Fishing Rights

The collapse of salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest sparked an agreement under which Native Americans will exercise fishing rights for the first time in 50 years at historic Willamette Falls. The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission agreed to let tribal fishermen harvest 2,500 salmon at the popular Oregon City sport-fishing spot, using dip nets, which have been part of their culture for thousands of years.

Ken Hansen, 53, who spent three decades trying to convince the U.S. government that the Samish Indian Nation wasn't extinct and deserved treaty fishing rights, died Wednesday in Anacortes, Wash., of complications related to diabetes and heart problems. Hansen, who was tribal chairman several times, gained attention in the 1980s when he petitioned the U.S.

Yuba Natural Resources, the troubled mining firm whose former chairman, Richard Silberman, was arrested April 7 on money-laundering charges, has made an overdue $131,000 payment to the U. S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management as part of a settlement of mineral trespass charges. The payment, which was due April 1, stemmed from charges filed by the bureau last year in connection with Yuba's 9,900-acre mining field near Marysville. Yuba still owes the bureau $400,000, which it will pay off in annual installments through 1993, bureau area manager Deane Swickard said Monday.

A Briton paid nearly $16,000 at an auction of feudal titles today for the privilege of being called Lord of Balls. The Lordship of Balls lies in southern England and comes with mineral and fishing rights on the River Ouse. The mystery buyer is believed to be a local resident. Robert Smith, chairman of the Manorial Society of Great Britain, said the new Lord of Balls had netted a bargain.

A California gray whale died after being shot with a machine gun off the western tip of Washington state and then trying to swim out to sea, officials said. Coast Guard Petty Officer Kelly Parker said five people believed to be members of the Makah tribe shot and harpooned the whale. Coast Guard officials created a 1,000-yard safety zone around the injured whale, which was shot about a mile east of Neah Bay in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Sharks, jacks, parrot fish and other colorful reef fish are quickly disappearing from coral reefs encircling the Hawaiian Islands, federal scientists reported Tuesday. The scientists blamed overfishing for the steep decline, which affects three-quarters of the species once commonly found on coral reefs, delighting snorkeling tourists and feeding subsistence fishermen in Hawaii's coastal communities.

Eduard A. Shevardnadze, making the first visit by a Soviet foreign minister to the Philippines, said Wednesday that he wants to build on a positive new trend in Moscow's relations with Manila. His Philippine counterpart, Raul Manglapus, told reporters that Manila hopes to develop trade and economic links with Moscow and that the two will discuss fishing rights and possible industrial joint ventures. He said he will probably brief Shevardnadze on the future of U.S.

Robert Satiacum, 62, an Indian activist who for the last eight years was a fugitive from American justice. A former leader of Washington state's Puyallup Indians, Satiacum led the charge for Indian fishing rights in the Pacific Northwest in the 1960s and '70s. Satiacum fled to Canada in 1982 while awaiting sentencing in the United States on racketeering charges that involved trafficking in contraband cigarettes, arson and the attempted murder of a rival tribal leader.