Post by RT on Jan 15, 2004 7:46:53 GMT -5
Here is the letter I sent to our US Senators and Representatives (via their website message pages - see the other Columbia springer allocation thread for contact info), and to ODF&W and WDF&W. I urge all sportfishers to send letters. You are welcome to use info from my letter, put into your own words (and made smaller if you want). Numbers of letters translate into 'voters' to these people!
Dear (use Senator, Rep, etc.):
Before making some important comments and alerts, allow me to first include a recent NSIA (Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association) news release:
"NSIA spent 4 months of outreach with Sportfishing leaders in two states. At the same time, we instituted an intensive education program with members of the Commission, ODF&W Staff and members of the Oregon Legislature. We built large consensus supporting a full April mainstem sportfishery for Spring Chinook. The Oregon Commission disregared the business, communities and Legislators in support of the gillnetters. You should be outraged. This decision reduces our allocation by nearly 1/3! E-mail your or call your legislator today."
From what I've been able to find out, this is not a done deal yet. There will be a couple more public hearing meetings prior to final establishment of the Columbia River spring chinook allocations (via Fed ESA impact %). Please reconsider your stance about these important decisions. This letter will be published in various media. Fish manager and state legislator votes will be monitored.
I will give you just a brief review of the pertinent factors involved. The NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) and Columbia River Compact have determined to allow a 15% overall mortality impact to native salmon runs up the Columbia system. A whopping 13% impact has been given to the Columbia Inter-Tribal gillnetters (see below about how that flies in the face of both Treaties and Federal Judge mandates). That leaves a 2% allocation impact to be split between the few commercial netters and scores of thousands of Northwest sportfishers. While the commercial netters spend more dollars within the political arena toward achieving their objectives of increased allowance of killing native steelhead runs and increased mortality impact on native salmon runs, the sportfishing community spends way more than the netters and non-fishing citizens to fund the raising of these hatchery fish to harvest! Especially in light of the recent cuts in the Mitchell Act funding of Columbia hatcheries in aid of commercial netters. And unlike the netters, the sportfishers have the ability to release native fish to better than a 93% survival rate (see ODF&W two year Willamette River spring chinook C&R mortality study results for verification). Also to be considered is the plentiful amount of quality farmed salmon that satisfies much of the grocery/restaurant market demand, negating need for the killing of irreplacable native fish runs in order for the netters to harvest enough hatchery fish to make money.
All sportfishing people of the Northwest, whether they are among the actively supportive of our causes or not, do indeed have good reason to be outraged! We don't just pay a small amount of taxes and electric rates toward salmon restoration like non fishers do ... we pay for millions on licenses fees, additional taxes on the sportfishing related equipment and tackle we buy, and we spend $BILLIONS contributing to the regional economy in general (proven in credible studies)! Sportfishers do this -- not netters or non fishers. ...
Yet the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and now apparently the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, wants to decrease sportfishers share of the allocation and increase the netters allocation of spring chinook this year. This is obviously not fair or right. And many thousands of sportfishers are becoming more and more aware of this, via media and rapidly growing internet fishing websites in this region; and across the country. There is a growing discontent such that a majority of expressed opinions I've seen so many of on the internet, are calling for voting out politicians/legislators/fish managers who do not seek out truth and fairness, but seek out election campaign dollars from constiuents such as the commercial netters!
Please do the fair and right thing. At least allow us our fair higher percent of allocation of these fish we paid for. Then within a reasonably soon time please bring forth the subject of legislating away the native fish killing nets from the Columbia River, that are not needed.
As for the Tribal netting situation, that is a far different story; as you are aware. But are you aware that the reason the Tribes have wrangled out a 6 1/2 times larger allocation on Columbia chinooks is because of an illegal U.S. Department of the Interior Secretarial Order #3206? That order was born out of misinterpretation and wrongly placed sentiment in favor of the Tribes - which, I should add, have received in compensation for possible lost fish income potential (because of the dams) scores of very lucrative gambling casinos. Which ironically depend on large amounts of electricity from those same dams. That is against the US/Tribal Treaties that calls for an equal 50-50 % share of salmon and steelhead deemed harvestable (via fish biologist study and monitoring). It is also against the Federal Court mandates (both Judge Belloni and Judge Boldt Decisions) for an equal 50-50 % share of harvestable fish between the Tribes and non-Tribal fishermen! Please become involved in overseeing future negotiations with the Tribes so we get our fair and lawful equal split of northwest salmon.
Thank you very much for your time and consideration.
Regards,
Steve Hanson
STS magazine columnist
Dear (use Senator, Rep, etc.):
Before making some important comments and alerts, allow me to first include a recent NSIA (Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association) news release:
"NSIA spent 4 months of outreach with Sportfishing leaders in two states. At the same time, we instituted an intensive education program with members of the Commission, ODF&W Staff and members of the Oregon Legislature. We built large consensus supporting a full April mainstem sportfishery for Spring Chinook. The Oregon Commission disregared the business, communities and Legislators in support of the gillnetters. You should be outraged. This decision reduces our allocation by nearly 1/3! E-mail your or call your legislator today."
From what I've been able to find out, this is not a done deal yet. There will be a couple more public hearing meetings prior to final establishment of the Columbia River spring chinook allocations (via Fed ESA impact %). Please reconsider your stance about these important decisions. This letter will be published in various media. Fish manager and state legislator votes will be monitored.
I will give you just a brief review of the pertinent factors involved. The NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) and Columbia River Compact have determined to allow a 15% overall mortality impact to native salmon runs up the Columbia system. A whopping 13% impact has been given to the Columbia Inter-Tribal gillnetters (see below about how that flies in the face of both Treaties and Federal Judge mandates). That leaves a 2% allocation impact to be split between the few commercial netters and scores of thousands of Northwest sportfishers. While the commercial netters spend more dollars within the political arena toward achieving their objectives of increased allowance of killing native steelhead runs and increased mortality impact on native salmon runs, the sportfishing community spends way more than the netters and non-fishing citizens to fund the raising of these hatchery fish to harvest! Especially in light of the recent cuts in the Mitchell Act funding of Columbia hatcheries in aid of commercial netters. And unlike the netters, the sportfishers have the ability to release native fish to better than a 93% survival rate (see ODF&W two year Willamette River spring chinook C&R mortality study results for verification). Also to be considered is the plentiful amount of quality farmed salmon that satisfies much of the grocery/restaurant market demand, negating need for the killing of irreplacable native fish runs in order for the netters to harvest enough hatchery fish to make money.
All sportfishing people of the Northwest, whether they are among the actively supportive of our causes or not, do indeed have good reason to be outraged! We don't just pay a small amount of taxes and electric rates toward salmon restoration like non fishers do ... we pay for millions on licenses fees, additional taxes on the sportfishing related equipment and tackle we buy, and we spend $BILLIONS contributing to the regional economy in general (proven in credible studies)! Sportfishers do this -- not netters or non fishers. ...
Yet the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and now apparently the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, wants to decrease sportfishers share of the allocation and increase the netters allocation of spring chinook this year. This is obviously not fair or right. And many thousands of sportfishers are becoming more and more aware of this, via media and rapidly growing internet fishing websites in this region; and across the country. There is a growing discontent such that a majority of expressed opinions I've seen so many of on the internet, are calling for voting out politicians/legislators/fish managers who do not seek out truth and fairness, but seek out election campaign dollars from constiuents such as the commercial netters!
Please do the fair and right thing. At least allow us our fair higher percent of allocation of these fish we paid for. Then within a reasonably soon time please bring forth the subject of legislating away the native fish killing nets from the Columbia River, that are not needed.
As for the Tribal netting situation, that is a far different story; as you are aware. But are you aware that the reason the Tribes have wrangled out a 6 1/2 times larger allocation on Columbia chinooks is because of an illegal U.S. Department of the Interior Secretarial Order #3206? That order was born out of misinterpretation and wrongly placed sentiment in favor of the Tribes - which, I should add, have received in compensation for possible lost fish income potential (because of the dams) scores of very lucrative gambling casinos. Which ironically depend on large amounts of electricity from those same dams. That is against the US/Tribal Treaties that calls for an equal 50-50 % share of salmon and steelhead deemed harvestable (via fish biologist study and monitoring). It is also against the Federal Court mandates (both Judge Belloni and Judge Boldt Decisions) for an equal 50-50 % share of harvestable fish between the Tribes and non-Tribal fishermen! Please become involved in overseeing future negotiations with the Tribes so we get our fair and lawful equal split of northwest salmon.
Thank you very much for your time and consideration.
Regards,
Steve Hanson
STS magazine columnist
