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This week's Rogue goes to the Columbia River Intertribal Fishery Commission for catching fish that need to be protected, not digested. Already endangered in the Upper Columbia and threatened in the Snake Basin, wild steelhead next month will be listed as endangered in the Lower Columbia region as well. With populations at an all-time low--roughly half of what they should be--anyone who catches a wild steelhead is required to throw it back. Well, almost anyone. Under federal treaty and an agreement with state wildlife officials, Native Americans living along the Lower and Middle Columbia River are allowed to continue catching and selling the wild steelhead. Given the historic injustices levied against the Indians, few would object to their catching hatchery fish or healthy wild species. But the Native Fish Society has asked the Intertribal Fishery Commission to throw back wild steelhead caught in the Indians' nets and avoid fishing at the river mouths where fish congregate. The Indians rejected both requests and continue to sell wild steelhead to commercial buyers and the public. As a result, the Native Fish Society has asked the public not to purchase wild steelhead (easily identified by their two dorsal fins). Yakama Tribal Fishery manager Lynn Hatcher says the wild steelhead catch is inevitable with the nets the Indians use, and although they are experimenting with larger mesh sizes to avoid compounding the problem, steelhead will always be caught incidentally. Once netted, he says, the fish may not survive. Hatcher says the 1,300 wild steelhead netted by Indians so far this year (about 5 percent of the total population) pales in comparison with the number chewed up by hydroelectric dams. "If they're boycotting buying steelhead, they should also boycott buying electricity," he says. Everyone agrees that the dams are the biggest problem facing the fish. There are also habitat problems such as pollution, clear-cuts, grazing, irrigation and the warmest-ever El Niño ocean current. But Bill Bakke of the Native Fish Society emphasizes that conservation is a cumulative effort. Although Bakke supports tribal fisheries, he feels that Indians aren't living up to their end of the bargain this year.
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