exxon

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Gillnet fishing for salmon in Youngs Bay --Astoria Oregon. A 20 million dollar a year industry in the state of Oregon....is under threat. Please read. The fish being caught in this video are 3 to 7 year old fish which have made their way back to Youngs Bay because they were reared in Youngs Bay before they journeyed out to the ocean. After 3 to 7 years in the ocean they return only to spawn---and then eventually die. The Gillnet fisherman is able to intercept the fish before they die and bring this incredibly healthy meat to the general public for sale. Unfair and untrue propaganda has made gillnetting out to be bad for our environment. In fact, this is a completely sustainable industry which promises healthy salmon for the general public to eat. Most of the salmon caught are born in hatcheries which are funded by the commercial fisherman and subsidized by the power companies who built dams long ago which block the runs of salmon trying to get up the river. They cannot pass the dams to go and spawn. There are some species of salmon which are on the endangered species list. These salmon are sometimes caught in a gillnet but can be released. You can see in this video that the fish are still alive. They do have some marks from the net but it is not much different than some of the marks fish receive in the wild as they are pursued by seals and sea lions. These endangered fish are also more often caught by hook and line fisherman and often the fish swallows the hook. Why a ban on commercial salmon fishing in the Columbia river? 2 multi millionaires are attempting to wipe out jobs in Oregon. Walter Fondren who inherited the fortune of Exxon and Esso oil companies---started a group called the CCA. Coastal Conservancy Association. And Loren Parks the famed sexual hypnotist from Nevada state. These two men hired republican attorney Kevin Mannix to draft a ballot measure to eliminate gillnetting. They are claiming that commercial fisherman can switch to another form of commercially fishing for salmon in the Columbia----but no such method has ever been found to be efficient. The other users of salmon in the Columbia river are sports fisherman who are comprised of hundreds of guides. The guides make up to $150 a person when they take up to 6 people out to fish each day. The federal Government and the State governments have STRICT rules about how many of the endangered (wild born) salmon can be caught each year. Sport fisherman know that if they can eliminate the gillnetters then the sport fishing guide fleet can have all the fish to themselves. The gillnetters have been working the Columbia river for over 200 years from the west coasts oldest settlement, Astoria Oregon. The CCA lures in believers by showing false statistics, and very ugly photos and videos which are often harshly untrue. They claim that gillnetters are outlaws or criminals for fishing they way they do. It is sadly unjust. It is a sad time in our country when a man who inherited money from the oil industry - Exxon-- and another millionaire friend from Nevada---can come into our home state of Oregon and take jobs from the native people. It is interesting to note that there are three liquified natural gas facilities being proposed (and fought against) in the Columbia River just as this is going on. There is no evidence to prove that Walter Fondren has any interest in the situation but his association with big oil looks "fishy" It does cause many people to question his intentions and why he is putting forth so much energy to the cause. Whether or not gillnetting exists, the Federal and State governments have set a strict number of endangered fish which can be caught each year. If the gillnetters are gone it just allows the sport fisherman to catch that number of fish by themselves. Eliminating one group of jobs in our state simply for the greed of hobby fisherman--- it's just not right. Vote to allow gillnetting and commercial fishing in ...