Columbia River salmon fisheries are in chaos.

* Fisheries agencies attempt to balance sport and non-Indian commercial gill-net fisheries within tight Endangered Species Act (ESA) constraints.
* Sportsmen are frustrated by reduced fishing seasons, abrupt closures and increased license fees.
* Commercial fishermen are frustrated by mainstem constraints on protected salmon and steelhead, putting harvestable hatchery salmon off limits.
* Environmentalists object to bycatch of protected fish and genetic impacts from too many stray hatchery salmon mixing with wild salmon on spawning grounds.
* Businesses suffer devastating economic losses when the states of Oregon and Washington curtail salmon seasons. Sportfishing supports nearly 31,000 jobs in the Pacific Northwest. Many are directly tied to the Columbia River.
* The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Department proposes to raise sport license fees by 20% in 2009 and the Washington Fish and Wildlife Department will soon follow. But anglers balk at paying more for less fishing. Steep decreases in angling license sales snowball into lost opportunity for everyone.

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Managing Sturgeon for a Future-Forward With the Rear View Mirror,
Or forward With a Vision?
January 2007

By an amazing piece of good fortune, the Columbia River is still the lifeblood that sustains sturgeon fisheries to McNary Dam, to Willamette Falls, and in estuaries along the Oregon and Washington coastline. While hydroelectric dams have destroyed much of sturgeon’s original spawning and quality rearing habitat, the area below Bonneville Dam continues to sustain the healthiest population of white sturgeon remaining anywhere. The Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association (NSIA) would like to request that the States of Oregon and Washington invest the time to review the health of sturgeon, the history of sturgeon fishing and the future of both. We are writing to seek a year long review, outline our rational and philosophy, and share a short catalog of near term and mid term concepts and management tools that can bridge to a new approach to sturgeon management and harvest.

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