Oregon Public Broadcasting

The odds may have gotten a lot longer for efforts to prohibit the only permitted kind of commercial salmon fishing on the Columbia River. Rob Manning reports.

Sport fishing groups have long opposed the use of gill nets by commercial fishing boats on the Columbia.

But efforts to persuade legislators to stop the practice have stalled. So, two legislators and the Coastal Conservation Association recently submitted an initiative petition proposing a gill net ban in Oregon.

But their proposed language for the measure didn’t mention that commercial fleets really have no permitted alternative to gill nets.

Commercial fishing groups pressed the Oregon Attorney General to change the ballot title to say that commercial fishing of salmon and sturgeon would be prohibited outright.

The AG agreed to the change. Spokesman, Tony Green.

Tony Green: “The purpose was to be more specific, and describe the results of the ballot measure as drafted, for the purpose of giving Oregon voters the most information, so they can make the decision of whether they want to support it or not.”

Sponsors of the initiative petition can appeal the AG’s language to the Oregon Supreme Court.