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April 30, 2000 Dear Dr. Koenings: I have had a week to reflect on my trip to Olympia and Willapa Bay with your people and I am going to be hard pressed to pen the words that will best describe how I felt, in a short note. I was asked during a Selective Fishing meeting in Vancouver in November 1999 by Lee Blankenship (Senior Research Scientist) in Olympia and Mark Heckert (Willapa Bay Alliance) to come to Washington to give a presentation on what I have been doing in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. While at first I was nervous, because what I am trying to develop has been controversial, I was very excited at their enthusiasm. Selective fishing has been extremely controversial here in British Columbia, as I'm sure you're very aware. However, DFW has been very supportive of our efforts. We've had modest successes in our one year of operation. So I consider myself to be a messenger, not the fisher's enemy, as some would believe up here. Some people cannot accept change, even though it is constant. Growing old is change and we're supposed to get smarter? I don't know why its so hard for some to accept. However, one of your people in particular, sir, is very special indeed! Any concerns I had about going were soon ameliorated by Geraldine Vander Haegen (WDFW-Olympia). The rapport she has with the fishers and everyone involved was a delight to see and something to surely treasure. I have rarely felt so welcome and at ease. As all the people from your department I met must be a reflection of yourself, sir, I commend you--you have a tremendous team!! This was an experience I will cherish all my life, and as we progress down this road into the future, I intend to maintain, as I'm sure do the other two fellows who went with me, an open working relationship with everyone involved in building a better future for all. I have been asked numerous times, what I hoped to gain by doing this. My response is always the same: "As you give, so do you receive," and someone of us is going to get one of these ideas right. We, fishers, farmers, foresters and sports fishers alike will all gain. A tree farmer told me he loved our presentations because he felt he had been shouldering all the blame for our problems. As a fisher myself, I feel that what I'm doing is sharing the responsibility of righting past wrongs by accepting change as something to be embraced and holding new opportunities for higher quality and valued products from our share of this precious resource. "Live at the dock" fish is my idea of selective harvesting. In the live rockfish fishery, I can get up to 10 times the price of dead fish. In the salmon fishery, its been one way of demonstrating selective harvesting (successful, unharmed, catch and release). Now we are exploring the processing and marketing opportunities. Live = potential for 100% caviar recovery and supreme quality carcass. I would like also to thank you, sir, while at the same time apologizing for writing such a long-winded letter, for allowing me the time to express how I feel. For me, this has been a unique experience, one which I and my family will always treasure. Not so long ago, fishers (some) from here were blockading ferries, etc. Change is slowly being embraced here, but I felt much more willingness to explore ideas down there. I am hopeful this will benefit us as well. I see tremendous potential to help us through some of our problems coming from your people. I am not good at short notes, sir, so I will sign off for now and hope I have conveyed my deepest gratitude to you and your people. Sincerely, F. H.
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