News Items of Interest regarding protecting Fraser River chinook runs. March 17 through to March 20, 2012
- Sport fishery demands threaten resource
- Cry me a river: sports fishing part of chinook collapse
- First Nations don't want a chinook fight
- Sports fishers reject restrictions on chinook
- Chinook fishery woes are being spread around, DFO says
- 'Draconian' chinook cuts loom for anglers
Sport fishery demands threaten resource
By Christina Burridge, Vancouver Sun March 30, 2012
Re: Cry me a river, Column, March 26
Congratulations on Stephen Hume's forthright comments on the commercial sports fishery and its response to the need to conserve Fraser River Chinook.
Commercial fishermen have accepted the need to account for what they catch through independent monitoring and validation of catch, accessing stocks only where there is confirmed abundance. It's time the commercial sports fishery reached the same conclusion rather than continually lobbying the government for unrestrained access.
Open access fisheries simply put too much pressure on the resource, especially at a time when environmental conditions are uncertain.
Perhaps it's no coincidence that the fish stocks in B.C. in the most trouble are those targeted by recreational harvesters.
Christina Burridge Executive Director BC Seafood Alliance
Cry me a river: sports fishing part of chinook collapse
With desperately poor returns predicted for spring and summer runs, it's time for 'draconian' restrictions on angling
By STEPHEN HUME, Vancouver Sun March 25, 2012
I’ve been a sports angler all my life. I caught my first salmon in 1955. I was eight.
Yet I haven’t been salmon fishing for years and may never go again. Why? It’s because I have little appetite for contributing to the decline and possible extinction of this iconic gift from nature. Somebody else can shoot the last buffalo. It won’t be me.
To be sure, many things are responsible for dwindling salmon stocks, among them heedless destruction of critical habitat by the forestry and mining sectors, agriculture, commercial overharvesting, urban sprawl, toxic run-off from roads, and toxic industrial and sewage effluents. And not least, failure of political will.
But anyone who thinks sports anglers don’t have anything to do with the decline in wild stocks lives in a state of rose-tinted self-delusion.
Back in 1997, there were pleas for a moratorium on fishing into mixed stocks of migrating salmon because of profound concerns about coho returns to the upper Fraser.
Those advocating conservation closures were vilified by the sports anglers and other commercial interests. Between them, these parties killed 200,000 coho that year. By 1998 the coho stocks were in a state of full-blown crisis.
Now, it appears, it’s the turn of Fraser River chinooks.
Desperately poor returns are predicted for spring and summer runs. Fisheries managers say they have DNA evidence that fully 50 per cent of the recreational summer catch in the past has been from these severely depleted runs.
Yet wailing from sports anglers already clouds rational discussion of the department of fisheries and oceans warning that “draconian” restrictions on recreational fishing are necessary to save these endangered Fraser River stocks.
To which I would say the appropriate response to those who market their tourism business by assuring well-heeled clients catches of trophy-sized fish would be: “You made your bed, now lie in it.”
On hearing the self-interested clamour from the commercial sports sector, you’d think so-called anglers who hoover up chinooks with the aid of depth-sounders, radar, fish-finders, global positioning systems, guides and specialized equipment that lets them drop their lures right on the noses of the salmon have nothing to do with the problem.
Pardon me?
We’ve known about a developing crisis with chinook stocks for more than 20 years but the recreational anglers have expanded their efforts while lobbying furiously to keep on fishing like there’s no tomorrow.
Visit the websites of resorts promoting sports angling for chinook and you can see the culture of excess and entitlement being marketed – photo galleries displaying to-the-limit catches; promises of catching the biggest fish (which incidentally also means removing the big ones from the breeding stock); even promoting moronic salmon derbies that offer cash prizes for biggest fish, most fish and so on.
Well, it seems there is a tomorrow. It just arrived.
Last year, reports Jeremy Maynard in the Campbell River Courier-Islander, sports anglers killed approximately 195,000 chinook, over 138,000 of them off the west coast of Vancouver Island, where Fraser-bound chinooks – and many small stocks bound for beleaguered American rivers – mingle with stocks returning to rivers where stocks are healthy or are hatchery-enhanced.
Now that restrictions are necessary for the survival of endangered stocks, the cry goes up once again that conservation limits don’t work, that fishing into mixed stocks doesn’t damage weak co-migrating runs, that restrictions unfairly target sports anglers, that first nations are to blame, that B.C.’s tourism industry will be destroyed if they can’t keep on fishing at the same rate.
Cry me a river. This is not rocket science.
We know that when marine fishery exploitations were significantly reduced in 1985, chinook salmon populations rebounded. We know that in the 1990s when restrictions were brought in to protect endangered coho salmon runs which co-migrated, chinook populations on the Fraser rebounded.
Read my lips: If you want more fish to survive to spawn, the place to start is by not killing them.
First Nations don't want a chinook fight
Island, Fraser River groups suggest meeting with anglers
By Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist March 29, 2012
First Nations from Vancouver Island and around the Fraser River want to meet with sports fishers to decide how best to protect the diminishing stocks of Fraser River-bound chinook salmon.
"We don't want to fight with them, we want to sit down and see how we can work together for conservation," said Ernie Crey, fisheries adviser to the Sto: lo Tribal Council.
"To do that, we need to be in a room together."
Technical staff and biologists from the bands and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans should also be in attendance, Crey said.
Representatives of 94 bands met with DFO officials last week on the Tsawout reserve and signed a letter of understanding on salmon management.
The letter "confirms their commitment to work together on a government-to-government basis."
The co-operative management agreement is in contrast to an earlier meeting DFO held with angry sports fishers on southern Vancouver Island.
At that meeting, about 400 anglers voiced objections to any further cuts to the summer chinook fishery in Juan de Fuca Strait and said they would not agree to more restrictions until DFO came up with better data and a recovery plan that includes habitat protection and hatchery enhancement.
Some speakers said they were shocked at the amount of chinook taken in the Fraser River net fishery.
Much of that fishery is conducted by First Nations, who, after sufficient fish reach the spawning grounds, have priority for a food and ceremonial fishery.
First Nations have already been told that late June is the earliest there could be a chinook fishery, Crey said.
"And that's not a certainty, but we want to err on the side of conservation and then work on getting more data."
Over the past decade, First Nations on the Fraser have forfeited 80 per cent of the chinook fishery even though many First Nations families rely on salmon, Crey said. "And we are prepared to do more, but it doesn't do us any good to go it alone. We have to talk to other groups and say, 'As hard as it might be, could you make further adjustments in your fishery,' " he said.
One group involving all sectors is already operating on the Lower Fraser, he said.
Christopher Bos, chairman of the Victoria Sports Fishing Advisory Board Committee, said his group would be happy to meet with First Nations.
"Any discussion among sectors is always helpful," he said.
Conservation is a priority, he said, but anglers agreed to cuts two years ago.
Preliminary figures from DFO showed those changes resulted in a 50 per cent reduction in the catch on the low-chinook runs, but DFO won't confirm those figures now, Bos said.
"We want to know the real status of the stock and impact from the reductions two years ago," he said.
Anglers do not want to stop First Nations from conducting their food and ceremonial fishery, Bos said.
"We want DFO to do something about the root of the problem. - We don't want DFO saying they can just cut our fishery to manage low abundance."
Sports fishers reject restrictions on chinook
Models used to justify cuts derided as 'jiggery-pokery'
By Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist March 23, 2012
Angry anglers gave Fisheries and Oceans representatives a rough ride Wednesday with raucous objections to any cuts to the summer chinook fishery in Juan de Fuca Strait.
About 400 people crowded into the Four Points Sheraton Hotel in Langford to tell DFO they have already taken enough cuts and any further restrictions would cause the collapse of the southern Vancouver Island sports fishery.
A motion passed unanimously that the "Victoria Sports Fishing Advisory Board Committee will not agree to, or accept, any further restrictions on the recreational chinook fishery."
Fishers want DFO to show that it has met its own salmon allocation policy and that a recovery plan is in place that includes habitat restoration, sufficient water for the fish and a hatchery enhancement program.
Another motion demanded that DFO have a third-party review of stock assessment and harvest data.
Some figures being used to justify restrictions are more than a decade old and others are based on best-guesses, said Christopher Bos, chairman of the Victoria Sports Fishing Advisory Board Committee.
"If you put garbage into the model, you're going to get garbage out," Bos said. "It's all jiggery-pokery."
A third motion called for all DFO staff to be fired immediately.
Les Jantz, DFO area chief of resource management for the B.C. Interior, said the meeting was very emotional.
"To a lot of people, this is near and dear to their heart, and they feel as if they have been singled out as the sole group to take action, which is not the case," Jantz said.
DFO staff would have liked to have met again with committee members, but that was rejected, Jantz said.
"That is unfortunate, because I think there are some things we could work with," he said. "The bottom line is they say they won't take any more action to protect these stocks."
At the heart of the controversy are Fraser River chinook runs that are not doing well. Returns this year are expected to be extremely low and all sectors are being told to expect restrictions in an effort to get more fish back to the spawning grounds.
The chinook fishery in Juan de Fuca Strait catches mixed stocks, with some fish from abundant runs and others from the depleted runs.
DFO will come up with a plan in the next month after meeting with all sectors.
Jantz also met with First Nations from Vancouver Island and the mainland in Victoria on Thursday.
"First Nations are concerned about these stocks because they rely heavily on them for food fisheries," Jantz said. "I expect they will come back with some recommendations on how to conserve these fish."
If the stocks are not rebuilt now, they will not be there in the future, Jantz said.
Conservation and First Nations have priority in fisheries.
Ernie Crey, fisheries adviser to Sto: lo Tribal Council, said First Nations have already reduced their catch and are prepared to do more.
"It's time for sports fishery groups to join with us in saving these precious fish," he said.
Chinook fishery woes are being spread around, DFO says
By JUDITH LAVOIE, timescolonist.com March 19, 2012
All sectors of the fishing industry are being asked to share the pain in an effort to save some chinook salmon runs on the Fraser River, says Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
“We are expecting to see poor returns of the five-year-old spring and summer chinook, so we have been talking to all the people who have been harvesting them and looking for ways to reduce the impacts this coming season and possibly for the future,” Les Jantz, DFO area chief of resource management for the B.C. Interior, said Monday.
“We are looking for whatever options are available. We’re not trying to close fisheries per se,” he said.
A final plan will be put together in the next month, Jantz said.
Worried recreational fishers say any further chinook catch reductions or closures during the peak summer months will destroy the southern Vancouver Island sports fishing industry.
Sports anglers have agreed to reduced catches to save the chinook, even though the number of fish from poor runs are a small percentage of the catch, members of the Victoria-South Island Sports Fishing Advisory Board say.
“If you closed the recreational fishery off Victoria for chinook of all kinds, it wouldn’t make any difference to these fish,” said Christopher Bos, chairman of the local committee.
“Ratcheting down the [recreational] fishery is not going to make these fish rebound.”
Jantz said no decisions have been made on how to protect the runs, but meetings are being held with sports fishers, the west coast of Vancouver Island and northern troll fisheries and First Nations, who catch chinook in the Fraser.
There have been concessions in the past, Jantz said.
“But now we’re expecting even weaker returns, so we’re looking for additional measures,” he said.
DNA analysis previously showed that about 50 per cent of the sports fishery chinook catch in summer was from the poorly-performing runs.
That translates to 11 per cent or 12 per cent of fish from those runs, Jantz said.
The troll fishery catches an average of four to five per cent and First Nations take 30 to 35 per cent, he said.
The First Nations food and ceremonial fishery has the highest priority.
“We will be meeting with First Nations on the Island to talk about the status of the stocks. We have had a number of meetings to date and they are very concerned and want to see action taken,” Jantz said.
Previously, First Nations eliminated some early fisheries to save chinook stocks, he said.
DFO is taking a wider look at chinook in southern B.C. and a framework will be developed over the next three years, Jantz said.
A meeting between DFO and southern Vancouver Island sports fishers will begin at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Four Points Sheraton in Langford.
'Draconian' chinook cuts loom for anglers
Restrictions raise fears for future of southern Island sports fishing
By Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist March 17, 2012
Fishermen in Greater Victoria are reeling after being told the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is looking at "draconian" restrictions on the summer chinook salmon fishery in Juan de Fuca Strait.
Members of the Victoria-South Island Sport Fishing Advisory Board and industry representatives, who took part in a conference call with DFO Friday, say plans to further restrict or even close the chinook fishery in the peak season of June, July and August could cause the collapse of the southern Vancouver Island sports fishing industry.
"Our backs are against the wall. Any more cuts will be the death of our fishery," said Martin Paish, general manager of Pedder Bay RV Resort and Marina.
The value of the chinook fishery in the areas from the mouth of the Fraser River, through Sidney to Jordan River, is millions of dollars, said Christopher Bos, chairman of the local Sport Fishing Advisory Board.
"The moment they start messing with the economic driver to the point that opportunity and expectation [of catching fish] are gone, they will destroy that economic driving force," he said.
The spinoff effect would take in fishing lodges, about 50 fishing charter operations, marinas, campgrounds, tackle shops and hotels, Paish said. "It would have a huge impact on Sooke and Metchosin. The sports fishery drives tourism in this area."
No one from DFO was available to talk about the proposals Friday, but Tom Cole, assistant chairman of the advisory board, said DFO representatives will be at a meeting Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel in Langford.
"We are expecting about 700 or 800 people at that meeting," Cole said.
The issue revolves around some Fraser River chinook runs with poor returns. Those chinook turn up in Juan de Fuca Strait in the summer at the same time as chinook from more abundant runs.
Two years ago, the recreational fishery, which takes only a fraction of the threatened stocks, agreed to catch limits in an effort to conserve those stocks, even though most chinook caught in the fishery come from the abundant runs, Paish said. The complicated rules now allow fishermen to take two chinook a day in the summer, with varying size constraints.
Instead of targeting sports fishermen, when further restrictions would have no effect on conservation of the stocks, DFO should be looking at the commercial or First Nations fisheries, which take many more fish, and its own allocation policy, said Bos and Paish.
Root causes are habitat loss and water extraction from the Fraser, but DFO has done little to address those problems and seems focused only on ratcheting down the sports fishery, Bos said.
"DFO has suddenly set its hair on fire and said they need more restrictions and they have put a bull'seye on our back," he said.
"We have already done our part to reduce the impact on these stocks."
