"I Ain't Real Smart"

[Kerry Stratton]

Deanna,

Not sure what you are referring to when you say inshore netting. If it is commercial fishing within Puget Sound then I would venture to say that WDFW has dramitically cut back the citizen commercial fishing and reduced the size of the fleet. They have little to no control over treaty tribe commercial fishing whos fishing fleet has increased in size.

I think we agree on most of this type of stuff. I know that WDFW is bound by law to provide commercial fishing opportunity just as they are to provide sport fishing opportunity. I also agree with you that there is a bias towards commercial fishing. I think is a result of powerful political forces that have been intrenched for years.

I know that the state senator from my part of Washington has been a supporter of the commercial fishing industry for as long as I remember her being in office and I have never voted for her. I have contributed money to her opponents and done some minor campaigning on their behalf. It is the politicians supporting commercial fishing that need to change if we want change at the top of the WDFW. I am sure you know of the ones I speak of.

Minnesota has a commission that regulates fishing waters that are part of treaty tribe fishing. There is set a limit to the poundage of fish that may be harvested each season, by the tribal reservation, and the general public. This is manage through a "slot limit" system. As the the poundage, approaches the limit, the "slot limit" is changed, and the number of fish you can keep changes. If needed the fishery can be closed.

Red Lake Reservation, had a commercial fishery on the Upper and Lower Red Lakes. They over harvested the Walleye, and the Walleye population crashed. It took 8 years, and $1,000,000.00, to restock the Upper & Lower Red Lakes. There has been three successful years of fingerling's, and general fishing can now resume for Walleye, but no commercial fishing.

Even Tribal Reservations are answerable to the "Laws of the United State", and responsible for proper management of the Natural Resources.

~Parnelli

[ELKHUNTER]

Steven they should be answerable to the laws of the United States but some claim they are a "Sovereign Nation" and do not have to follow the same laws we do. I do not have a problem with them being allowed a quota for personal use but I believe that gets abused with the salmon as well as with the walleye you were talking about. Not all are guilty but there are always some no matter what the ethnicity that have to break the rules and that hurts us all down the road.

It would be great if the Indian Tribes, the Fish and Wildlife people and all us other groups of people who have a real intrest in helping out the fish could get together and try to come up with a solution with out a lot of arguing as to who needs the fish most. Lets find a solution and get the numbers back on track and then decide who gets what percent of the fish.

Rocky