Counties oppose Kitzhaber plan

Commissioners from Wahkiakum County, Washington, and Columbia and Clatsop counties, Oregon, have agreed to voice opposition to efforts in Oregon to move gillnets out of the mainstem of the Columbia River.

A coalition of sport fishing interests started a petition drive last winter to put a measure on the Oregon ballot to end gillnetting in Oregon.

And in August, Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber ordered his Fish and Wildlife Department to prepare rules that would move gillnets to side channels and bays, called select areas, which have releases of pen reared salmon.

Gillnetters oppose the regulations and say the move could put them out of business and deprive Oregon consumers of access to Columbia River salmon.

Washington fishery managers, meanwhile, are studying what the regulations mean for Washington, for the states are bound by the Columbia River Compact to manage salmon harvests jointly.

Commissioners from the three counties have formed a coalition to lobby on fishery issues; they met September 27 in Cathlamet to go over the latest developments.

Oregon officials noted that major backers of the initiative had withdrawn their support after Kitzhaber's announcement.

However, the initiative is still alive, they said, and opponents are mounting publicity campaigns in the Portland and Willamette Valley areas where the bulk of Oregon's population lives.

Opponents will be focusing on the access to market and the likely loss of Columbia River fish if gillnetting is banned.

Clatsop officials said they are starting their own campaign. As public officials, Commissioner Dirk Rohne said, they can't take a position on a particular ballot issue, but they're advertising the role the county plays in delivering fish to consumers and thanking them for their support.

The group agreed they would draft a letter to be sent to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission outlining the reasons for their opposition to Kitzhaber's proposal.

Guy Norman, regional manager of Washington Fish and Wildlife, and Steve Williams, assistant administrator of inland fisheries for Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, reported on the roles their departments are taking.

The agencies have formed the Columbia River Work Group to go over the Kitzhaber proposal, Norman said. The group has agency staff and representatives of the commercial and sport fishing industry.

There will be a website so people can keep track of developments, Norman said. The group is supposed to make its reports in December.

Cathlamet fish buyer and county commissioner candidate Mike Backman said he felt the reports and decisions should be made after Washington elects a new governor.

"Our new governor needs to be responsible for the decision," he said. "The old governor can just walk away."

One provision of the Kitzhaber plan would be to allow use of other gear, such as purse seines, which are under study, on the mainstem while relegating gillnets to the select areas. Another provision would give sport fishers top priority for harvest, with commercial fishing starting after sport fishers have reached certain harvest levels.

There are problems with those provisions, said Skamokawa gillnetter Kent Martin.

The alternative gear is most effective at the peak of a run, Martin said. If commercial fishers fish the tail end of the run, there likely won't be enough income to make the fishery economically viable.

"W recognize that if the gear is going to be successful, it will have to be fished on the peak of the run," Norman said. "That's when the hatchery fish are there. That's when the upriver brights are there."

It will also be difficult to target stocks. Some wild fish stocks are abundant, others aren't. Hatcheries were built to supply fish for the commercial industry, and if commercial fishers don't harvest the fish, there may be a move to close the hatcheries.

And with state and federal fish managers trying to eliminate hatchery fish from lower Columbia River tributaries, it will be difficult to pump up the production of hatchery reared fish in the select area rearing pens without some of the returning adults straying into the tributaries.

Norman commented that WDFW thinks a seine fishery would need access to abundant upriver bright chinooks and silvers to be viable.

"We have hired a consultant to look at the economic aspects," he said. "We're trying to look at all these concerns from an economic standpoint.

"We recognize the need: The industry has to be able to make money."

The agencies need to be heard, Martin said.

"The agencies haven't drawn a line in the sand," Martin said. "The information is there, but it's always buried in documents so that the department doesn't have to face a recreational fishery diatribe."

"This will be a very visible public process we're going through," Norman replied.