I'm not! Seems like they have performed a mass hypnosis on the fishing crowds here in the Pacific Northwest. Record numbers of members signing up and for what? To get a bigger slice of the pie? To increase hatchery influence? Looks like both!
When I read who some of the major players are in the northwest CCA I know that this is a group I want no part of. The pro hatchery fish crowd is well represented among the CCA numbers. So are those who want to water down the Endangered Species Act and for what? More fish to harvest, more hatchery plants and more of the careless stewardship that has jeopardized wild salmonids in this region in the first place. Oh sure they may jump on board various conservation issues but only if it serves to produce a larger piece of the harvest pie for the apathetic and selfish.
Nope I can and will put my money and efforts into groups have a true wild fish and their habitat agenda.
This might step on some toes and if it does then sorry. I am not so vain as to think I have the power of persuasion over the masses by means of this insignificant blog. I know what I believe and am intelligent enough to research the facts. Seems like the CCA and Gary Loomis have struck a chord with the desperate crowds who want fuller freezers and more jars of eggs.
Too bad because the kind of enthusiasm that the CCA has aroused into the apathetic thousands could really be a benefit to true conservation...stay tuned folks the next year should indeed be interesting for wild fish.
I'm conflicted about the CCA. On one hand the quote from Loomis regarding brainwashed anglers believing the problem is hydropower when the real problem is harvest is dubious. At the same time, I want to end non-selective harvest (gillnets) on the Columbia, so does the CCA. That would inevitably mean more wild fish in that basin. It is a tough call. Do you think it is possible to support the CCA for a limited objective and the Native Fish Society (for example). Also, I think each CCA chapter sets its own agenda. I'm not sure if boycotting is the answer rather than influencing the local chapter's agenda. Thoughts?
ReplyDeleteVery good points! It looks like that the agenda of the CCA here in the north west is hatcheries and harvest with wild fish and their habitat only an afterthought. These are two issues I am not interested in except to make sure that the hatcheries we do have are made to follow some kind of process to interfere with wild fish as little as possible.
ReplyDeleteThe solution is not and has never been more hatchery fish in the system.
I am also dubious of some of the notorious good old boys that are jumping on the CCA bandwagon.