Someone once told me or maybe I read it somewhere, but the story had to do with the fact that house flies in China no longer exist. Seems the People's Republic required everyone to kill and turn in ten flies per day or face serious punishment. China is so well organized, being a completely regulated society, that the government was able to enforce this project. Apparently the bio-mass of flies suddenly dropped too low for survival and extinction resulted. You just can't have a pair of two of the filthy little beasts and have them reproduce in sufficient numbers to make up for attrition. Wow!
Might this or is this happening to our steelhead? After the abysmal runs this fall, one has to ask. WDFW has the same old tired answers and can't be counted on to save the fish. They have proven themselves to be totally incompetent. So do we just lose our magnificent fish? Will steelhead become the Atlantic Salmon of the East Coast? Over my dead body!
Yet, I stand discouraged. Oh yea, there are a few people on this web who might support CnR for wild fish. But other than these few, where are the rest? Why don't others weigh in? Is it that this topic has been hashed to death? Maybe the latter is the case. But the problem persists and so we must hash it over and over again, always hoping to win a few more converts, always hoping for some new argument that will win more people to the CnR side and stop the killing of the few remaining wild steelhead.
While I don't want to start a fight with the gear boys ( I was one for many years until I hung up my baits and switched to flies forever), they are not a particularly conservation minded bunch. Most fish for meat. No twenty pound Hoh River buck will ever be slipped back into the water. Sure there are exceptions and I hope if you are one, you'll try to convince others. But you are in for a tough fight.
But here is a plan. The pen (read e-mail) is a powerful sword. So I would like to see a list of e-mail sites where the following people can be contacted for a little note. It doesn't have to amount to much, just that you are worried about extinction and want a state-wide closure on wild steelhead.
Maybe someone who is big on this idea could look up and post the websites for each of the following:
The Secretary of the Interior.
The two U.S. Senators, Murphy and Caldwell.
As many U.S.Congressmen as possible.
The Governor, Locke
All WA. State Senators.
All WA State Congressmen
If you think it will do any good, ( I don't), then mail a few to any WDFW personnel you can think of or know.
To lessen your burden, send the same message to all of the above; they will never know; they never compare e-mail..
Please help in this effort!
Robert J. Lawless:thumb
BOB
