The Clatsop County
Board of Commissioners is inviting public comment on a proposal by Gov. John
Kitzhaber to restrict commercial salmon gillnet fishing on the lower Columbia
River.
The board will accept
input at its Wednesday, Nov. 28 meeting beginning at 6 p.m. at the Judge Guy
Boyington Building, 857 Commercial St., Astoria.
The Governor’s
proposal, presented to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission in August, would
prevent the use of gillnets by non-tribal fishers on the main channel of the
lower Columbia River, and would restrict them to off-channel areas within the
Select Area Fisheries Enhancement (SAFE) program. The commission is scheduled to
consider a series of rules implementing the proposal Dec. 6 in Portland, and the
Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission is taking up a corresponding set of
regulations Dec. 14 in Olympia.
The Clatsop County
commissioners want to hear from fishing families and others how the proposed
rule changes would affect them. The county will submit all comments to the
Oregon and Washington fish and wildlife commissions.
The board of
commissioners has gone on record in opposition to the proposal, arguing in a
letter sent to Kitzhaber that the SAFE fisheries program, a joint project of
Clatsop County, the Bonneville Power Administration and Oregon and Washington
fish and wildlife departments, is intended as a supplemental source of salmon
for commercial gillnet harvesters, and that there is limited capacity in the
existing SAFE sites on the lower Columbia River to accommodate more fishing
vessels.
More information on
the proposed rules is available online at: http://www.dfw.state.or.us/fish/OSCRP/CRM/LMCR_fisheries_mgmt_reform.asp
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