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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, ApRIl 15, 2021
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
publisher
DERRICK DePLEDGE
Editor
Founded in 1873
SHANNON ARLINT
Circulation Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
Making a muddle of saving salmon
L
ocal experts connected in
various ways with salmon
fishing and conservation
must be ready to blow a gasket over
the Washington Legislature’s latest
clumsy efforts to “help.”
In legislators’ defense, saving
salmon is a supremely messy busi-
ness, with more murky crosscur-
rents and furious undertows than a
dangerous outer coast beach. Pulled
this way and that by those who gen-
uinely know what they’re talking
about and many others who don’t
know a chum from a Chinook, poli-
cymakers find themselves in a hard-
to-win situation.
Intentional confusion is added by
outsiders whose only interest is in
grabbing salmon for themselves or
using the issue merely as a means
to generate financial donations from
well-wishing urbanites.
And as if all that wasn’t enough,
salmon management is also bound
up with the need to help Washing-
ton’s endangered resident orcas,
and with the obligation to coordi-
nate some policies with Oregon and
Canada.
Although this may sound about
as fun as getting lost in an undersea
kelp forest, the legislative and reg-
ulatory issues of immediate local
concern aren’t that complicated.
For one, a plan is rattling around
to ramp up the use of pound nets to
commercially harvest hatchery-bred
salmon. Banned about 90 years ago,
this technique — otherwise known
as fish traps — in theory catches
migrating salmon without harm.
The catch can then be sorted, with
nonhatchery fish released to con-
tinue upstream.
Although this has obvious
appeal, it comes with a variety of
technical and pragmatic obsta-
cles. The Wild Fish Conservancy
has been experimenting with a
pound net to catch tule fall Chinook
and fin-clipped coho in the Cath-
lamet area. A proposal now on the
Cassandra Profita/Oregon Public Broadcasting
An experimental fish trap on the lower Columbia River has repurposed an old fishing method in search of a more sustainable way to
catch salmon. It is, however, a long way from proving the viability of the concept.
table would advance this trial fish-
ery to the next stage. This would be
premature.
Astoria-based nonprofit Salmon
For All — embedded in gill and
tangle net technology — can’t be
considered objective, but certainly
possesses deep and direct experi-
ence in commercial salmon fishing.
The nonprofit makes convincing
arguments:
“Our research shows that the cap-
ital investment needed to set up a
pound net operation ranges from
$156,000 to $258,000. Annual gross
income produced by the current
experimental gear from 2018-2020
averaged $24,146.92, according to
the Washington Department of Fish
and Wildlife,” Jim Wells, the pres-
ident of Salmon For All, said in a
February letter. “We do not think
that current numbers and lack of
profitability or even potential profit-
ability, qualifies the trap as a ‘com-
mercial’ fishery or ‘emerging com-
mercial fishery’ as yet.”
Advancing to a next regulatory
stage with modern pound nets risks
splitting a fishery with thin profit
margins into yet smaller slices,
while undercutting private invest-
ment in the proven technology of
tangle nets. These nets provide for
live capture of salmon, achieving
the goal of letting nonhatchery fish
get on with their business.
The Washington Senate has made
a muddle of a separate proposal
to buy down the number of com-
mercial fishing licenses on Wash-
ington’s southern estuaries and the
Columbia River. Such licenses are
considered private property and in
some cases have been owned by the
same family for generations. Some
aren’t actively used, but represent
additional potential harvest pressure
on salmon.
An advisory committee con-
vened by Washington Department
of Fish and Wildlife recommended
buying and eliminating 100 Colum-
bia River/Willapa Bay and Colum-
bia River/Grays Harbor licenses at a
cost of $10,000 each.
Senate Democrats, who are oth-
erwise splashing money around
with enthusiasm, fiddled with this
plan in such a way as to drastically
reduce compensation, while at the
same time forcing unpaid surren-
der of some licenses. This is neither
fair nor wise, and risks scuttling an
otherwise smart effort to winnow
the fishing fleet down to a profitable
and sustainable size. This initiative
would enhance the coastal econ-
omy while improving income pros-
pects for the Department of Fish
and Wildlife.
It remains an imponderable polit-
ical mystery why a majority of 19th
Legislative District voters chose
to unseat state Sen. Dean Takko
and state Rep. Brian Blake, expe-
rienced leaders who would have
guided these issues to a correct res-
olution. However, we hope legis-
lators and the Department of Fish
and Wildlife will listen to the peo-
ple most affected by these matters.
The license buyback should be fully
funded and the concept of bringing
back pound nets should be held in
abeyance, pending much additional
study and consideration.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Kudos
udos to Clatsop County and vol-
unteers in the administration and
organization for the COVID-19 vac-
cines. So much work, and so much better
than what Oregon and Gov. Kate Brown
accomplished.
I was disappointed that the state of
Oregon was not nearly as prepared as
the Clatsop County people. The Clatsop
County group was outstanding.
MERILEE LAURENS
Seaside
K
Reality
he reality is that here in Clatsop
County we live in earthquake and tsu-
nami country.
Feel the ground shake? Time to get to
high ground — and fast. We likely will
only have 15 to 20 minutes to get there.
With trees and power lines down, and
bridges out, we can’t count on being able
to drive to high ground; we’ll likely have
to get there on foot.
I live in a tsunami inundation zone in
Gearhart. It has been breezily suggested
by Stewart Schultz that the only option for
survival is to get to the 100-foot elevation
of the foothills at a distance to the east of
us.
There is no way most of us in Gearhart
can walk to the foothills in time. And in
trying, we do not want to get stuck in the
low-lying area in between with a tsunami
on the way. We just don’t have time.
It is unhelpful and misguided to ignore
the realities facing most of our coastal
residents. For our survival, the best high
ground is the high ground we can actually
get to in time.
Want to learn more? Check out the
resources on the county’s website at bit.
ly/3fYbq5Y. Practice your evacuation plan
and prepare. Your life may depend on it.
BEBE MICHEL
Gearhart
T
Prove it
he recent tempest in a teapot at the
Sunset Empire Park and Recreation
District is interesting. To hear these folks
talk, the old Broadway Middle School
property, which SEPRD recently pur-
chased from Seaside School District No.
10, is a toxic dump site of asbestos and
black mold.
Reading their vitriolic letters to the edi-
tor, I’m left wondering, where was their
hue and cry over this issue when our chil-
dren were in those buildings? Why were
T
they silent about this threat all these years?
Why is it now suddenly a big concern to
them? Is the problem really that bad, or is
this all just hyperbole?
It also raises the question of why didn’t
the Seaside school board gift the middle
school property to SEPRD, another taxing
district serving the public, like they did the
Gearhart Elementary School property?
Supposedly a big part of their reasoning
for selling the Gearhart property to a pri-
vate concern for less than a fifth of its true
base value was worries about asbestos and
mold. That whole affair fails to pass the
smell test.
District taxpayers were robbed and the
school board was wholly complicit in the
theft. Especially when you consider the
subsequent Broadway Middle School sale.
If either of these sites are as dangerous
as they are being made out, someone needs
to prove it. My children went to both these
schools. I want answers. And, quite hon-
estly, the members of both boards should
have their feet put to the fire to justify their
actions.
BILL GRAFFIUS
Gearhart