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commercial fishing on them stopped in 1977. This fact alone should tell you that the real cause of 

 these declines is elsewhere — the hydropower dams themselves, as well as quite possibly the barging 

 and other surface transportation programs now suspected of actually contributing to (rather than 

 reversing) these declines In any event, after all these years with no season but with continued 

 declines, it should at least be clear that there is no causal link between commercial fishing and these 

 declines Little if anything can therefore be gained by additional restrictions on fishermen Since 

 there is no season, there is no season to close down 



The Cohmtbia River gillnet season is probably the most studied and most regulated fishery in the 

 entire country The commercial spring chinook season must now be approved not only by NMFS, 

 but also by the Fish and Wildlife agencies of both Oregon and Washington, and by Tribal fisheries 

 managers as well It is strictly enforced by law enforcement authorities on both sides of the river as 

 well as Tribal law enforcement oflBcers All commercial catch must be registered with the states 

 before the fish can go to consumers Regardless of catch, no commercial fishing is allowed after 

 March 10th of each year specifically in order to protect the Snake River wild chinook which start to 

 migrate into the river in significant numbers only after that date 



Focussing on harvesters is really just blaming the victim for the crime The crime itself is being 

 committed every day by the hydropower turbines, which grinds up millions offish every year to the 

 detriment of fishing communities throughout the region Comparing turbine mortality rates of 10- 

 20% per dam with fishing mortality rates of S% makes it clear - twice to four times as many fish 

 are killed at each dam as in aO sport, commercial and tribal fishing combined for the whole 

 river. There are also eight dams which these fish must survive 



There is clearly a hidden agenda underlying the reason the Columbia River Alliance (CRA) and 

 its industrial members support the total elimination of the last remaining portions of the Columbia 

 River gillnet industry CRA is a front organization for the aluminum industry and other major power 

 users who are also heavily subsidized by BPA at taxpayer expense CRA is by no stretch of the 

 imagination a "conservation organization" as they would have you believe, and it certainly has no 

 interest in restoring salmon to harvestable levels because that would mean changing the status quo 

 and reforming the hydropower system to protect salmon — refonns which would require economic 

 contributions to salmon recovery fi'om other industries (such as the aluminum industry) for the first 



