Town hall to focus on fish season

Wahkiakum County commissioners will host a town hall meeting next Wednesday to discuss the recently completed spring salmon season.

Staff of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife have said they will attend, and county commissioners are also inviting Governor Chris Gregoire and other elected officials.

The meeting will be at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the River Street Meeting Room, Cathlamet.

Commissioners said they scheduled the meeting "in response to growing concerns over the shortened commercial and sports salmon fishing season on the lower Columbia River."

"Commercial and sports fishermen are outraged at the decision to close the fisheries on the lower Columbia," Commissioner Dan Cothren said in a written statement. "The closure has impacted our economy and makes little sense when it is left open on the upper river."

Kent Martin, a commercial fisherman from Skamokawa, provided data Tuesday showing the economic impact of commercial fishermen.

Commercial fishermen caught 886 sturgeon from mid-January to February 14 with a retail value of $194,000, he said.

In three fishing periods in April, the fishermen caught 5,952 spring chinook with a retail value of $1.4 million, he said.

Meanwhile, sport fishermen were limited to 12 days of fishing below the Interstate 5 bridge at Vancouver.

Martin commented that the decision to restrict both sport and commercial fishing was politically motivated to benefit the recreational fishing industry in the Portland area.

Fishery managers said lower river fishing was limited to minimize impacts on Willamette River stocks, which were expected to produce poor hatchery returns. However, recreational fishing has been seven days a week on the Willamette, he said.

He added that members of the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission also made politically based reductions to commercial fishing.

"Basically, the lower Columbia economies associated with sport and commercial fishing go shortchanged by urban greed and a reallocation agenda on the part of the Washington commission," Martin commented.

"It's pure urban colonialism."

"I hope this meeting is an eye opener for the recreational fishermen to see what the urban fishermen have done to us," Cothren said.

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