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The INDEPENDENT, March 16, 2006
The
INDEPENDENT
Published on the first and third Thursdays of each month by
The Independent, LLC, 725 Bridge St., Vernonia, OR 97064.
Phone/Fax: 503-429-9410. Publisher Clark McGaugh,
clark@the-independent.net • Managing Editor Rebecca Mc-
Gaugh, rebecca@the-independent.net • Editor Noni Ander-
sen, noni@the-independent.net
Opinion
It’s time to shine light on
state and federal activity
In the 1970s, many states, including Oregon and
Washington, passed anti-secrecy laws in order to keep
the public business public. In the past few years, pub-
lic access to public business has been swiftly eroding.
The current federal administration, which sets the
tone, has been the most anti-public in decades –
maybe ever.
While the White House obsession with secrecy did-
n’t start with 9/11 – for instance, they felt it necessary
to keep secret who helped develop the national ener-
gy policy that affects all of our citizens – it has been
used to stomp all over the people’s right to know what
their government is doing.
Media and other groups are trying to bring light to
the escalating problem of government secrecy, at all
levels, with the second national “Sunshine Week.” This
is not an issue for journalists, this is an issue for all cit-
izens.
Your tax money is supporting your government and
you should have the right to know what is being done
in your name. As the Washington Public Records Act
clearly states:
"The people, in delegating authority, do not give their
public servants the right to decide what is good for the
people to know and what is not good for them to know."
Since the 1970s that attitude has eroded. Oregon’s
2005 legislative leaders spent more time than ever in
secret deliberations under the guise of needing priva-
cy for honest discussion of how to spend the people’s
money. If they need privacy to be honest, what do their
public declarations say about them?
Additionally, public records laws have been modified
so many times with private little exemptions that they
often bear little resemblance to the original law.
Local governments, too, often overlook public
records and meetings law when they are either care-
less, or find it inconvenient. There are specific require-
ments for notification of public meetings. Posting a
meeting notice in one location, for instance, doesn’t
begin to meet either the letter or the intent of the law.
Open government should be the goal of every citi-
zen. Those who are involved in governmental deci-
sions, paid or unpaid, elected or appointed, hired or
volunteer, must let the sun shine on their actions.
Ike Says…
By Dale Webb, member
Izaak Walton League, Nehalem Valley Chapter
There is a new debate
brewing about sturgeon
fishing. Recently the Ore-
gon and Washington de-
partments of Fish and
Wildlife, “Agreed to ex-
pand the sturgeon spawn-
ing sanctuary below Bon-
neville Dam from the cur-
rent five miles to seven
miles in length to give additional protection to the
fish. As a result, from May 1 to July 31 angling for
sturgeon will be prohibited from Marker 85 to
Bonneville Dam.”
The debate involves the recreational fishery
for oversized sturgeon, those over 60 inches
long. For those of you not in the know, the stur-
geon fishery is shared between the recreational
and commercial fisheries. Both fisheries have a
slot limit, the length in inches between minimum
and maximum that the sturgeon must be in order
to keep it. Once the fish exceed the 60 inch up-
per limit of the slot, they are protected from har-
vest, but not from catch and release, this is the
crux of the problem. Sturgeon longer than 60
inches are protected because they are the fish
that will spawn and maintain the fishery. These
fish spawn mainly just below Bonneville Dam,
which concentrates the fish and makes them vul-
nerable to catching.
In the past, this was not an issue, but since
the early 90s, when a new fishery was started,
catching and releasing these prehistoric giants
soon became very popular. The fish and wildlife
departments established sanctuaries, over time,
to provide some protection to these fish. So
what is the concern if this is a catch and release
fishery?
Major concerns for the two fishery depart-
ments are the lack of information on how many
fish there are, and the impacts caused by catch
and release. Several recent studies are starting
to provide information. One study looked at cor-
tisol levels in oversized sturgeon in the Bon-
neville area. Cortisol is a chemical that is found
in fish that are suffering from stress. It is be-
lieved that stressed fish may not be successful at
spawning, and cortisol levels are pointing out
that, indeed, the fish are stressed.
Another study looked at how many oversized
sturgeon there are in the Bonneville area, the an-
swer to that question is an educated guess of
around 2,000. It is thought that there are around
11,000 oversized sturgeon in the Columbia River
below Bonneville. From fishing reports, we know
that over 6,000 oversized fish are caught per
year, most of them in the Bonneville area. The
concern is the continual catch and release of the
same fish, with the associated hooking and
stress-related mortality. Many of the oversized
sturgeon being caught in the Bonneville area
have multiple hook wounds or leaders hanging
from the vent. If this is reducing the brood stock
fish in numbers or productivity, it will impact the
consumptive harvest of sturgeon in the future.
Please see page 20