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Millions in relief funds headed to state's fishing industry

Tuesday, November 25, 2008 11:37 PM PST

By Tony Lystra

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Federal officials said Tuesday they will give millions of dollars to Southwest Washington fishermen after a troubling year that all but halted Coho fishing off the coast.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced it will release an additional $70 million in disaster relief funds to West Coast commercial fishermen after the salmon season. The money is the remaining balance of a $170 million aid package Congress approved last summer.

“It was a good thing to do,” said Jim Neva, the director of the Port of Ilwaco, which received $25,000 in relief funds earlier this year.

Poor runs on the Sacramento River and some Oregon rivers prompted regulators to halt the spring Chinook season off the Oregon and California coasts and substantially limit Coho fishing off Washington.

Limited salmon fishing slashed Port of Ilwaco’s revenues by a total of $50,000 in June and July alone, Neva said. Businesses along the coast, from charter fishermen to marinas to restaurants, are all suffering because of the diminished season, he said.

“I imagine there’s a lot of them in real tough straits,” Neva said Tuesday. “Not that they haven’t been there before.”

Washington is expected to get a total of $22 million in aid, said U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, D-Vancouver.

In a statement, Brian Baird welcomed release of the $70 million but said it had taken too long. The money had been tied up because the Bush Administration had wanted to divert some of the disaster relief package to the Census Bureau.

Baird said he and other Northwest lawmakers sent a letter to the Congressional Office of Management and Budget in September “demanding that this remaining $70 million be released to the people who desperately need it.”

“It’s unfortunate that it has taken almost six months to get this money released, but I’m glad that today we’ve finally been successful,” Baird’s statement said.

Milt Gudgell, who owns Pacific Salmon Charters in Ilwaco, said the relief money is “too little, too late.”

“Yes, we got some money,” he said. “That’s just temporary relief.”

If federal fisheries officials really want to help the situation, he said, they should focus on hatcheries and stop spending hundreds of millions of dollars on relief efforts and habitat enhancement plans that don’t work.

“They’d be better off if they had spent the god-darn money in raising fish,” Gudgell said. “We have seen no net benefits from the hundreds of millions that’s been spent on enhancement initiatives. It makes you kind of wonder what they’re doing.”

Gudgell said this year’s limited coho fishery gutted his revenues about 50 percent. He said he received relief funds in an earlier round of disbursements, but declined to disclose the amount.

“The charter boat industry is hanging on from a thread,” he said. If it weren’t for the tuna, sturgeon and halibut, Gudgell said, “we’d all be gone.”

Those in the fishing industry say this year has been especially brutal for Southwest Washington’s commercial fishermen, who have been struggling for decades.

Storms battered the Washington Coast, limiting time on the water. And, as word got out that fishing along the California and Oregon coasts had been halted entirely, it wasn’t widely publicized that salmon fishing off Washington was still open, albeit curtailed.

“Nobody came,” Gudgell said.

Separately, Oregon and Washington officials cut short the salmon season on the Columbia River and left it open on the Willamette. Washington fishermen said they’d been sold out in favor of urbanite sportsmen.

NOAA said it has sent aid to 1,722 commercial fishermen along the Pacific Coast and more than 1,000 checks to businesses affected by the federal salmon closure.

zar wrote on Nov 26, 2008 8:21 AM:

" "washington fishermen said they'd been sold out in favor of urbanite sportsmen", where do they think there customers come from. Commercial fishing in the ocean should be supported and changes with the WDFW need to come soon. We need to protect our river runs and do like the rest of the USA and get rid of the kill nets. "

TDN Bad Boy wrote on Nov 26, 2008 8:59 AM:

" Tis the season for government welfare. "

CRfisherman wrote on Nov 26, 2008 9:05 AM:

" Zar....it's only a matter of time before the gillnetters realize that there is no money to be made netting salmon in the river and they give it up. It's a dying industry and soon enough the government will stop subsidizing like this and it will die out on its own. The people that do this are holding onto a losing hand and they know it. Soon the river will only be there for the sportsmen, the group that actually contributes to the economies of local towns. "

CRfisherman wrote on Nov 26, 2008 9:12 AM:

" I was disappointed to hear that the salmon hatchery on the Cowlitz had more fish than they could hold. I would think that if millions had been spent to rehabilitate the runs, sufficient holding pens would have been built to take in the number of fish that returned. It was awesome to see all the fish that came back this year, but sad that not all that made it to the hatchery were taken in. Wouldn't this be a starting point to try to save the people downstream that are relying on these fish for their businesses survival? Kudos to the WDFW and the fed....like everything else, sounds like our tax money is being wasted. "

CONCERENED wrote on Nov 26, 2008 9:34 AM:

" WELL WELL, IF THEY ALL GONNA HANG IT UP, THEN ILL TAKE SOME OF THE CASH FLOW, IF THEY NOT GONNA NEED IT, I COULD USE SOME!!! KINDA FUNNY HOW THE SPRT FISHERMAN GETS 12 TO 14 DAYS ON THE RIVER FOR SALMON, AND THE NETTERS GET THE REST, YEAH RIGHT , THERES NO FISH OUT THERE, EVERYONE THAT BELIEVES THAT? STAND ON YOUR HEADS!!!! "

sammy wrote on Nov 26, 2008 9:44 AM:

" Am I missing something? Why would the Census Bureau need "disaster relief" money? "

US CITIZEN wrote on Nov 26, 2008 10:18 AM:

" gillnetters need to go
! i will agree with that. commercial trolling brings enough salmon into the markets! milty and family need to get second jobs and quit whining, making your whole living off the sea is in the past just like gillnetters trying to make a living from it.the goverment needs to look at it this way they knew when they started charter fishing it is good when its good bad when its bad.bailout with this is wrong to all of us.we might as well bailout the auto industry. "

Truthiness wrote on Nov 26, 2008 10:51 AM:

" What do the sport fishermen get? You know - those guys that contribute all the money into the WDFW fund that pays for all the hatcheries that provides the fish for gilnetters? If we are going to give the commercial netters money, then they should use that money to find other work and leave the fish in the river for the sport fishermen. The communities make much MUCH more money off sports fishermen than they ever will off a few gilnetters. It is that simple. AND FYI, Baird is well paid by the netters... "

mole wrote on Nov 26, 2008 11:24 AM:

" right again atrucker,NOT ONE FACT JUST EMOTIONS!!!by the way those are hook caught fish,lets see BAIRD IN THE GILLNETTERS POCKET!!!HOW STUPID CAN YOU GUYS GET "

Atrucker wrote on Nov 26, 2008 11:35 AM:

" I understand the trollers getting some money. They were screwed like the rest of use , because the fish count was wrong all along , and they erred to much so to save the run.
I do not agree with paying the charters, if they are still fishing other things besides salmon.
No one said gill nets yet all you jumped on that one .
Yes last year sping chinook was open on the Willamette while , we got bent over down river . That was not right .
And 2009 is no better , right now they are saying no fishing in either river ,
until you get above Hayden Island . But we will see if Oregon sticks it to us again.
I do agree with Milt , we need more fish, not habitat what ever , or enhancement bull hooey, like the Coweeman , what a joke that is . "

Atrucker wrote on Nov 26, 2008 11:39 AM:

" Hey , Mole read , my blog . I tend to believe they are talking out their you know what . "

mole wrote on Nov 26, 2008 12:31 PM:

" ATRUCKER:I have been talking with odfw and yes the willamete will probably open just like before!!! odfw is a sports oriented board,meaning they don't care if gillnets are in or out!!!! THE SALMON RECOVERY PLAN INVOLVES,4 STATES AND ONE COUNTRY!!!!Which means you cannot blame one state or the other, they all have an input, on sports and commercial intrestes.High seas fisheries catch[intercept by other countries]more columbia river destined fish than trollers, sports and gillnets combined!!!!! STOP THE INTERCEPTED CATCH AND MORE FISH WIIL COME BACK!!!! The INDIAN NATION IS CONSIDERED A NATION "WITHIN" A NATION!!!! WHICH REALLY MEANS THEY DONT HAVE TO OBEY THE LAWS LAYED OUT FOR EVERYONE ELSE!!! Remember all the big bulls they shot in the summer a few years back,Well we cornered about seven indians,in toutle, at DREWS.THE GAME DEPT CAME,CALLED THE INDIANS GAME WARDEN ON HIS CELL PHONE!!!! ONE OF THE GROUP OF SEVEN'S PHONE RANG!!! HE WAS IN ON THE SUMMERTIME HUNT!!!!WE ALMOST WENT, TO "JAIL" NOT THEM!!! TRUE TRUE TRUE!!! BELIEVE IT, THEY WILL GILLNET CLEAR TO THE BARRIER DAM!!! "

El Fuego wrote on Nov 26, 2008 12:32 PM:

" Been thinking about changing my profession to a rain maker in the sahara. If I make rain, I get paid. If I don't make rain then the feds will bail me out. I get paid either way. Good racket huh? "

TDN Bad Boy wrote on Nov 26, 2008 12:53 PM:

" One way to end all the bickering on the Columbia and its tributaries and protect the salmon runs for the future is to end ALL fishing from 3 miles west of the mouth. If we did that for only 4 years, we would see major growth in the fish numbers. But hey you so-called sportsmen keep on fishing. I just wonder who is going to die first the salmon runs or the fishermen? My money is on the salmon runs. "

mole wrote on Nov 26, 2008 1:33 PM:

" tdnbb: Finally,save the "SALMON"!!!! iF WE JUST SPORT FISHED THE TRIBUTARIES,WE WOULD CATCH THE FISH,DESTINED FOR THAT TRIBUTARY,AND A BETTER CATCH REPORT WOULD BE AVALIABLE!!!!And the towns that are supported by sports fishing will not die.The ripple affect would kill,all the small bussinesses,restaurants,fuel,tackle shops,tackle makers,motels,see where I'm going.TO MANY VARIABLES.493 ORE/WASHINGTON gillnetters would hang it up for four years, if all the sports would ,GUARENTEEEEEED!!!! "

skeezix wrote on Nov 26, 2008 1:52 PM:

" It could be designated catch and release for the river and tributaries for 5 years. That would help nearly as much as TDNBB's suggestion, accepting some hook mortality. It also would address the concerns of mole, whatever those are since I'm not sure he didn't have a seizure during his typing. Part of the problem, in addition to the gill netters is the sport fisherman who don't properly identify fish. There are numerous times I've seen people come up off the water with a stringer full of smolts thinking they are trout. It's a shame. Catch and release would allow the sport fishermen to continue while helping preserve fish returning to spawn. "

TDN Bad Boy wrote on Nov 26, 2008 2:37 PM:

" Just stop the fishing, period. Both gillnetting and sportfishing. Stop the arguing. Both lose four or five years. The fish win and we really need that. I think it is senseless to keep up this quota system for sportsfishermen. Like I said, I don't expect this idea to float downstream, so I'm betting that the salmon runs die long before the fishing side stop their bitching and come to their senses. "

mole wrote on Nov 26, 2008 3:19 PM:

" tdnbb: ABSOLUTELY CORRECT,five years to save salmon is a SMALL price!!! And catch and release skeezix,would NEver WOrk!!! just wondering did you teach that person, with a stringer full of smolt,how to identify fish???? BYtheWAY nO SIezUreS aS Of YeT!!! "GOOD ONE" LOL "

Hershey's Squirt wrote on Nov 26, 2008 7:30 PM:

" You would need to stop fishing for more than 5 years before you started to see salmon runs restored. Salmon go out to sea for 3 years or more before they come back to spawn. You'd have to wait maybe 12-15 years before you even started to see decent returns. "

mole wrote on Nov 26, 2008 11:21 PM:

" that would be equal to 3 cycles,hershey squirt. The first year of non fishing,would give a return in 3 years,etc.giveing up 4 years is 4 different years of spawning. so the returns would be seen sooner. "

Gondolapete wrote on Nov 27, 2008 11:54 AM:

" You know what saved animals?? Sport hunting during regulated seasons..you know what almost ended all hunting prior to that?? Market hunting!!!! Sport hunters, and sport fisherman contribute 100 times more to the economy than any other commercial endeavor related to fishing and hunting...FACT!!!!!!! "

mole wrote on Nov 27, 2008 7:06 PM:

" EVERYONE,knows that gondola,there is 493 gillnetters and how many sport hunters and fishermen,there are, is staggering !!! so it is quite true we contribute more. "

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