Call the Gov and your State Rep

http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2017/01/post_55.html#incart_river_home#incart_2box

The Gov'ner is not going to like what I call her when I do. 

I like how the gill netters justify their position to use gill nets by asking if you like eating salmon at local restaurants or buying at local stores.   Honestly I can't think of too many times where I have chosen salmon at any restaurant.  My argument to them would be, catch and sell locally ONLY.  No shipping out of state, PERIOD. 

If salmon are as difficult to keep sustained as proposed by our sport regulations, and their only issue is losing money, then I don't shed a tear in their direction. 

Disagree with me or not, my personal opinion here would be to eliminate bulk commercial salmon harvesting, eliminate shipping commercial caught salmon out of state, as well as drop the sport fishing regs down to 5 salmon a year per licensed/tag holder for 10-15 years.  Next put harvesting of sea lions back on the menu during this time.  Salmon shouldn't have a problem making some form of a comeback with these factors involved. 

If the argument back to me is that salmon won't recover or at least start showing a turn around, then make it zero harvest for everyone until it does. 

If it kills an industry in the process, so be it.  The industry will eventually kill itself if not put in check already.  Don't think next 5 years, think next 100+ years for legit sustainability.

Consider why don't we commercially harvest bear, deer, elk, whale, sturgeon, etc...   

I bet more Oregonians get salmon from their fishing friends than buy it from a store, so my guess is it gets shipped out to lots of restaurants through out the country to be sold at a premium. Columbia River wild salmon can go as high as $25 per pound when I have seen it in the meat case. I wouldn't be able to afford to eat it if I didn't catch it myself.  Some may say B.S., you need to calculate the costs of your gear and gas.  I have. Those costs employ way more people and I am profitable when adding it all up and dividing by pounds of lincod, cabezon, rockfish, clams, salmon, and delicious, delicious crab i bring home. I brought home about $250 worth of crab last Friday and about $75 in lingcod fillets. 

By no means do I purport to be a sage on this issue, but I look at my local area (the Klamath River in the State of Jefferson) and can identify a trend. The Klamath River had a commercial salmon fishery in its heyday, but times have changed. By overusing any resource with limited regard to its sustainability it will fail.

Perhaps an analogy could explain it better. If I had X amount of money in the bank I would want/need to draw out an amount that would sustain me on a yearly basis. If my financial  planner told me I would not be able to sustain myself at this rate for very long, I would be doing myself a disservice to continue at that rate. I would not be wise in not heeding his advice.

That said, any person dependent on that resource will point out the fallacies of limiting that resource. The present is all we have, but the future is what our children must be able to appreciate. We cannot know what natural disasters might arise, we can only hope to control what we have control over. I would seek the protective/proactive approach and defer to considering the long term health of the resource.

Perhaps an important point here is, what are the objective numbers of the salmon migration trend?

I know from living in Washington about 15 years ago that a lot of the salmon are from hatcheries.  This makes them biologically different from wild fish and compete for the same food in the wild. Unfortunately the government and the tribal councils tend to only see dollar signs.  And 25 bucks a LB for salmon you gotta be mad to buy that. hell last year I saw copper river reds at $20+ in Alaska during the first push.  Crazy.   

I don't know if prohibiting out-of-state sales will help - I don't have any idea how much goes out of state - but what I've seen in restaurants back Easterly is "Alaskan salmon".  Nonetheless, I'm for banning it.

I can support the idea of dropping the harvest limits to 5 per year, too.  That's the annual limit for the coastal rivers where I fish, and five salmon will not only fill my freezer but also put a pile of filets in my kid's freezer, too.

Get rid of commercial fishing?  No brainer, and I feel the same about it as INSAYN: tough noogies.

Get rid of all the non-native species, too.  Oregonlive once reported that these imports now make up 44% of the freshwater fish in Oregon - and it's a higher percentage in Washington and Idaho than in Oregon. Current science doesn't support the "they don't compete with native fish" propaganda.  They shouldn't have been here in the first place.  Get rid of them.

Cormorrants are more devastating to the salmon population than seals and sea lions from all the fry, parr, and smolt they eat, and they, too, are increasing in numbers.  Go after seals and sea lions, but don't forget the birds.

Locally, they're selling one pound rockfish filets for $24, and lingcod filets for $28/pound.  But I calculate that any fish I catch costs me roughly $500/lb. including the cost of the boat, my license, the mountains of gear...

I need to catch more fish!  Just not more salmon.  Five is enough.

I know from living in Washington about 15 years ago that a lot of the salmon are from hatcheries.  This makes them biologically different from wild fish and compete for the same food in the wild. Unfortunately the government and the tribal councils tend to only see dollar signs.  And 25 bucks a LB for salmon you gotta be mad to buy that. hell last year I saw copper river reds at $20+ in Alaska during the first push.  Crazy.   

Not to be a wiseass, but exactly what is the biological difference between a fish raised in a hatchery and a "wild" fish ?

And when that two "hatchery" fish return and aren't caught and spawn ? Their offspring aren't clipped, so they're "wild". What are you comparing ?

i agree with all of you on limiting catches and even a moratorium on commercial fishing, but i dont see that ever happening untill its to late, lets face it, it all boils down to money, all the politicians are corrupt and being bribed or paid off.
my dad had a friend that was a sea food brooker, acording to him, 60-80% of all pacific salmon go out of the country, most that stays in country come from alaska, now that was in the mid 90's to mid 2000's so these #'s may have changed consideralby but i doubt it, to many greedy people involved

One thing to remember about the Columbia River reforms is it is not about eliminating the commercial fishery it is about  making them change to more selective gear so they will have a lower impact on ESA listed species.  The commercial interests are just afraid of change.   If they were smart they would embrace more selective gear, it will allow them to harvest more fish without exceeded their allocated impacts. 

For those of you on Facebook the Oregon CCA is hosting a live discussion on the Columbia River Reforms Tonight (1/17) at 7 PM.
https://www.facebook.com/events/154032635089259/  Please let me know if this link works

For those folks who have the time and want to show your support for the Columbia River Reforms please attend the January 20th ODFW commission meeting at the Salem Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Headquarters.

Even if you can't make the meeting please go to the Oregon CCA advocacy page and send a letter to the  Governor and commission.  There is also some good background information and a movie on the reforms and gill netting in the Columbia.  http://www.ccaoregon.org/advocacy