Lower Columbia River Netting

It is amazing that some stupid asshat has not decided to fly every bomber the US and UN have over Afghanistan and bomb and napalm every square inch of the country trying to destroy Al Qaeda. That same fucked up thinking is what the commercial fishermen are doing in the Lower Columbia River. In this day of endangered species and dwindling runs of anadromous fish in the Columbia River basin, these fishermen are killing fish indiscriminately. Changes in mesh net size is horse shit. Steelhead, sturgeon, and four species of salmon that run the Columbia River are getting injured and killed in the process. These fish which stop eating, climb native and man made obstacles, burn energy stores in order to get back to their native streams to spawn, are getting raped on their way up river. Many of these fish that do escape from these nets are injured and most likely will not live to spawn. This is especially so for native steelhead that spawns in the late winter and spring of the following year.

Now as a fisherman, I may be a hypocrite to a certain extent, but my impact is ridiculously marginal in comparison to the Lower Columbia fishing fleet. I feel bad for these fishermen that are loosing their jobs because of the restrictions that they face in order to fish as much as I do for my friends and family that are out of work due to the fall of our economy from the Bush administration. Regardless something needs to be done to prevent this from happening. Decades ago their were twenty and thirty pound spring and fall steelhead that swam that got netted with spring and fall chinook salmon. It makes you think doesn’t it?

Now there are many reasons why our native fish have disappeared and it is not solely because of the gill net fishery, but this is one thing that we can stop now! We are not talking about tribal fisheries here either.

Sorry for the rant. I used up all of my political correctness at work this week.

















This summer steelhead if native would not have lived through the winter to spawn in the spring. Fishing in the Lower Columbia is currently for summer chinook, fish much larger then summer steelhead.





































These gashes could have come from a sea lion after or while dealing with the net. Regardless, the fish would have had a better chance fleeing a predator if it was not beat up.