There was no need to panic

corkyking · 06-06-2005, 10:05 PM

"OLYMPIA - Fishing will reopen Saturday (June 4) for hatchery spring chinook salmon in a portion of the Columbia River that has been closed to salmon anglers since late April due to lagging returns.

Encouraged by a late surge of chinook past Bonneville Dam, fisheries managers from Washington and Oregon today agreed to reopen the fishery from the Rocky Point/Tongue Point line upstream to the Highway 395 Bridge in Pasco."

There was no need to panic but the DFWs decided to anyway. They took a page from the present political thinking that there is no better way to cement power than fomenting a crisis.

We citizens seem to have an endless capacity for taking a beating.

dirtyCut · 06-07-2005, 07:03 AM

Quote:

We citizens seem to have an endless capacity for taking a beating.

Like we have a choice? :depressed:

KC

salmon whisperer · 06-07-2005, 08:00 AM

Quote:

There was no need to panic but the DFWs decided to anyway. They took a page from the present political thinking that there is no better way to cement power than fomenting a crisis.

We citizens seem to have an endless capacity for taking a beating.

I love to fish.... It bugs me when the STATE won't let me do it... I even don't like the fact that I have to buy a license...

This being said, I am glad that someone is watching over the health of the species. I would much rather have a short or closed season to ensure the future runs. If the STATE is going to make a mistake (which it seems that they did) I would MUCH rather see them error on the side of caution. The other side of this argument would be wide-open-season... low counts, over fishing... and the STATE announcing "we guessed wrong, sorry.... the salmon runs are now critically low and we were wrong about the run being late, sorry". "We shouldn't have left the season open, but we did and now the salmon run is in critical danger"

Mojo · 06-07-2005, 08:11 AM

Please answer this question, why are they re-opening the Columbia when they are closing all the salmon seasons in Idaho (the destination of 60% of the upriver fish) due to low returns. Are Oregon and Washington sure that all the fish crossing Bonneville are headed to their trib?

Us upriver guys are sick and tired of taking it in the shorts when it comes to our fish. We don't have any gill net seasons on ANY of our rivers. (Those also aren't our dams.) Idaho doesn't even have a vote when it comes to setting seasons on the Columbia. We get to raise 75% of the downriver migrating smolts, and watch downriver netters, anglers, and sea lions harvest away. Doesn't quite seem equitable to me. Maybe I'm wrong...enlighten me.

fish-on · 06-07-2005, 08:16 AM

mojo , its b/c the states fisheries program is all screwed up and they dont know how to manange things properly

Mojo · 06-08-2005, 06:29 PM

fish-on,
You might be on to something there.

sparkleboy · 06-08-2005, 06:39 PM

How can you say humans can manage anything natural correctly?
Salmon were fine before we started messing with them.
I admit there are different philosophies between state fishery agencies, but the intent is to not to 'screw things up' or close a river Joe Blow fishes while Jim Bob still gets to fish his river.

fishingls · 06-08-2005, 08:45 PM

I am sorry for the up river guys. I'm where the Snake and Columbia meet. However, we used to have salmon runs clear up to Twin Falls, Id. How bout Idaho power pulling Hells Canyon dam and Oxbo :whazzup: :whazzup: :whazzup: Idaho Power agreed to keep salmon spawning above those dams when they licensed them. Idaho Power failed to preserve salmon runs above those dams because they were unwilling to spill water to create enough of a current in those slack water pools to allow for smolt passage downstream. Bottom line, we are all in this together. We need to work to re-establish fish runs. Maybe the tribes will have enough funds from their casinos to litigate their loss of treaty fishery rights because of poor runs. Maybe then when goverments, power companies and barge companies recognize the true costs of neglecting salmon runs, something will happen.

Siwash · 06-09-2005, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Us upriver guys are sick and tired of taking it in the shorts when it comes to our fish. We don't have any gill net seasons on ANY of our rivers. (Those also aren't our dams.) Idaho doesn't even have a vote when it comes to setting seasons on the Columbia. We get to raise 75% of the downriver migrating smolts, and watch downriver netters, anglers, and sea lions harvest away. Doesn't quite seem equitable to me. Maybe I'm wrong...enlighten me.

It's true, the upriver folks do get hosed in a lot of ways. Since you're the last place the fish get to, you're also the last place for the managers to try and make up for everything else that goes wrong downstream. But, fishingls makes a good point about the inter-relationship of the whole system. The 8 dams between Astoria and Lewiston my not be "your" dams, but they do provide barge transport to/from Lewiston, and the 3 big ID Power dams along the OR border also have an impact on the total runs of fish downstream. I can also think of low-water years when spill vs generation is a big issue, how much water gets diverted for agriculture along the Snake before it even reaches OR/WA? There's plenty of responsibility to go around for everyone both upstream and down.