Tag Archives: Columbia River gillnet fishery
On the “Kitzhaber Plan” – Promises have not been kept
Until recently, the Columbia River gillnet fishery was a major economic driver in Wahkiakum County and the lower Columbia. The policy focused instead on recreational fishing priority, and has marginalized a fishery that sustained communities in our county and neighboring counties for 150 years. The result is that salmon have been transferred to a mostly non-local transient recreational fleet and away from local residents and economies. >click to read<10:05
The Kitzhaber Plan – State compensation for gillnetters trickles down
Money local commercial salmon fishermen will soon receive as compensation after reform policies pushed them off the Columbia River is “not nothing.” But it’s not quite something, either. “It means a little bit of a paycheck,” said David Quashnick, a gillnetter who has been fishing since he was a teenager and now has two sons who run their own boats.,,, Recreational and salmon conservation groups said the changes would protect salmon. The commercial fishermen said it would destroy their way of life.,, In the past two years, a number of Oregon’s Fish and Wildlife commissioners say they now agree with the commercial fishermen. >click to read<10:57
