Tag Archives: Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber
Commission to get briefed on Columbia River salmon fishing reforms
State fisheries officials will brief the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission here Saturday on the results of the 2013-2016 transition period of the Columbia River salmon management reforms and ask for guidance heading into 2017. In late 2012 and early 2013, the Washington and Oregon commissions adopted the biggest overhaul of Columbia River salmon policies in decades. Jumpstarted by former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, the policies called for allocating more chinook salmon to sportsmen in the main Columbia and restricting gillnetting to off-channel sites like Youngs Bay near Astoria. Read the rest here 10:41
On the Columbia River Commercial fishermen are endangered
It seems a bit odd that some of our neighbors should have to reintroduce themselves. But many new residents in our community don’t seem to know who they are. They are your fishermen. The vast majority of citizens are not recreational or commercial fishermen. We live on one of the world’s great rivers — once known as the world’s greatest salmon stream. Astoria also was once known as the salmon-canning capital of the world. But development of the Columbia River basin, and the era of hydroelectric dam building, eliminated all but around 40 percent of the Columbia’s existing salmon habitat. Our once great abundance of salmon is no longer what it was. But it’s not gone. Not by a long shot. Last year, the largest run of Chinook salmon since 1938 returned to the Columbia. This is still the greatest producer of Chinook salmon, also known as king salmon, in the world. And if you like to eat salmon (I know I do), someone has to catch it for you. For most of us, that means we depend on commercial fishermen. Read the story here 09:49
Columbia River Seine fishery starts counting toward wild-salmon allocation
All fishermen on the river — both sport and commercial — are limited to a certain percentage of wild salmon they are allowed to catch, handle or keep. Last year, the first commercial seine fishery in more than 50 years fished the river but operated under “research impacts” rather than regular commercial impacts. As the seiners landed fish, any wild fish that got mixed into the nets didn’t get deducted from regular commercial impacts. This year they will. Read the rest here 16:25
Agencies weighing next steps in gillnet-replacement fisheries on the Columbia River
Purse and beach seine gear could be a part of the regular Columbia River commercial salmon fishery this year, drawing from the same pool as the rest of the fleet — even when it comes to the number of fish they can keep or handle before everyone has to stop fishing. Whether or not the new seine fishery will exist has come down to a question of numbers. Specifically, which numbers.After testing seine gear on the river following a mandate from Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber to phase out the use of commercial gillnets on the mainstem of the Columbia,,, Read the rest here 14:27
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber’s festering dispute with the commercial fishing community comes to a head
At the governor’s invitation, five lower Columbia River representatives met with Kitzhaber in his office at the World Trade Center in Portland. The conflict centers on a dramatic change in fish allocation and gear policy that Gov. Kitzhaber put in motion in an Aug. 9, 2012 letter to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission. The essence of that shift was to end “perennial and divisive conflicts,, Read the rest here 09:55
