What does Oregon have going on with fish politics???

[stefanoflo]

being from Northern California and loving fishing for trout salmon and steelhead . here we have a issue with water and how we want to build tunnels or Pump water for the water barrons and the farmers
at the chance of ruining our fisheries and the California Delta . my question is . I`m sure each state had there own as you would say" Fish war".
what does Oregon have that is threatening the fishing or the fisheries in your state. also the same if anyone know whats going on in Washington state
I`m thinking we on the west coast have great fisheries. Our politicians have other ideas when it come to our water and the fish
I`m curious . if California has it worse that everyone else .

 

[DrTheopolis]

Probably the biggest thing is the battle between commercial fishing interests (Netters) and the sport fishing interest (Sporties). The small number of Commercials have all the political clout, so they win. We (some of us) had to buy an extra fishing endorsement to buy the Commercials new nets (although they cooked the books to claim otherwise)... it's that bad.

 

[Irishrover]

Some may not agree but I believe we have rounded the corner here in Oregon with regard to Salmon and steelhead (anadromous fish). One of the things that impacted the fish viability was the degradtion of fish habitat. As a life long Oregonian growing up in the late 50s and early 60s I can remember what a cesspool the Willamette River was. I remember the Umitillia River without water, and I can remember the building of The Dalles and John Day Dams. I can remember when they closed the ocean to salmon fishing off the central coast and when they shut down sringer fishing on the Columbia system. Now they is water in the Umitilla and the fish have returned, logging has been cut way back, we have had great seasons for coho on the central coast springer fishings is back, people actually water ski on the Willamette and they expect 1.6 million chinook to return to the Columbia system this fall. I could go on and on about Oregons successes there are many.

Dr T is has a point when it comes to the political aspect of the fisheries. Oregon as well as California has a rich history of commericial fishing. Some commercial methods do need to be looked at especially on the Columbia system.

Oregon and Washinginton, on the Westsides have pleanty of water. What the biggest worry is the threat of shipping water from the Columbia System to Califorinia.

 

[eugene1]

Fish wars in Oregon are nothing like what California is facing. In Oregon, there is plenty of water for the most part.

 

[troutmasta]

I love Oregon.
I love our fisheries.

 

[DrTheopolis]

In Oregon, there is plenty of water for the most part.

In a third of it, anyway.

I also agree with Irishrover's points.

 

[stefanoflo]

calif water and fish issues

calif water and fish issues

Fish wars in Oregon are nothing like what California is facing. In Oregon, there is plenty of water for the most part.

I agree with the water In california we want our streams to be pumped to the south for food and farmers and also am looking at taking the water from our delta . when we have it they want it
when we don`t have water as was the case last year, we had low water and they still send and pumped water down south and now we have have low water levels on our dams and they want more
Maybe thay can get water out of sand in a few years, if we do`nt get rain here in Calif. i`ll take Oregon and Washington water and fish over anything California can fish up ,I`m thinking those that are suppose to know, should know Californian at one time was a part of Mexico and we know Mexico has wet and dry years . you would think they would be smarter on the water issue.

 

[rogerdodger]

Probably the biggest thing is the battle between commercial fishing interests (Netters) and the sport fishing interest (Sporties). The small number of Commercials have all the political clout, so they win. We (some of us) had to buy an extra fishing endorsement to buy the Commercials new nets (although they cooked the books to claim otherwise)... it's that bad.

Dr.T is correct that the lower Columbia is in a transitional period that over the next few years should reduce the commercial netting impact and be good long-term for sport fishing. Overall the Columbia seems in good shape, huge fall runs predicted and great success from Native efforts up the river, including discussions to get migrating fish past Grand Coulee dam, potentially adding back thousands of miles of habitat...

Moving to Coastal Oregon, where water is almost never in short supply, things look very good as the COASTAL MULTI-SPECIES CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT PLAN (CMP) nears completion, this could have been a political mess; I reviewed it thoroughly and it looks really good and when you see the diverse groups of people involved it is really encouraging to see such a positive outcome. I am very optimistic about the future of coastal salmon and steelhead fishing under this new plan.

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/fish/CRP...ies/CMP_Public_Review_ExecSummary_1-15-14.pdf

cheers, roger

 

[brandon4455]

that plan has some flaws imo, namely the adding of wild steelhead retention in 3 small streams.

 

[rogerdodger]

that plan has some flaws imo, namely the adding of wild steelhead retention in 3 small streams.

I support the new wild steelhead retention plan, it is very limited and imo could actually reduce wild fish mortality in those rivers:
-------------------------------
Winter Steelhead

1 Catch-and-release fisheries on wild winter steelhead exist in most locations and will
continue. Given the species’ strong biological status, a very modest wild harvest is
proposed in 4 of the 49 Management Areas – Salmon River; Big Elk Creek/Yaquina River;
East Fork Coquille River; and Sixes River, where harvest is currently allowed (see Figure 12).

2 The maximum annual harvest of wild fish will be limited to ≤10% of the wild run in the
three new harvest areas.

3 Harvest will be regulated by a proposed bag limit of 1 fish daily/3 fish annually in Salmon
River, Big Elk Creek/Yaquina River, East Fork Coquille River, and 1 fish daily/5 fish annually
in the Sixes River.
------------------------------

 

[eugene1]

The new coastal management plan is a bit weak on protection/management of Spring chinook, based on some sources. I think they do have a point.

Take care,

 

[rogerdodger]

The new coastal management plan is a bit weak on protection/management of Spring chinook, based on some sources. I think they do have a point.

Take care,

Sean- I might have missed the key item or area but were people looking for additional limitations on wild spring chinook (CHS) retention beyond what is planned? or are the increased CHS hatchery releases a concern?

Spring Chinook hatchery release changes: 120K more in the Nestucca, 125K Wilson moved to Trask plus 55K more, 100K new in Yaquina and 100K new in CoosBay to establish new CHS runs...

reduced Wild CHS retention: Umpqua is changing to a sliding scale limit- 1/1, 2/5, 2/10. looks like Siletz also has reductions in wild CHS: 1/1, 1/5, 1/10. these seem to make sense.

the sliding retention deal is spreading everywhere and I approve of that, Siuslaw for example (where I plan to continue getting much of my food ), fall wild Chinooks limit will be set based on run to be 1/5, 2/10, or 2/20. this makes sense.

bottom line- I am curious to hear about exact weaknesses in the plan, where did they miss a chance to do better? cheers...