If you fish sturgeon or crab in the Columbia Estuary, you may want to comment on the Channel "Improvement" project (see
https://www.nwp.usace.army.mil./) which will deepen the channel by 3' by doing such things as dumping dredge spoils in the basin between Tongue Point and Lois and Mott Islands, essentially filling it. This is just out of John Day boat ramp where a lot of you folks sturgeon fish. Eventually this project plans to dump spoils in many other places including ocean crab habitat.
While the Corps info says the project has minimal impact on listed species (threatened salmon runs), it does'nt say much about the impact on Sturgeon and crab.
The last public hearing for this project was Tuesday (10 Sep) but you can e-mail your comments to
Robert.E.Willis@usace.army.mil untill Monday 16 Sep. They will not accept comments after that date.
At Tuesdays hearing the usual big money folks, ports, pressure groups etc. who stand to profit from this $100 million + project spoke in its support.
Speaking in opposition were primarily crabbers, commercial fishermen and folks from CREST and Sea resources. Conspicuous by their abscence were large crowds of sport fishermen.
The Oregonian recently wrote a series on this subject.
if you fish sturgeon or crab in the estuary
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