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The Canadian government’s Standing Committee
on Fisheries visited my town late January, and happens
to be another in a series of committees, commissions,
judicial inquiries, and individual fact-finding groups
who come around—year after year it seems—and never accomplish
much.
Pacific salmon continue to swim for the lake called
Oblivion. |
Sadly, two countries, the province of British Columbia and three
Pacific northwest states are unable to agree how to help the
fish. BC added to morass last year by introducing Fisheries
Renewal BC to further complicate the do-good scene. Within the
past five years, the Canadian government sent John Fraser, a
former federal fisheries minister; Art May, president of Memorial
University in Newfoundland, and, most recently, Appellate Court
Judge Sam Toy to find solutions.
Fraser, a West Coast boy and ardent recreational angler,
"done good" in writing his thesis for the feds. He best understood
the problems but Canada’s highest-ranking bureaucrats (who
once worked under him) did not react very strongly. Fish stocks
continue to dwindle.
Despite enjoying high status in the academic world, May did
not solve the problem either.
And with due respect to Toy, hizoner is not likely to succeed
but will, of course, be paid handsomely, as all his predecessors
were.
I wish I could get consulting money. I know I won’t. Governments
never want to hear the truth, or to introduce the obvious
solution. For one thing, it would antagonize big business.
My background is not very academic. It includes 50 years
as a newspaper journalist, mainly as a sports/outdoors writer.
I did successfully pass the Canadian Investment Dealers’ course
but never took my economic understanding to market. I simply
was having too much fun newspapering.
I am and have been, an executive with both the Outdoor Writers
of Canada (OWC) and the Northwest Outdoor Writers Association
(NOWA) for the past 11 years.
I first started fishing on the West Coast in 1957, very soon
after I arrived in Victoria. My interest in the fish and outdoor
resources reached extreme and passionate levels 12 years ago
with the birth of my first grandchild. And now, as I informed
the Standing Committee, I am determined to do anything I can
to assure my grandchildren, and yours, expectation to a fishing
experience. Hopefully, that passionate expectation will go
far, far into the future.
Since I have identified myself as an officer of both OWC
and NOWA, the comments and observations contained herein are
strictly mine, and are not to be taken as policy or a statement
from those organizations.
The respected task forces and well-educated academics, I
would suggest, always seem to hit roadblocks: government.I
will be the first to admit they, the cause finders, do not
have an easy task. Not now, and never was in the past.
Much has been said about the high level of incompetence within
the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) bureaucracy.
Much of what has been said is true, but it is not because
the bureaucrats lack knowledge. They simply bow with political
winds and are not interested in my grandchildren, or yours.
No one in Ottawa has every asked to see the pictures of my
Munchkins, or yours, holding up their catches.
Mismanagement is only part of the problem. Variables such
as the weather condition, El Nino, are a resource destroyer.
Over-fishing also can be blamed.
The greatest problem is the destruction of habitat. It is
intense, it is fierce, and it is most damaging. Governments
must put clamps on free-for-all forestry practices, construction
of dams, ignorance and unbearing tolerance in allowing municipalities
to dump their sewage into the most available waterway, and
random, unchecked development. Regional and provincial governments,
motivated by greed and other undue influences, are too quick
to approve any development because it enlarges their tax base.
The East Coast of Vancouver Island is a perfect example.
First and foremost, forest companies and BC Hydro had their
own way in past years, a free ticket to destroy magnificent
fish-bearing streams and lakes. Then development became rampant.
In my first decade on Vancouver Island, the Strait of Georgia
supported approximately 90 per cent of the recreational salmon-fishing
industry in BC. Property development expanded on both sides
of the strait but I know the Island situation best. I confine
observation to the Island.
When I first arrived, the major municipalities were Victoria,
Duncan, Nanaimo, Qualicum-Parksville, Courtenay-Comox and
Campbell River, or roughly six in a 250-mile stretch. There
was not much between. Today, that waterfront from Victoria
to Campbell River is a never-ending stretch of homes, shopping
malls, parking lots, and other businesses.
There has been improvement. That turn toward sanity was inspired
by the recreational-fishing sector. Not by the commercial
industry, not by the high-level DFO bureaucrats, not by the
forest managers, not by community planners, and only rarely
by politicians. Canada’s fisheries portfolio is an insignificant
one to the Great Men of the East, the politicians in Ottawa.
Because of insignificant, Ministers are appointed far too
quickly and most lack the needed knowledge to be effective.
In their never-ending parades, the fact-finders always hear—many
times—arguments for sharing the resource. Sharing should be
on the low end of the priority totem pole, in Canada’s dispute
with the U.S. and in BC’s fights with Alaska.
First and foremost, above all else, greatest consideration
must be for the fish. The mandate is to save the dwindling
stocks, not to distribute the remaining stragglers.
The richly-paid commercial lobbyists insist on alienating
the recreational sector instead of—the sensible ploy—teaming
up with "the sporties," the First Nations and environmentalists.
United, all could contribute sensibility to a decent solution.
The pity of our is system is the influential bureaucrats
lack courage to stand up to the politicians. Politicians,
in turn, must realize the party line may not supply the best
solution and they must return to the free vote. Only then
will governments return to intelligent governing.
I have a biologist’s assurance that salmon are a resilient
species, among the most adaptable critters on the face of
our earth. Fish stocks are capable of recovering. Look only
to the Gulf Coast and consider what Texas, Louisiana, Florida
and Mississippi accomplished. Gulf stocks of the popular redfish
and speckled trout began to disappear. Inspired by "sporties,"
specifically the Gulf Coast Conservation Association, Gulf
states shut down commercial fishing of those species.
In less than a decade, the rebound was so great commercial
netting is on the verge of being restored.
Aiding recovery were biologists who discovered a way to fool
the redfish sow. With changes in light and water temperatures,
the sows started to produce two litters a year instead of
one.
That brings us to another failing of the federal government.
It reduces budgets for the scientists and rarely touches the
bureaucratic monkeys. While I have no respect whatsoever for
high-level DFO bureaucrats, my respect for Fisheries lower
echelons is very high. Canadian biologists have international
respect, have accomplished much. This is not the time to reduce
their ranks. Nor is this the time to reduce budgets for conservation
officers or enhancement.
Having watched top bureaucrats and politicians bumble around
in meaningless fashion for many years, I now am tempted to
pray for the Great Black Plague to make a comeback and strike
down all who refuse to protect our fish resources.
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
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