Oregon lawmakers backed a bill to move commercial gillnet fishers off the Columbia River.
Oregon lawmakers backed a bill to move commercial gillnet fishers off the Columbia River.
Recreational fishers will find higher prices for licenses to catch salmon and steelhead, along with an exclusion zone at a popular fishing spot near Astoria.
Lawmakers approved a surcharge of up to $9.75 per year to raise money for fisheries enhancement. They also authorized an exclusion zone at the mouth of Youngs Bay, a popular fishing spot near Astoria.
The measure lifts a decades-old ban on seine nets for commercial fishing and allocates $500,000 to mitigate the economic impacts of ending gillnet fishing on the main stem of the Columbia beginning in 2017. It was welcomed by sport-fishing interests and denounced by commercial gillnetters, who have ardently opposed Kitzhaber’s effort to get them off the main stem.
Read more at KATU.
{biztweet}gillnet{/biztweet}
