October 7, 2009 marked the official debut of a new educational tool now available to the general public on the Salmon For All website. Tangle Net Fishing on the Columbia River: A Sustainable Fishery is a new video by Larry Johnson of Lawrence Johnson Productions in Portland, producer of the award-winning presentation, Work Is Our Joy: The Story of the Columbia River Gillnetter. Shot this past spring during the tangle net test fishery, the video is a brief look at how Columbia River gillnet fishermen have successfully adopted the tangle net and live recovery box for use on the Columbia River during the mark-selective fishery for Columbia River spring Chinook.

The tangle (or “tooth”) net and live recovery box originally were developed for mark-selective fisheries in British Columbia, Canada. With some modifications and adaptations to conditions prevalent on the mighty River of the West, the tangle net and live box have become useful additions to the fishery on the Columbia River, allowing for a range of management options for pursuit of the highly valuable fishery for spring Chinook, which must be accessed while remaining within tightly constrained limits on impacts to naturally spawning fish.

With permission from the management staff of the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, which oversees the test fishery program, Larry Johnson went out in April 2009 with test fisher Darren Crookshanks, current President of the Columbia River Fishermen’s Protective Union. Join us for a first-hand look at how the tangle net fishery is conducted.

One small note should be kept in mind: ordinarily when releasing an unmarked fish from the live recovery box, a gillnet fisherman simply lifts the “door”on the end of the live box, allowing the fish to safely slide out of the live box and back into the water. In Darren’s case, he has even provided a chute alongside the boat to afford the fish greater protection, an innovation that many of the fishermen have adopted. In the video, the state biologist, on board as a Fish & Wildlife Department observer to collect data on the fishery, holds the fish up so the video camera can get a good shot of the fish as it is released. Under ordinary circumstances, gillnet fishermen try not to handle the fish to be released any more than they absolutely have to, since handling the fish can be a source of stress, thereby affecting its chance for survival.

Written by SFA at 9:49 am. Filed under Resources | 0 Comments »