Emergency SFAB Meetings About Proposed SRKW Fishing Closures

[SpringFever552]

Very sage advice on Martin's part.

All the research (please read it) points to the biggest single thing vessel operators (ergo sportsfishers) can do to help whales is avoid disrupting SRKW feeding and prey acquisition. Avoidance helps significantly reduce physical and acoustic disturbance, which impedes feeding success by as much as 25%. So, we are advocating that all recreational anglers when they see killer whales, maintain a 400 m bubble or spatial exclusion zone to reduce both physical and acoustic disturbance. Also turn off your sounder, and slowly leave the fishing area. Besides when whales are there your fishing success will be very poor generally. Its the right thing to do, and certainly far more effective for helping whales than an Area Closure.

If we can't prove as recreational anglers that we care about whales enough to adopt best practices like simple avoidance, then I say expect the next step to be close the whole ocean to recreational fishing.

I agree to what your trying to say..
but ill ask all this one question?

Has anyone ever been out fishing and have a pod of these(or any pod of Orcas) whales come in and STAY around you while fishing.

In all the yrs ive been out on the water I've NEVER had a pod show up and STAY around me trying to feed. NEVER!
They have always been on the move.

Only in Nootka Sound when the lone Orca was alive did it WANT to search out companionship and play with the sporties.

Yes we as sportfishers are competing with them for some of their/our food, but to be harassing/chasing these Orcas all day long every day the weather permits is NOT what we as sportsfisher people are doing.

If I was to be in control.
Short term fix..
1..Stop the harassment by whale watchers boats
2... pump/ranch more Springs into the lower mainland/South Island area
3... and SHORT TERM reduction to sportfishers to 1 spring a day in area of concern

 

[fishin solo]

You can pump as many smolts etc as you want but until something is done to seals eating 50% of them.... then what ?? Gotta tackle all the problems at once.... until then

 

[wildmanyeah]

The best quote from last night from the SFI guy

Do we want a enhanced seal population?or do we want an enhanced salmon population?

 

[fishin_magician]

The best quote from last night from the SFI guy

Do we want a enhanced seal population?or do we want an enhanced salmon population?

Followed by “sooner or later the question iof seal predation and their population is going to be brought up and be an issue which needs to be addressed”

 

[fishin_magician]

Very sage advice on Martin's part.

All the research (please read it) points to the biggest single thing vessel operators (ergo sportsfishers) can do to help whales is avoid disrupting SRKW feeding and prey acquisition. Avoidance helps significantly reduce physical and acoustic disturbance, which impedes feeding success by as much as 25%. So, we are advocating that all recreational anglers when they see killer whales, maintain a 400 m bubble or spatial exclusion zone to reduce both physical and acoustic disturbance. Also turn off your sounder, and slowly leave the fishing area. Besides when whales are there your fishing success will be very poor generally. Its the right thing to do, and certainly far more effective for helping whales than an Area Closure.

If we can't prove as recreational anglers that we care about whales enough to adopt best practices like simple avoidance, then I say expect the next step to be close the whole ocean to recreational fishing.

You didn’t attend any of the meetings did you?
Whale watchers are like Teflon.
Ok....you’re fishing Secretary......whales are coming east...Stop fishing and run miles the opposite direction meanwhile...whale watching boats are everywhere? That’s what irks me.

I’m at the T10 off the Vancouver Airport. I’ve been there all morning and my boat has found a couple of Chinooks. Whales are headed my direction based on radio chatter and I can see Prince of Whales, Sewells, Wild Whales Vancouver all around these animals. I’m supposed to stop fishing, pull my lines and go fish Vancouver Harbour? Instead of moving offshore a mile, letting the whales pass, while whale watchers harass and chase them along? No enforcement authorities anywhere? F$ck that! DFO, the RCMP and Authorities can get their asses out from behind their desk and spend some money and hold the f’n user groups accountable as sportfishers are.

I should run for office. I’d be f’n dangerous...and a lot of deadbeat sluffs we lovingly call bureaucrats in government offices would be fearing for their livelihoods.

 

[SpringFever552]

You can pump as many smolts etc as you want but until something is done to seals eating 50% of them.... then what ?? Gotta tackle all the problems at once.... until then

Again no arguments here..
Im not talking status quo hatcheries.. ranch those springs in nets to a larger size then release as Alaska does..

Good luck with a seal/ sea lion cull...
Id bet$$..it will never happen in my life time.

Wouldn't be my 1st option but thinking outside the (30 odd 6) box here..
Maybe trying to get the people in power to think of a program where they could sterilize them might be an option that they and "Joe and Jane" public could accept?

Yes I know it sounds ridiculous but its being done in other areas where the public doesnt want a cull of problem animals

 

[getbent]

You can pump as many smolts etc as you want but until something is done to seals eating 50% of them.... then what ?? Gotta tackle all the problems at once.... until then

And we need to increase the stew in the estuaries when the smolts hit salt. Doesn’t matter how many we pump in if they got no groceries!

 

[getbent]

You didn’t attend any of the meetings did you?
Whale watchers are like Teflon.
Ok....you’re fishing Secretary......whales are coming east...Stop fishing and run miles the opposite direction meanwhile...whale watching boats are everywhere? That’s what irks me.

I’m at the T10 off the Vancouver Airport. I’ve been there all morning and my boat has found a couple of Chinooks. Whales are headed my direction based on radio chatter and I can see Prince of Whales, Sewells, Wild Whales Vancouver all around these animals. I’m supposed to stop fishing, pull my lines and go fish Vancouver Harbour? Instead of moving offshore a mile, letting the whales pass, while whale watchers harass and chase them along? No enforcement authorities anywhere? F$ck that! DFO, the RCMP and Authorities can get their asses out from behind their desk and spend some money and hold the f’n user groups accountable as sportfishers are.

I should run for office. I’d be f’n dangerous...and a lot of deadbeat sluffs we lovingly call bureaucrats in government offices would be fearing for their livelihoods.

And that’s why you wouldn’t get in man...common sense and rational ideas don’t fly

 

[Prairie Locked]

Im not talking status quo hatcheries.. ranch those springs in nets to a larger size then release as Alaska does..

There seems to be some suggestion that doing this provides a more hardy DNA stock to these fish as well, and they also seem to perhaps survive better to maturity compared to a normal hatchery smolt.

 

[searun]

You didn’t attend any of the meetings did you?
Whale watchers are like Teflon.
Ok....you’re fishing Secretary......whales are coming east...Stop fishing and run miles the opposite direction meanwhile...whale watching boats are everywhere? That’s what irks me.

I’m at the T10 off the Vancouver Airport. I’ve been there all morning and my boat has found a couple of Chinooks. Whales are headed my direction based on radio chatter and I can see Prince of Whales, Sewells, Wild Whales Vancouver all around these animals. I’m supposed to stop fishing, pull my lines and go fish Vancouver Harbour? Instead of moving offshore a mile, letting the whales pass, while whale watchers harass and chase them along? No enforcement authorities anywhere? F$ck that! DFO, the RCMP and Authorities can get their asses out from behind their desk and spend some money and hold the f’n user groups accountable as sportfishers are.

I should run for office. I’d be f’n dangerous...and a lot of deadbeat sluffs we lovingly call bureaucrats in government offices would be fearing for their livelihoods.

Yes, they irk many people, but never mind the whale watchers. They will make their own beds...we will make ours. We need to take the high road and do what is in the best interest of the whales. If we are not able to adopt an avoidance strategy due to attitudes towards whale watchers, then we will be accepting Area Closures as a vehicle to manage the rec fleet. Let's apply a little common sense and worry about what we have control over - ourselves.

That said, I'm not happy about what the whale watchers are demonstrating on the water either...but, that's not our issue. The rec sector will be judged by our actions, not those of the whale watchers, which is precisely why we are asking the rec sector to adopt the "bubble" strategy.

We can address concerns over the whale watchers behaviours later when DFO pulls together the SRKW Advisory Process once all the stakeholder input in collected.

 

[searun]

There seems to be some suggestion that doing this provides a more hardy DNA stock to these fish as well, and they also seem to perhaps survive better to maturity compared to a normal hatchery smolt.

That is because they are eaten by harbour seals

 

[wolf]

JESUS guys really ask your self how hard is it to turn of your sounder and move away , IF this is what will make them happy then HELL YA ill do it for the maybe 6 times during the whole summer this is going to happen BFD. you want to blame everyone else but if we can DO OUR part then so be it, its better than the alternative of no fishing at all. Do i like all this ****
NO i fucken way I hate it but if me turning off my sounder for 5 mins its really not going to affect me.
I image the people that are on the boat wont mind either if they get a chance to take pictures of them....they always love to see them.

Wolf

 

[wolf]

and btw how many people showed up for it?

 

[Pursuit]

Again no arguments here..
Im not talking status quo hatcheries.. ranch those springs in nets to a larger size then release as Alaska does..

Good luck with a seal/ sea lion cull...
Id bet$$..it will never happen in my life time.

Wouldn't be my 1st option but thinking outside the (30 odd 6) box here..
Maybe trying to get the people in power to think of a program where they could sterilize them might be an option that they and "Joe and Jane" public could accept?

Yes I know it sounds ridiculous but its being done in other areas where the public doesnt want a cull of problem animals

 

[Pursuit]

Not crazy at all. There is research available to show how effective a contraceptive vaccine is - it resulted in a 90% reduction in seal pup production! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9373857

Don't need a cull need population management.

 

[ericl]

Interesting SRKW feeding info:

https://swfsc.noaa.gov/uploadedFiles/Events/Meetings/MMT_2015/Presentations/3.1 PPT ProgramReviewSRKWDistributionDiet071515MBHv2.pdf

 

[fishin_magician]

and btw how many people showed up for it?

250 plus in Tsawassen.

 

[fishin_magician]

Yes, they irk many people, but never mind the whale watchers. They will make their own beds...we will make ours. We need to take the high road and do what is in the best interest of the whales. If we are not able to adopt an avoidance strategy due to attitudes towards whale watchers, then we will be accepting Area Closures as a vehicle to manage the rec fleet. Let's apply a little common sense and worry about what we have control over - ourselves.

That said, I'm not happy about what the whale watchers are demonstrating on the water either...but, that's not our issue. The rec sector will be judged by our actions, not those of the whale watchers, which is precisely why we are asking the rec sector to adopt the "bubble" strategy.

We can address concerns over the whale watchers behaviours later when DFO pulls together the SRKW Advisory Process once all the stakeholder input in collected.

I have little faith that hundreds of boats are going to move and follow the direction like a finely tuned orchestra or follow Peter the Pied Piper. Many of the boats on the water are not even on this board or even aware of the issue. They’re not going to move, they’re not going to follow this....why? Because boats can’t even stay out the way of massive frickin’ oil tankers, cruise ships and freighters already in Vancouver...that’s why. Off the South Arm people barely move for massive ships.... and the 1st Narrows under the Lions Gate...heck....don’t even get me started. Now we have several hundreds if not thousands from Logan to Cadboro and everyone is going to move and turn off the sounders? I’ll place my bets on a winning lottery ticket instead.

Bureaucrats are TOTAL rank and file chickensh&ts who follow orders like good little soldiers who don’t have the fortitude to put their name to a directive. That’s why they haven’t done Sweet f@ck all since 2003 when the SRKW were identified as a Species at Risk under the Act. No one is accountable...but Sporties are...because we fish. It’s 15 frickin’ years later ffs!

 

[fishin solo]

Not crazy at all. There is research available to show how effective a contraceptive vaccine is - it resulted in a 90% reduction in seal pup production! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9373857

Don't need a cull need population management.

You need a cull then management in reproduction. They are already eating 50% of the smolts!!!

 

[Jencourt]

Maybe we need to stop presenting well thought out alternatives to DFO’s lazy solutions that are more designed to present the appearance of effort rather than actually provide long term solutions. Instead we should all write Trudy and tell him that we are feeling VERY OFFENDED by DFO’s performance and changing the way they do things will make us feel more included.