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In these times of continuing doom and
gloom forecasts regarding the state of the fishery resource,
it was heartening to read recently of two different
initiatives, one each from the private and public sectors,
that bode well for the sport fishing enthusiast.
First came the announcement from Dennis Sreifel, the
British Columbia minister of fisheries, of a $120,000
project to create an experimental gene bank for wild
steelhead.It is to be established at the Vancouver Island
Trout Hatchery in Duncan, and will contain fish from
six different populations. |
On the heels of the preceding announcement came word of the
formation of the West Coast Sports Fishing Coalition. This group
had it’s inception at a meeting in Victoria of representatives
from Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon, and has
as its objective the protection of those declining species that
constitute the heart and soul of the saltwater fishery; namely
chinook, coho, and steelhead. The coalition will also work towards
sport fishing representation on the Pacific Halibut Commission,
another long overdue necessity.
According to Gerry Kristianson, a member of the Pacific
Salmon Commission, and adviser to the Sports Fishing Institute,
the group was able to agree on a substantial amount of common
concerns. We applaud this initiative, and hope it can act
as a model for the bureaucrats on both sides of the border
who continue to mishandle and mismanage our resource in the
name of their misguided attempts to ensure the survival of
their political masters. We long for the day that the Department
of Fisheries and Oceans will make its decisions based on what
is best for the resource, rather than what might suit the
corporate entities that finance elections.
With the value of sport-caught fish so far outstripping its
commercially-caught counterpart (both in revenue and job creation),
the time to acknowledge the benefits of recreational angling
is now. We salute the acknowledgement illustrated by the provincial
government’s steelhead gene bank program, and the West Coast
Sports Fishing Coalition’s efforts towards conservation, and
a common voice for the sportfishers of the Pacific Northwest.
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