While the national media are filled with coverage of the looming fiscal cliff, residents of communities and consumers of commercially caught fish of the lower Columbia River region are facing a cliff of another kind.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission voted last Friday to ban the use of gillnets on the main stem of the Columbia River, relegating them to side channels and tributaries. The move is part of a plan proposed by Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber that would also give allocation priority to recreational fishers and the professional guides. The plan also advocates for development of fishing methods, such as seining, that could have less impact on endangered stocks. More details may be found in other articles in this week's edition.

Kitzhaber has said he brought forth his plan to bring peace to the river, but like members of most commercial fishing families, I fear the plan will make commercial fishing economically unfeasible. Gillnetters would be limited to small areas where hatchery stock would be reared and released. However, space in those areas are limited. Gillnetters would be allowed to fish after the main part of a run would have passed for recreational fishers' access, and gillnetters wouldn't have access to the profitable, and prolific, upper river chinook run. The development of alternative gear fisheries is still in the works, and it would take financial investment to move from gillnetting to seining.

All that doesn't bode well for the economics of the industry. If the industry fails, communities where commercial fishermen live will lose that financial contribution, and consumers will lose access to salmon caught on the lower Columbia.

Salmon management is a complicated business, involving local, state, and federal interests. Gillnetters have made much progress in developing new gear that helps the survival of endangered species that must be caught and released. Those efforts should be allowed to proceed without the diversion by the Kitzhaber plan and its transfer of a public resources to a select group of recreational fishers.