What would you pay...

Salmonator · 04-20-2001, 09:47 PM

Assuming a commercial fisherman was willing to sell, what would you pay as a one-time surcharge on your 2002 or 2003 fishing license to buy out commercial licenses never to be issued again? Do not quote me, but I came across a site that stated that there was 647,000 licensed anglers in the state of oregon. A $10 surcharge would raise over 6 million bucks. I would gladly pay 50 bucks if I knew the nets weren't ever going in again. What a shot in the arm that would be for the Columbia sturgeon and salmon fisheries and native escapement... Joe

BUGLEMAN · 04-20-2001, 09:56 PM

Count me in. How much to buy out the Guardians of Mother Earth?

Chris Sessions · 04-20-2001, 10:56 PM

Great question!
All nets?
At least $100...if needed ...more.
SS

jawbreaker · 04-20-2001, 11:28 PM

Great idea! What better way for the Sport Fisherman/woman to flex our influential power to its maximum potential than to back bounce a big gob of bait...err money in front of them. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

smilesforu · 04-20-2001, 11:31 PM

That would be the best money you ever spent!!! The fishing economy would benefit 10 fold. I have been stumping for this type of proposal for quite a while now. The biggest problem you would have is each Tribe has their own and separate rights. There is a 10% tax that every fishermen pays on the production of fishing tackle. That money goes into a superfund to pay for enhancement opportunities for the sportsmen. There is a lot of money available to pursue the cause with a little organization. I am willing to donate time and webspace to help get it organized. It is to big for me to do by myself, would need lots of help getting it up and running. Together sportsmen can have a major impact divided we are overshadowed by Commercials.

Pete · 04-21-2001, 06:28 AM

Several years ago Washington did an experimental buy back of gillnet licenses. They spent $4 million to buy back something like 300 gillnet and charter licenses, only about 80 were Columbia River licenses. Considering that there are something like 5500 active licenses and the licenses which were retired were willing sellers I suspect it would take a heck of an investment to buy out the rest of the commercial guys, let alone the treaty based fisheries.

See details at:
Oregon State Gillnet Study

[ 04-21-2001: Message edited by: Pete ]