Oregon and Washington fish and wildlife stakeholders this week agreed on recommendations that would phase out the use of commercial gillnets by non-tribal fishers on the mainstem lower Columbia River by 2016. The move would prioritize selective recreational fisheries—offset by hatchery-bolstered commercial fisheries in off-channel areas.
Via The Columbia Basin Bulletin: “The proposal recommends the reprogramming of more hatchery fish for release in existing select areas ‘to offset the economic harm’ of banning mainstem gillnet harvests.”
Sportfishing interests say the move is necessary to buoy conservation efforts aimed at reviving wild, protected steelhead and salmon incidentally trapped in fish-choking nets. Commercial fishing advocates, on the other hand, have labelled the proposal a “death knell” for the industry and businesses it supports.
Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.