I am posting in reply to several past comments about the Paddlefish Study soon to begin in Tn. Fortunately for all of us, Tn has historically taken a progressive attitude towards commercial fishing and has implemented fairly reasonable commercial fishing rules. This study will no doubt shed some positive light on commercial fishing when it revels the truth about fishing with gill nets. Among them are that net fishermen only want to catch the type of fish they are after. It isn't in their best interest to catch a number of fish that they will have to pick out of the nets and then throw back. So the will use nets that are very selective to the target species. I know its hard for some of you to believe but a gill net is not a magic wand. Commercial fishermen, like you, don't always catch fish. And when they do it is usually the fish they are after. I have been out with several commercial fishermen and caught only paddlefish, carp, and buffalo. I have never seen a sport fish in a gill net. The only exception to that would be an occassional large catfish and they just get thrown back. Fish mortality related to catch and release of sport fish by sport fishers on the other hand is well documented and signiifcant to sport fish populations.

A common thread in these debates is the idea that state fish and wildlife agencies are funded by the sale of sport licenses and that money should only be used to fund recreational activities. It never seems to occur to anyone to mention that the existance of lake you are probably fishing in is the result of a dam that was constructed and is maintained at public expense. That is expense to the general public, not the recreational fising public. We pay for the lake you are fishing in so it is entirely reasonable that we should have a say in what goes on there. I think the general public will agree that our lakes are for public use, both recreational and commercial.

Commercial fishing is a time honered and honest way to make a living. This study appears to be an attempt to determine if it is sustainable and whether or not it impacts sport fisheries. It deserves your support.