Gillnet Ban on the Columbia

A Summer from a few years past that got tangled in a gillnet. 

Though this has nothing to do with tribal netting in the Columbia, enough signatures have been gathered in Oregon to propose a November ballot. This is great news! This old school indiscriminate form of fishing has been killing the same native fish we are spending millions of dollars each year to protect. It is nice to see people getting together to solve this issue.

It is my belief that gillnets in the Lower Columbia and overharvest decades ago has led to the loss of genetic stability that produced the once 20 pound winter steelhead that swam into Southwest Washington streams. Spring netting coincided the same time as when these legendary steelhead returned to their native streams. Though there are other obvious reasons for the demise of these legendary fish, this is one factor that obviously affected those fish. Though they disregard today's bycatch as marginal, back when the runs were more healthy, I am sure the impact was much more significant.

Read more via Oregon Live.