A coalition of fishing groups, with the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association at the top, has announced that two bills have been introduced to get commercial Chinook salmon gillnetters off the Columbia River. It is informed that Senate Bill 554 and House Bill 2734 would implement the so-called “SAFE for Salmon” proposal.
If the bills approved it would move the commercial fleet into lower-river sloughs and blind channels — known as Select Area Fisheries Evaluation sites — in which salmon are raised in mesh pens to release size, and to which they return as adults. Sponsors of the House bill are reps. Scott Bruun, R-West Linn and Bill Kennemer, R-Oregon City, and sens. Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg, and Alan Bates, D-Ashland.
Sponsors of the Senate bill are reps. Bruun and Kennemer, sens. Kruse, Bates and Frank Morse, R-Albany. The se bills are first said to be presented to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commissioners, it was immediately panned by the gillnet anglers and officials with communities where the boats are docked. It’s probably no coincidence that the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission will meet Friday in Astoria to approve sport and commercial spring Chinook salmon seasons for the Columbia and Willamette rivers.
