The solid red line is the proposed new exclusion zone for fishing from August 1 through September 15, 2014. The dotted red line is the current lower commercial line. Click on the map for a larger version.
Sawdust Pile Closed to sportfishing?!!?
Don’t support this? Then you need to show up at the ODFW Commission on February 7, and email testimony to: odfw.commission@state.or.us if you are in Oregon. Because the river is jointly managed, also contact the Washington Commission: commission@dfw.wa.gov.
The ODFW Staff has put out a proposal to their Commission to create an exclusion zone from the mouth of Youngs Bay to the green can line. Department staff communicated that this area (see map here) will be closed to sportfishing from August 1st to September 15th. ODFW Staff also indicated that they are test netting gillnets in this part of the main stem.
The Commission will decide on this exclusion zone on February 7th at their Salem HQ, 4034 Fairview Industrial Drive SE Salem, OR 97302, Time TBD. If you don’t show up and express opposition to this proposal, you will have no voice in the size of the area Sportfishing will be excluded from in August and part of September.
NSIA and our allies support moving to a new management agreement for the Columbia Basin that optimizes the economics of the fisheries and provides better conservation and protection for native and non-targeted stocks. And two years into the change, the sports community has absorbed all the costs, including : A fee increase, barbless hooks, loss of sturgeon retention, all while defending Oregon’s position in the gillnetters lawsuit. Tough changes, but all part of getting to a sport priority in the mainstem, while providing increased economics for the gillnetters in the safe zones. We believe that this oversized exclusion zone is unnecessary (and many describe it a punitive) for the following reasons:
- Safety– This exclusion zone is a dangerous proposal, especially for smaller boats. It puts off-limits the area’s “safe harbor” in bad weather/tide conditions, and forces boats to go further to fish (particularly those that use the Skippanon River) and further from safety when conditions suddenly change, as often happens in the Columbia Estuary. Proximity TO SHORE is safety.
- Economic Optimization-Shutting down the most important section of the river for the Buoy 10 area during Early August is counter to goal of optimizing economics. Both sport and commercial were supposed to be enhanced. The safe areas on most years, harvest more fish than the entire sport fleet from Astoria to Bonneville and now their fisheries are being enhanced further with increased production. It’s time to enhance, not harm the sport economics!
- Punitive-So far the plan measures have only been implemented on the sport side. This proposal borders on being punitive and arbitrary.
- Unnecessary-The department has estimated that 7-9% of the returning adults are being intercepted. They have also said they can raise and transfer this number right now, today. The commercial fleet received ample assurances of growth – more types of gear, more production, more funding.
- Any Exclusion Zone must have criteria for removal.
- Lawsuit-Given that the sport side has ‘paid it forward’ on the agreement, this discussion should be tabled at least until the Gillnetter’s lawsuit is settled. Enough has been done in good faith.
This proposal for an arbitrarily large exclusion zone closing one of the most important and popular areas of the B10 fishery is the wrong response to SB830. The Department risks breaking faith with sport fishing community with the troubling precedent of shutting down water that is an extremely popular sportfishing area for no demonstrated reason. Closing a zone of this size will harm, not optimize Sportfishing economics in the first two weeks of August. Instead we should be working on a Buoy 10 fishery that goes from August 1 through September 30th!
Attend the meeting and make your voice heard about this important issue!
For more information contact Liz Hamilton at nsializ@aol.com or 503-631-8859