The legislature finds that wild salmon populations have declined and that many populations are threatened and endangered. The legislature further finds that allowing the use of alternative fishing techniques that can reduce or eliminate impacts to threatened wild fish, while allowing for selective harvest of hatchery stocks, improves the recovery of wild fish and increases the opportunities to catch harvestable stocks. Therefore, the legislature finds that repealing provisions of Initiative 77 from 1934 that restricts the use of certain fishing gear will provide fisheries managers with additional options for managing the selective harvest of salmon stocks.
This section modifies existing section 77.50.030. Here is the modified chapter for context.
2.
The department, in coordination with the Oregon department of fish and wildlife, shall adopt rules to regulate the use of monofilament in gill net webbing on the Columbia river.
This section adds a new section to an existing chapter 77.65. Here is the modified chapter for context.
The department may by rule authorize the use of fixed fishing gear types including, but not limited to, pound nets, fish traps, and weirs for the selective commercial harvest of salmon and the release of threatened and endangered salmonids.
Where alternative commercial salmon fishing gear types are proposed for use, the department must develop a plan to authorize, implement, and regulate alternative commercial salmon fishing gear types prior to the implementation of alternative gear commercial fisheries. Any fisheries conducted with alternative commercial salmon fishing gears authorized under this section must:
a. Release threatened and endangered salmonids with minimal mortality;
b. Be conducive to the mark-selective harvest of excess hatchery-reared salmon consistent with federal conditions for hatchery production and genetic protections for wild and endangered salmon populations;
c. Ensure compliance with tribal treaty fishing rights and state-tribal fishery management agreements; and
This section adds a new section to an existing chapter 77.65. Here is the modified chapter for context.
Consistent with the requirements in section 3 of this act, the department must by rule authorize and implement a selective commercial pound net fishery in the lower Columbia river by June 1, 2023. By December 1, 2022, the department shall complete the plan required in section 3(2) of this act and report findings and recommendations to the appropriate committees of the legislature on license structures and fees, any necessary statutory or rule changes, and any other actions necessary to authorize, implement, and regulate a commercial pound net fishery for the mark-selective harvest of hatchery-reared salmon.
Nothing in this section precludes the director from authorizing one or more alternative fishing gears, including pound nets, beach seines, or purse seines, through an emerging commercial fishery designation in the lower Columbia river under RCW 77.70.160 prior to the adoption of the rules required in subsection (1) of this section.