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Ernie Fedoruk is Vice President of the
Outdoor Writers of Canada and former B.C. Director with
the Northwest Outdoor Writers Association. Winner of
26 awards in the last 16 years, the sports/outdoors
columnist retired from a 48-year newspaper career in
1996. Messages can be faxed to him at (250) 592-7090,
or emailed to efedoruk@islandnet.com
"A man's passion for fishing should not allow it
to interfere with his love of family. But if the glue
binds, then please consider the angler's passion also
a love for family." |
Approaching it with a Business Background
Rather than Happy, it was a Nervous New Year for some in
the early days of the Millennium.
Up to 160 individuals in mid-January learned they may have
to go job-hunting because of concerns surrounding future operations
of the Canadian Princess Resort in Ucluelet. The 160 represent
about a quarter of the population of the quaint town on Vancouver
Island's west coast.
A particular day, Jan. 13, was the most interesting one.
Announcement that the 20-year-old resort's future is in doubt
was made that day. Same day I picked up a fresh BC Outdoors
magazine and digested Herb Dhaliwal's promises for BC salmon
fishing's future, which happens to be a major factor in Ucluelet's
continuance. "Dhaliwal: Rising to the task" teased the magazine's
headline. Canada's newest Minister of Fisheries boasted of
"seeing the fishery in dollars and cents terms," which is
good. Then, he exclaimed, "there has never been a Minister
of Fisheries with a business background before."
Common sense, not a "business background," will keep the
160 drawing pay cheques from Ucluelet's major job-creator.
The plight of the Canadian Princess leaked out from a confidential
letter Bob Wright, president of Oak Bay Marine Group, wrote
and sent Dhaliwal on Nov. 30. Methinks Herb, the apparently
business-wise graduate from University of BC, may have a nose
for business but it does not keep up with his nose for scheduling.
In December and January, all BC fishing resorts work hard
and spend huge advertising dollars to attract clients to their
May-to-September seasons. Trouble is, Dhaliwal's Fisheries
and Oceans Canada (FOC) has, through to the start of March,
not issued this year's game plan for salmon fishing along
the BC coast.
Dhaliwal has to be given a chance but it is quite apparent
Ottawa's bureaucrats seem unable to provide game plans early,
which is vital to a sportfishing industry wishing to improve
on its half-billion-dollar kick to the province's economy.
You don't have to be a UBC grad to understand the urgency
of early advertising. Wright is a high school dropout who
has championed the importance of sport fishing for the past
four decades. In the process, he established 18 businesses
from BC to Oregon and the Bahamas and became very wealthy.
While he has a "business empire" -- a janitorial service,
a real estate investment firm and a taxi/limousine company
-- Dhaliwal needs to brush up on timing, if the interview
with the BC Outdoors writer is an example.
Dhaliwal, when he was fresh on the job late last year, quickly
offered his support for fish farms.
He would take Canada to be "a world leader in aquaculture,"
create perhaps "20,000 new jobs," and help BC share $1billion
in sales."
In the meantime, University of Victoria PhD candidate John
Volpe confirmed escaped Atlantic salmon -- supposedly "sexually
immature" - have bred in BC waters and now threaten BC's native
salmon populations. Many fish biologists are appalled, and
are ringing alarm bells.
Former BC Fisheries Director Dr. David Narver is one of those
concerned. If problems arise, it will be because both federal
and provincial governments refused to heed the BC Wildlife
Federation's advice that fish farms be allowed to use only
"non-reproductive salmon." Unbelievably, the top two levels
of Canadian governments did not follow the federation's suggestion!
Federal Fisheries almost destroyed the coast-wide recreational
industry with an ignorant decision to introduce non-retention
of coho salmon in 1998. Last year FOC canceled a coho fishery
off the Queen Charlotte Islands but that "conservation measure,"
as indicated later, was not necessary. Last fall the department
allowed a troll fishery that harvested over 56,000 chinook
with an average weight of only six pounds, which indicated
a very immature salmon!
Another 60,000 chinook were taken off the Queen Charlotte
Islands and 24 per cent of coded wire tags recovered indicated
those fish were headed for systems on Vancouver Island's west
coast. Wright, a former Canadian representative to the Pacific
Salmon Commission, pointed out that the annual commercial
harvest of coho has dropped from 3.3 million during each of
the 1991-94 years to 27,000 in 1998, and that 453,459 sports
licenses were sold in 1994 but sales of only 258,224 were
registered in 1999. Last year marked the worst year for license
sales since they were introduced. "The same scientists who
endorsed this massive fishing harvest are the same scientists
making management recommendations today," Wright said in March.
Only 2.6 per cent of all salmon in BC caught in 1998 were
taken by the sport fishery, but Ottawa's wheel-spinners continue
to hammer the recreational sector at every turn. Perhaps it
will take a business school grad to understand these things:
that those who take the least from the resource but contribute
the greatest payoff, that resorts such at the Canadian Princess
add to an environmentally-clean tourism industry and should
be helped and protected. Federal Fisheries' managers have
NOT absorbed the message in the past six years. You have work
cut out, Mr. Dhaliwal, with house-cleaning in the ministry.
Copyright ©
Ernie Fedoruk retired in 1996 after a 47-year journalism career as an outdoors and sports columnist, has just completed
14 years as director/officer of the Outdoor Writers of Canada,
also was director of the Northwest Outdoor Writers Association
for 11 years. His passion is fishing – to find and to
protect – and insists his greatest contribution as a
conservationist is incompetence.
Ernie Fedoruk Freelance Journalist
1867 Neil Street Victoria, BC, V8R 3C6, Canada
phone:(250)592-4438 fax:(250)592-7090
e-mail: efedoruk@islandnet.com
To purchase Ernie Fedoruk's column for publication, please
contact efedoruk@islandnet.com
For previous articles by Ernie Fedoruk, click on the links
below:
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