http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Sockeye+salmon+poaching+rampant+Fraser+claims/8827283/story.html
Here is another news story. I find some of the defensive comments in the comments section rather interesting. Apparently anglers are taking huge amounts of Sockeye in the ocean and river so that justifies what has been going on in the river with the commercial nets. News to me, I thought we are under a complete closure. The anglers where I fish are not targeting Sockeye at all, have not had any Sockeye opening all season and where we have caught one incidentally must release it. I also noted the some including Mr Crey are saying that Pinks are not available for food for many first nations and cannot bring relief. I find that confusing, they seem to have no trouble shipping Sockeye for sale, why not Pinks for food and I support the Feds paying for it.
I also wonder if DFO's plan is limited to running around confiscating some of the nets to try and reduce the damage a little and that will be the end of it; no charges etc. It is difficult to fault first nations really. As I understand it, short term thinking, next quarter profits, rape and pillage resource extraction and short term profit motivations with no thought of the future or the damage done are mainstays of our culture; not historically theirs. I believe we call it good business. Perhaps if our culture were learning the best of their historical cultural values we would all be better off. Unfortunately it seems they have learned from us and it appears they are good students.
Fish4All, I will agree with you there are bad actors in all three sectors. However there is a basic difference related to scale. There are no large scale underground commercial netting operations going on it the sport sector. Rarely someone may forget to pinch a barb or deliberately or more likely accidently because of ignorance keep a fish they should not. It should not happen at all, but when it does it is one fish; not thousands, tens or hundreds of thousands of fish.
As for Commercial fishing fish 4 all, your area of protective interest, you know as well as I do that just one bad skipper on one of the incredibly efficient killing machine big commercial boats can do more damage in hours than the entire sport fleet can do coast wide in an entire season if we had ten times more bad actors than we actually do. As some of the recent videos of commercial fishing atrocities are showing, it would seem to be happening far too frequently and is devastating for species of concern.
It is not the sport sector that has a lot of cleaning up of their act to do. As a sector we have had the least impact on the resource while contributing the most to the economy for the small amount we take (15% halibut for example while 85% goes to the commercial sector most of which is exported. First nations get their halibut of the top.) and give back the most to the resource through fund raising and volunteer labour in terms of contributing to habitat restoration and fish enhancement. No this was not intended as yet another opportunity for commercial lobbyist to push how well monitored they are etc. Perhaps you spend your spare time fund raising and getting cold and wet pulling old tires and rusty shopping carts out of creeks and restoring them and feeding fish and clipping them at hatcheries. I would be impressed if you do.
One other point, I understand the need for test fisheries as part of fisheries management but it has been frustrating for South VI anglers to watch the commercial boats that have been running around JDF filling up on Sockeye in the test fishery and knowing that these boats are likely taking more in these tests than anglers would have had we been allowed a Sockeye opening all season. However I do fully support the total season long sport closure given the very poor return numbers. Lets face it commercial boat owners love these tests fisheries because as I understand it they get to keep the Sockeye and make a lot of money; that needs to change. In times of such low Sockeye numbers DFO should pay them to test fish and then the Sockeye should be given to Fraser First Nations provided they actually end up being eaten and not sold.
Green Machine – It does seem to me the courts are creating a real mess. I suspect some salmon species or at least some runs will not survive it.
eman
