. Unfortunately for the fish, that average size range is pretty close. If you target a 10 pound fish, you're going to catch a *lot* of steelhead and salmon.

Again, the netters are just doing what they are allowed to do. Not that I agree with that, but it happens.

Close. They select *for* aggressive biters., not against biting fish. IE, they are selecting out the fish that bite...aggressively. See the difference?

Traditional set gear, ie fish traps and wheels are not that selective. They will catch every fish in a river, if set correctly. That's not selective. Effective, but not selective.

Take the Kasilof, for example. When the water gets low, that river forms some pretty serious natural fish "traps". IE, you know every fish in the river has to go up this one particular channel, or slot. If you installed a set trap at this natural fish trap, you'd catch just about every fish in that river, be it a big king, little king, Red, char, coho, etc. That's not being very selective. Effective yes, selective, no.

Good post! Very informative, but I just felt the need to add in some corrections!

Sorry about being unclear. Here are some things to clarify what I was trying to say.

I was using the term "selective" in the genetic or biological sense. ie using selective from the fishes perspective. To harvest a given type of fish is to select against its reproduction.

My gripes with gillnets is they genetciallyselect for the reproduction of smaller fish (ie only small fish escape the nets).

My gripe with trollers is that they catch (genetically select agaist) aggressive fish.

As an angler this makes me unhappy becasue these types of fishing result in a trend towards smaller less agressive fish.

If I understand these traditional set gear methods all the fish are placed in a waterfilled box or pen where they can survive for hours if not days. One could then look at each fish to determine if it is desirable to harvest or release that fish. Thus wild fish or different species from the one targeted could be released unharmed.