DATE=4/16/02

TYPE=English Feature

NUMBER=7-36182

TITLE=Tanglenet Fishing Saves Wild Salmon

BYLINE=Jeff Brady

TELEPHONE=260-1623 (Editor)

DATELINE=Columbia River, Oregon

EDITOR=Faith Lapidus

CONTENT=

_

INTRO: A decline in spring fish runs on the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest is prompting commercial fishers to change the way they operate. They've started experimenting with smaller nets and instead of throwing any endangered fish they catch back into the water they are reviving and resuscitating them. As Jeff Brady reports, the fishers hope the changes will allow them to stay in business.

TEXT: Salmon is a popular item on American dinner tables, and much of the catch comes from the Pacific Northwest. Spring Chinook (schih-NOOK) are the most prized fish for eating because they've spent more time in the ocean than other salmon species, their meat contains more oil, so they taste better. But Spring Chinook that spawn in the wild, as opposed to in a fish hatchery, are an endangered species, so it's not legal to catch and keep them. Spring Chinook hatchery fish are fair game though, you can tell the difference between the two because most of the hatchery fish have one of their fins clipped.

Commercial fishers like Brian Tarabochia (tara-BOCK-ee-uh) are participating in the current experiment to save the wild fish. Sitting behind the wheel of his boat, he prepares to go fishing.

TAPE: CUT 1 TARABOCHIA

We're in the Woody Island Slough, right here. We're gonna head out here to our fishing grounds in the channelthe main channel of the Columbiago see if we can't catch ourselves a couple of Spring Chinook.

TAPE: CUT 12 BOAT ENGINE SFX

TEXT: Mr. Tarabochia is continuing a family tradition.

TAPE: CUT 2 - TARABOCHIA

I've been goin' to Alaska with my father since I was 10 years old. I'm 34… Fourth generation… We're going right here where my dad fished for 65 years. Now it's my turn! (laugh).

TEXT: But his father did it much differently. He used nets that trap fish by the gills. That disrupts the fish's breathing and it eventually dies. Today, Brian Tarabochia uses a tangle netit has smaller holes and generally catches fish by their teeth instead. The nets also are left in the water for shorter periods of time. That way the fish are still alive when they're brought on the boat.

TAPE: CUT 3 - SFX: Putting nets out (buoy splashing)

TEXT: As Mr. Tarabochia throws out a plastic buoy, the net follows and spreads across the water as he puts the boat in reverse. Once the net is out, he waits for about a half an hour.

TAPE: CUT 4 - SFX: Pulling nets in

TEXT: Then he starts up a machine that drags the net back into the boat. At first, there's nothing there… Then he spots a fairly large Steelheadhe can't keep it because Steelhead are reserved for sport fishers. He quickly untangles the fish from the net.

TAPE: CUT 5 - TARABOCHIA

That guy's in pretty rough shape.

TEXT: Then Mr. Tarabochia carries the fish over to a big metal tank filled with water and puts it inside. The fish just lays there, upside downit looks dead.

This is a recovery tank, designed by the local fish and wildlife agency. A jet circulates fresh water through the tank. The bubbling water flows over the fish's gills giving it extra oxygen. It's sort of like performing C-P-R on the fish. After 10 minutes or so, the fish starts moving around.

Leaning over the metal tank, Mr. Tarabochia touches the fish.

TAPE: CUT 6 - TARABOCHIA

You take a lethargic fish like this and you start playing with him a little bit… Rub his stomach… Sometimes adjust your water flowthat fish will be released as a number one, I guarantee ya'.

TEXT: The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife classifies fish on a scale from one to fivefive is just about dead and one is healthy. The Department trained Mr. Tarabochia and other commercial fishers to use the recovery tanks, and sends inspectors out on the water to monitor the experiment. Pat Frazier, who heads the state program, examines the recovering steelhead and is pleased with what he sees.

TAPE: CUT 7 - FRAZIER

Okay, What I'm gonna do now is release the fish. There's a door on the front of the box that is made of Plexiglas so you can see the fish and you can see that he's real healthy. As you watch, the fish will go straight down… So I'm just going to lift the door and the water and the fish go all at once. (Splashing)

TEXT: The fish quickly disappears into the water.

TAPE: CUT 8 - FRAZIER

It went straight down. Good!

TEXT: Mr. Frazier says the commercial fishers are trained to watch that. If the fish stays near the surface, it could mean it wasn't given enough recovery time.

The fact that this fish appears to have survived being caught in the net is important. In the past, a fish such as this one would have been given up for dead. The industry is allowed to kill only a limited number of wild Spring Chinook in the process of trying to catch the hatchery variety. Once fishers meet the limit, they all have to stop for the year. But if they can keep more wild fish caught in their nets alive, the fishers hope they will be allowed to fish longer.

Fishing this way creates a lot of extra work, but Brian Tarabochia says if it allows him to catch more hatchery fish, it's worth it. He says that, along with a little marketing to compete with better known fish, could turn the lower Columbia into a profitable fishery again.

TAPE: CUT 9 - TARABOCHIA

It potentially has the capabilities of competing with the Copper River Salmon. Copper River doesn't have the first Salmon available. The Columbia River Spring Chinook is!

TEXT: Mr. Tarabochia's enthusiasm for this experiment is not shared by everyone. Phil Donovan is a lobbyist with the Northwest Sport Fishing Industry Association. He's concerned that fish released from recovery tanks could still die within a few hours or a few days from the stress of being caught in a net.

TAPE: CUT 10 - DONOVAN

We want to make sure that the delayed mortalitythat we have a true understanding of how many these fish that are caught by nets are making it to the spawning beds and how many of those are dying.

TEXT: Oregon Fish and Wildlife officials are still testing delayed mortality. Preliminary results show about 10-percent of fish die after they're released from recovery tanks.

The sport fishing industry is not the only group critical of the experiment. Charles Hudson with the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission, which represents Native American fishers, says policy makers should focus on removing dams and restoring fish habitat restoration instead.

TAPE: CUT 11 - HUDSON

The fishermen on this river have paid an enormous price in patience and in reform of the way they do business. And we've not seen that type of pressure applied to different areas of the Columbia River System. We think it's time that attention is paid to those other areas of the riverin hatchery reform, in habitat improvement and hydropower reform.

TEXT: This is the second year the state of Oregon has used the tangle nets. The agency will continue testing as long as funding holds out. Canada and the northwest state of Washington also are experimenting with tangle nets on a limited basis. But in the main channel of the Columbia River, Brian Tarabochia says he's already convinced that his new way of fishing is good for him, and good for the fish.

I'm Jeff Brady on the Columbia River, near Astoria, Oregon.