Fisheries’ Future Needs Thought
September 14th, 2009
In an op-ed piece published by The Daily Newsof Longview, Washington on Sunday, September 13, 2009, Salmon For All Board member Kent Martin, commercial fisherman of Skamokawa, Washington, responded to an op-ed by Bryan Irwin, executive director of the Coastal Conservation Association in the Pacific Northwest.
Mr. Irwin’s op-ed, titled “How fishing can aid wild salmon,” was published in The Daily News the previous Sunday, March 6, 2009. In it, he wrote that, “The key is that anglers can fish ‘mark-selectively.’ Their gear allows most salmon to be released relatively unharmed, so the anglers can keep the hatchery fish (identifiable by a clipped adipose fin) and safely release wild ‘unmarked’ salmon to spawn.”
Mr. Irwin’s op-ed went on to disparage gillnets as being incapable of fishing selectively in fall fisheries, and urged a speedy transition to alternative commercial gear forms capable of live capture, mark-selective fisheries. “Gillnets are incapable of live release of wild salmon in fall fisheries and are harvesting the same wild fish the recreational anglers gladly release,” wrote Mr. Irwin.
As well as being a Board member of Salmon For All, Kent Martin is a member of the Salmon Advisory Subpanel for the Pacific Fishery Management Council. Kent’s opinion piece from The Daily News is appended as a PDF file.
Fisheries’ future needs thoughtful examination
Dan Marvin said:
Thanks Kent I love the word mark selective, the recent north of falcon ocean coho sports fishery was mark selective. The reported mark rate was about 50/50 the quota was set at 100,000 fish so to catch 100,000 hatchery fish just about 100,000 wild were handled with a minimum of 20% mortality rate. There goes 20,000 wild, then the fishery moves to buoy 10 were again the fish are handled with a reported 10% mortality rate, even though some of our own fisherman tried hook and line fishing and thought a 50% mortality rate would be closer to the truth. Then on up the Columbia the mark selective fishing continues intill it finally enters the tributary’s where another round of mark select fishing is applied with associated impacts and finally to the spawning beds were all kinds of creative sport fishing methods are used since at this stage of there lives the fish aren’t really biting anymore. I guess I’m just having a hard time seeing the true benefits of this tool as a means of recovery.