On May 10, 7:36*pm, Gordon wrote:

Hi Gordon:

Are you LDS?

But back to fish.........

* Actually, there use to be bounty on the critters and whether or not
you collected the bounty, it was always open season. In fact it still is
in the open sea.

What ya mean by "open sea" I know the Marine Mamal Protection Act
covers out to the FCZ or whats called the EEZ now basically 200 mile
out..

But are yo saying the high seas ...? Hum I thing the International
Whalling Commission (IWC) may have some opinion on that. but not
shure.


* *When they became protected,

That would be 1972 for the MMPA

the numbers shot up to where there is no
longer enough food to go around and the critters are going up rivers
such as the Lewis where they have never been seen before.

Well Im not sure bout the never been b4. Maybe since the white man
been around....


* *They are also destroying the herring runs in Puget Sound. Adult,
spawner herring gather in certain areas before spawning and the
pinnepeds are devastating them.

Yup sorta like the Pollock A season in the Berring, since you were on
the council ya remember the big deal about roe stripping in the 80s
and early 90s? Looks like seals wernt the only ones gorging and
ripping out hte bellies n just letting the rest of the fish float off.
Humm now who would do a thing like that?


Course, less herring, less salmon.
* Less salmon, even hungrier pinnipeds.
* Believe it or not, in lower Puget Sound, the majority of their food
intake is sculpins.

Cottidae ya mean bull heads??? i use to catch and sell bullheads to
the UnderSeas gardens for 5 cents each. made enough to buy a burger
basket and have five bucks in my pocket at the end of a saturday on a
nickle bullhead.


* It's kinda like the reintroduction of wolves. All of a sudden they are
everywhere.

Yes, and the problme is that we have ****ed up the habitat so much
they tend to adapt as do many top prdetors do.



Wyoming now has an unrestricted hunt for em. Need the same
for the pinnepeds, at least to make the numbers manageable.

Thats your opinion. I suggest doing thoes things that would increas
the salmon runs so the piniped predation is not a problme. but that
would mean telling the Klamath potato farmers, ranchers, home
builders, Pendelton wheat famers (Gordon Smilt R, OR) cattle ranchers,
Tidewater/Foss Tug, Umitilla nation, BPA, Enron/PGE, sprots anglers
and commercial fishers... etc that their gonna have to stop ****ing
with my river.

You can squeeze only so much from somthing before it runs dry.


* The one bright light is that it is inevitable that disease will hit and
wipe out the weakest.

Yup ever so many years Leptospirosis will kick in and will get a dye-
off.

* *Yeah, I use to be on the Pacific Fisheries Council and have studied
all the background material.

good. I think it is very important to get politically active.
What was your background that got you involved??

* I also know its hard to go up against pictures of cuddly white seal
pups being clubbed for their fur.

Agreed there...........


but i could care less if they are eating salmon. If there were enoough
salnom sealoins would not be an issue.

too bad the commercial salmon season is closed a ga i n ,

would you rather have a cheep burger or a salmon season ???


* Course, as far as salmon go, the nylon curtains are tough to get by also.

dont even get me started on gill net.............. highseas or in the
COLUMBIA ! there are a bitch to dodge too!

Although I saw a few river gilnetters were lost last week too. No
mater our politics they still worked the river and are mariners by
definition.

Bob