Help save our wild Steelhead from Commercial Gillnetting.
Save our heritage of recreational fishing, please sign this petition.
In this global climate change era, anadromous fish are on a rapid decline. Some of the key multifaceted reasons are climate change, and commercial fishing. Since wild Steelhead and Salmon are a catch and release fishery for recreational fishermen, their fishing effect is minimal.
This petition focus is to stop Commercial Tribal Fishing on the Olympic Peninsula, and Commercial Tribal, and Commercial non-Tribal Gillnetting on the Columbia River and its Washington State tributaries. Also Skagit River.
How to do this – Washington State pays participating Tribes and Commercial Fishermen not to fish in these rivers. In the Columbia River this would also include Salmon as Gillnets are non-selective, high mortality, means of fish catching.
• This payment would be like the way USDA pays farmers not to grow crops.
• Washington State is paying for the fish before the commercial fishermen puts the fish in their nets.
Proposed payment ideas:
Olympic Peninsula (Tribes that opt in) will receive payment paid by recreational fishing licenses. A good model to consider is the Canadian, British Columbia, River Classifications Tags. Where the Steelhead angler pays a set amount per season, day, or week to fish a river, that money would go to the participating tribe. The tribe and WDFW would negotiate this ever season.
Commercial Tribal Gillnetting on the Columbia River – payments can be made using a Columbia River endorsement tag.
Non-Tribal Gillnetting on the Columbia River – Washington State can resume its license buyback program that is ran from 1995-1998. See details here:
https://www.cfec.state.ak.us/RESEARCH/buyback/WA_BB.PDF
Also diverting fish recovery funds (Mitchell Act, BPA, Lacey $, etc.) to subsidize the end of commercial netting.
