Columbia River tribe targets ghost nets to help white sturgeon Project

aims to save the fish from deadly tangles with lost gear

Portland, Oregon - The Yakama Nation Fishery Program and the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC) today launched a three-week project to pull lost fishing nets from the Columbia River.

The effort is expected to recover up to 30 nets, between The Dalles and Bonneville dams, which inadvertently can continue catching and trapping fish such as white sturgeon for years.

"Tribal fishers are committed to helping ensure a robust sturgeon population," said Kevin Kappenman, a CRITFC biologist overseeing the project. "Stewardship is considered a natural obligation."

Each year some nets are lost during the commercial fishing season because of vandalism, river traffic or water and weather conditions. The lost or "ghost" nets often comprise synthetic materials that can remain strong enough to capture and hold fish for years. During the project's 2002 pilot launch, tribal fisheries staff recovered eight ghost nets of 80 white-sturgeon carcasses from Bonneville Reservoir.

The 2004 project, with funding from the conservation and research organization Ocean Trust and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Restoration Center, aims to retrieve nearly four times the number of lost nets recovered in its debut run. The removal process uses guidelines from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

"Tribal and nontribal commercial fishers harvest in the Columbia River," said Kappenman, "but our project may represent the only program to recover lost gear."