Gill Nets

bobsmithna · Joined: 10 Apr 2000 Posts: 25

Why is it that the park ranger volunteer at The Hatchery can nearly break a blood vessel screaming at us for having our dogs resting peacefully under a tree, when 50 feet away the gill net is stretched directly across the launch, and people are getting swept into it, nearly drowning, and having to be cut loose from it before they get dragged underwater? Who's protecting what from whom?

westender · Joined: 02 Aug 2007 Posts: 1288 Location: Portland / Gorge

Maybe the dogs on leash rule is something he can enforce and the nets are none of his business? The fish might not be smart enough to avoid nets but I think people should be.

I've heard of nets being cut because they were conflicting with recreation. Native American's of several tribes come from different areas of the NW to fish here.

If someone has a beef with the nets they can contact the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.

http://www.critfc.org/

wmike · Joined: 20 Jan 2001 Posts: 207 Location: Maui

bobsmithna,

Are you referring to the part German Shepard dog that was off a leash up in the parking lot pissing and pooping around the cars? That should have been a fine. If you don't like the rules the option is to go some where else. Only one dog owner appeared to think he was superior to all the other dog owners respecting the rules.

And the Indians have a Federal right to fish where they want within the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.

surfersteve · Joined: 24 Apr 2007 Posts: 203

I talked to a woman at the Indians Affairs office about two weeks ago regarding the nets. She said they are probably from a new person who got a permit. Any time a new permit is issued, that person has to find an unclaimed territory. I told her I have sailed at the Hatch for at least 5 years and this is going to end up either causing a drunken fight or a huge fine when someone cuts a net out of frustration and they are witnessed. I said it was just a polite suggestion that they talk to whomever placed these nets and ask them to find another reasonable location.

wmike · Joined: 20 Jan 2001 Posts: 207 Location: Maui

surfersteve,

They are right. It is a new group that has put the recent gill nets in. I have talked with them and they have moved them further downriver than they were. There is usually one on shore when they check the nets and he is responsive to moving the net to where it is not a real problem like it was 2 weeks ago.

All should be aware that it is a federal crime to disturb the nets.

ericandholly · Joined: 20 Jun 1999 Posts: 292

Nice job Mike!

johnl · Joined: 05 Jun 1994 Posts: 1330 Location: Hood River OR

There was also one just downriver from the jetty at Arlington a week or so ago. Quite a surprise when I found it! I never saw it till I hit it. One more "little joy" of sailing the Columbia. But I can tell you that with the current it can be quite unnerving if you happen fo fall on the upriver side of it. Within seconds you will be swept into it (your legs!). I found climbing up on the board (even my 77l) and just sitting there till the current takes you over it and and away from it seemed to be the safest way to get out if it....

andymc4610 · Joined: 19 May 2000 Posts: 684

Can't cut the nets, it is a federal law.

jimoakes · Joined: 21 Apr 2006 Posts: 172

Nets could be anywhere in the river. The important thing is to avoid them. If anything floating get's caught in a net, the current will pull it underwater.
I saw a sailor get his harness hook twisted in one and it took all his energy to swim up and yell for help. The net had to be cut to free him. He was very close to drowning.

I have a kite knife on my harness. Also I keep my harness bar loose enough to get out of it easy when I see nets out.

SHREDX · Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2011 9:57 am Post subject:

So much for the one-with-nature indian fishing practices. At least they didn't set up one of those cantilevered trapezes over the rip-rap.

This indian gill netting is a farce - it kills everything, bass, shad, sturgeon, walleye, birds, and soon windsurfers. There is nothing traditional about a 300 foot long monofilament gill net.

How about the brilliant government bureaucrats pulling every hatchery salmon and steelhead out of the fish ladder at Bonneville and give them to the entitled native Americans? Imagine, no more styrofoam, indian boat junkyards, and a chance for a real wild-genetic fishery on the Columbia and its tributaries.