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Dear NSIA Friends and Associates,
It’s time for change, NOW! Our
industry, this region and our Columbia River fishery
resources can not afford another minute of status quo.
Today, a revolutionary white paper
(read at
www.nsiafishing.org) was released by four scientists,
who also serve on NSIA’s Science and Policy Board, outlining
a new future for Columbia River harvest. Proposing an end
to age old conflicts, these scientists have pointed the way
to a future that is better for wild fish, continues to
provide quality fish from non treaty commercial fisheries,
and could ultimately provide a near doubling of the economic
benefits from Columbia River salmon, steelhead and sturgeon
off the coastlines of Oregon and Washington, the Buoy 10
fishery and communities throughout the great northwest.
The SAFE for Salmon campaign
(of which NSIA is one of many partners, including OR Council
of Trout Unlimited, Northwest Guides and Anglers
Association, Puget Sound Anglers and the Association of
Northwest Steelheaders) is officially launched to support
the concepts in this white paper designed to remove
gill nets out of the mainstem of the Columbia River below
Bonneville dam.
Contact your Legislator today, (http://www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr/home.htm)
(http://www.leg.wa.gov/legislature/)
and let them know that you support the SAFE for Salmon
Campaign, and you expect them to also. Send them a copy
of the white paper, which you can download from NSIA’s
website. Tell them it’s time for change, time to end the
conflicts. Don’t forget to send your e-mail to the
Governor’s offices, as well, especially in Washington
State. Selective fisheries and harvest reforms must be an
election issue and 2008 and sreolved in 2009. We have a
win-win solution and it is time to embrace the future of
fisheries management.
Call, and write your legislator and
the Governor today, and continue to do so every week!
Talking points and information are
provided below. For more information call 503 631 8859 or
866 315 NSIA.
SAFE for Salmon seeks to:
- Redistribute and enhance sport and
commercial fishing efforts by moving Columbia River
commercial gillnetting exclusively into terminal areas,
such as Youngs Bay in Astoria. Net pens in terminal area
imprint and release smolts with adult return rates that
are often greater than those released in hatcheries.
- Commit to enhancing these select
areas to produce more fish for area gillnetters and
processors.
- Transfer the ESA impacts to
the sport fishing community and provide more Columbia
River and ocean sport fishing opportunity.
- Reduce hatchery strays on spawning
beds, while maintaining hatchery releases.
- Enhance Coastal and mainstem
sport fishing through more effective release strategies.
We all know that the conflict has
centered on the fact that there aren’t enough ESA-listed
fish to go around. Given strict Endangered Species Act
mandates the allowable levels of harvest permitted under
these guidelines results in shortened seasons and tens
of millions of dollars of lost economic benefit to Oregon
and Washington across both sport and commercial fishing
communities.
The fish and wildlife commissions in
Oregon and Washington have the authority to initiate this
solution, but generally chose to stay the course and divide
the main stem Columbia fish between sport and commercial
interests. They have indicated that they are implementing
the will of the Legislature.
- Conservation. Clear conservation
goals are achieved through this plan. Because salmon
adults will return to terminal areas where they were
released, they will not mix with upriver stocks, and
hatchery fish can be harvested commercially without
harming ESA listed wild stocks. Reprogramming more
hatchery fish to lower river sites also reduces stray
hatchery fish on the wild spawning grounds.
- Economics. This plan will generate
millions of dollars in additional economic value from
sport fishing and tourism to Oregon, Washington and
lower-Columbia River communities. These benefits will
extend to: Sporting goods retailers, boat builders and
boat dealers, fishing equipment manufacturers, fishing
guides and the long list of local, regional and national
businesses that depend on Sportfishing opportunity.
- Bycatch. Bycatch mortality of
non-targeted species such as wild steelhead, sockeye and
sturgeon will be virtually eliminated through this plan.
- License sales. Expanded sport
fishing license sales will stabilize the financial status
of both (OR/WA) fisheries agencies and their conservation
mission.
- Climate change and management
uncertainties. Given the unpredictability of run
forecasts and timing, selective sport fisheries are a
softer touch on the resources and far more easily managed
for conservation, than gill net fisheries.
Some Useful Details:
- Follow the plan. The SAFE areas
were originally created to wean in-river non-tribal
gillnet interests off the Columbia and into these areas.
SAFE stands for Select Areas Fisheries Enhancement.
- This plan effectively doubles the
sport and commerical fisheries. Studies show that moving
coho salmon smolts from upriver hatcheries to release in
Youngs Bay terminal area doubles overall survival into
ocean fisheries and quadruples overall harvest benefit,
including substantial expansion of the ocean, Buoy 10 and
commerical fisheries.
- Coastal communities win too. Higher
ocean survival rates means more sport and commercial
fishing opportunities for Oregon’s coastal communities.
- Sport fishing means business.
Currently, the regional (N.W.) sport fishing supports
nearly 31,000 fulltime jobs and more than $3 billion of
economic benefit to the region.
- There are approximately 600,000
licensed anglers in OR and approximately 800,000 in
Washington.
- Boating wins. Based on a 1996 Sea
Grant study, boating in Oregon is a $1 billion a year
industry that provides direct and indirect fulltime
employment to 25,000 Oregonians. With 70% of the boats
sold in Oregon used primarily for Sportfishing enhanced
salmon fishing opportunities will provide immediate and
substantial benefit to this industry.
- Comparative dollars and good sense.
Each day of sport salmon fishing contributes roughly $175
to the economy for gas, bait, food, lodging and gear. A
commercially caught salmon will usually sell for $30-$150
per fish at the dock, depending on species and season. In
some years the angler days for Columbia Spring Chinook, a
6 week season, have been as high as 150,000 (150,000 x
$175 = $26,250,000)!
- What’s the downside? Sport and
commercial interests win; tribal interests win; coastal
and Columbia Basin communities win; conservation interests
win; the agencies win; and most importantly, our valued
salmon resources win.
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