IronNoggin
Well-Known Member
First nations act on the salmon crisis -- when will Ottawa?
By Stephen Hume, Vancouver Sun May 5, 2010
The next beleaguered generation of wild Pacific salmon is barely launched on its life journey, and already the fish politics on the Fraser River approach full boil.
Even as a federal inquiry sorts out what caused sockeye runs to collapse last year, first nations and the sport angling industry square off over this season's Chinook.
The clash puts the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans between a rock and a hard place.
The rock is Ottawa's obligation to ensure the survival of salmon stocks, a fiduciary duty that first nations on the Fraser demand be honoured before other economic interests.
First nations want sport angling shut down where there's a likelihood of incidental mortalities among depressed Fraser Chinook populations. When sport anglers intercept Chinook at sea and upstream aboriginal fisheries are later closed for conservation purposes, constitutionally protected fishing rights are hijacked by a subordinate interest, first nations argue.
The DFO studies attribute almost 12 per cent of last year's mortalities for Fraser-bound Chinook stocks to sport anglers in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Overall, sport anglers killed twice as many Fraser Chinook as the total traditional aboriginal fishery in 2009. Figures suggest that sport anglers now catch about 30 per cent of all Chinook and coho.
"The sport fishery is having an impact on the early Chinook bound for the Fraser," says Ernie Crey, a former fisheries manager, now senior adviser to the Sto: lo Tribal Council. "Right now, DFO has our fishery shut down as tight as a drum but is allowing the sport fishery to blaze away out in the salt chuck."
The hard place for DFO is pressure from the powerful sport fishing lobby, which wants to keep on fishing.
Chinook and coho are the centre-piece to B.C.'s saltwater game fishery. This sector is worth about $650 million a year to the provincial economy, providing about 7,500 jobs.
Meanwhile, similar confrontations over sockeye also fester. While conservation concerns have idled the commercial fleet, sport anglers want to continue fishing the Fraser. They argue that salmon from precarious populations caught incidentally can be safely released to continue to the spawning grounds.
Sport anglers point to two recent studies supported in part by first nations on the lower Fraser that show a 98-per-cent survival rate for sockeye caught on hook and line in the Fraser River, held for 24 hours in a pen and then released.
But even first nations are doubtful about precisely what those studies mean.
"The crucial test for determining the impact of catch and release on sockeye will only come after it can be demonstrated through future studies that female sockeye taken in such fisheries actually make it to their natal spawning beds and produce the next generation of fish," wrote Sto: lo Tribal Council Grand Chief Clarence Pennier in a letter to DFO last week.
Others in the fisheries science community appear to share that caution. A team of scientists from the University of British Columbia, Memorial University in Newfoundland and Carleton University in Ontario has applied for a National Science and Engineering Research Council grant to find out, making the argument that "The current management process does not have and therefore cannot use scientifically defensible estimates for post-release mortality for different species caught in the multi-sector fisheries. This situation has created acrimonious relationships."
Acrimonious is an understatement.
From Sto: lo territory below Hell's Gate to the upper Fraser watersheds, first nations tribal organizations are serving notice that, in their view, enough is enough. They want constitutionally defined conservation measures enforced and their legal requirements satisfied.
The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled unequivocally that conservation needs trump all others, followed by aboriginal food and ceremonial fisheries requirements. Only after these needs have been satisfied can commercial and recreational fisheries be authorized.
A particularly galling issue for first nations has been the opening of recreational fisheries in tidewater while the commercial sector has been largely closed and while aboriginal fisheries further up the river have been either closed or severely restricted when predicted runs failed to materialize.
In a letter to Fisheries Minister Gail Shea, the Nicola Tribal Association wants an end to all fishing of Fraserbound Chinook. Recent evaluations by DFO indicate that in 2009, even as some Fraser-bound Chinook and coho stocks were in deep crisis, sport anglers contributed to about one-third of the mortalities of early run Nicola Chinooks.
Such Chinook returning to the tribal association's collective territory have declined precipitously, and last year's returns were down by more than 90 per cent from a decade earlier, Siska Band Chief Fred Sampson informed Shea on March 22.
Sampson said that to maintain a stable spawning population and sustain aboriginal and other fisheries, at least 25,000 Chinook must return to their spawning streams.
"In 2009, the total spawner return for the seven stocks in this group was approximately 2,000 fish," he wrote. "Louis Creek had six spawners return. In our territory, fewer than 80 returned to the Coldwater River and only 26 were left to spawn in the wild. This group of fish is in crisis and has been for many years ... These stocks cannot sustain ANY harvesting."
On the basis of such grim numbers, Sampson wrote, the tribal association will forgo its aboriginal right to harvest fish. It will enforce a self-imposed moratorium on fishing in its watersheds. But it wants DFO to impose a simultaneous closure for recreational and commercial fisheries where migrating Fraser chinook are present.
The Okanagan Nation Alliance has also written to DFO advising that chinook runs to its traditional territories are "in a state of crisis."
"Given the depleted condition of these stocks, it is critical that DFO immediately implement all possible measures to eliminate mortality impacts from non-aboriginal fisheries," wrote Grand Chief Stewart Phillip. "'Sharing the burden' amongst different sectors does not meet DFO's legal duties to the Okanagan Nation and other first nations; what is required is the elimination of mortality impacts from competing sectors."
Sounds like a reasonable proposal to me. First nations are showing the kind of leadership we should expect from our federal government in protecting wild salmon stocks.
DFO should be shutting these fisheries down right, left and centre for strict conservation reasons. Only as stocks recover former abundance and first nations' access to traditional food and ceremonial harvests can be satisfied should commercial and recreational fisheries be reactivated.
In the meantime, anglers who care about their sport and the stocks that sustain it are already putting their rods away. Only the greedy and the stupid squabble over who gets to kill the last fish for fun.
shume@islandnet.com
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/...+will+Ottawa/2988302/story.html#ixzz0n4iEdxso
Someone outta kick this one... Right in The Nadz methinks! [}
]
By Stephen Hume, Vancouver Sun May 5, 2010
The next beleaguered generation of wild Pacific salmon is barely launched on its life journey, and already the fish politics on the Fraser River approach full boil.
Even as a federal inquiry sorts out what caused sockeye runs to collapse last year, first nations and the sport angling industry square off over this season's Chinook.
The clash puts the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans between a rock and a hard place.
The rock is Ottawa's obligation to ensure the survival of salmon stocks, a fiduciary duty that first nations on the Fraser demand be honoured before other economic interests.
First nations want sport angling shut down where there's a likelihood of incidental mortalities among depressed Fraser Chinook populations. When sport anglers intercept Chinook at sea and upstream aboriginal fisheries are later closed for conservation purposes, constitutionally protected fishing rights are hijacked by a subordinate interest, first nations argue.
The DFO studies attribute almost 12 per cent of last year's mortalities for Fraser-bound Chinook stocks to sport anglers in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Overall, sport anglers killed twice as many Fraser Chinook as the total traditional aboriginal fishery in 2009. Figures suggest that sport anglers now catch about 30 per cent of all Chinook and coho.
"The sport fishery is having an impact on the early Chinook bound for the Fraser," says Ernie Crey, a former fisheries manager, now senior adviser to the Sto: lo Tribal Council. "Right now, DFO has our fishery shut down as tight as a drum but is allowing the sport fishery to blaze away out in the salt chuck."
The hard place for DFO is pressure from the powerful sport fishing lobby, which wants to keep on fishing.
Chinook and coho are the centre-piece to B.C.'s saltwater game fishery. This sector is worth about $650 million a year to the provincial economy, providing about 7,500 jobs.
Meanwhile, similar confrontations over sockeye also fester. While conservation concerns have idled the commercial fleet, sport anglers want to continue fishing the Fraser. They argue that salmon from precarious populations caught incidentally can be safely released to continue to the spawning grounds.
Sport anglers point to two recent studies supported in part by first nations on the lower Fraser that show a 98-per-cent survival rate for sockeye caught on hook and line in the Fraser River, held for 24 hours in a pen and then released.
But even first nations are doubtful about precisely what those studies mean.
"The crucial test for determining the impact of catch and release on sockeye will only come after it can be demonstrated through future studies that female sockeye taken in such fisheries actually make it to their natal spawning beds and produce the next generation of fish," wrote Sto: lo Tribal Council Grand Chief Clarence Pennier in a letter to DFO last week.
Others in the fisheries science community appear to share that caution. A team of scientists from the University of British Columbia, Memorial University in Newfoundland and Carleton University in Ontario has applied for a National Science and Engineering Research Council grant to find out, making the argument that "The current management process does not have and therefore cannot use scientifically defensible estimates for post-release mortality for different species caught in the multi-sector fisheries. This situation has created acrimonious relationships."
Acrimonious is an understatement.
From Sto: lo territory below Hell's Gate to the upper Fraser watersheds, first nations tribal organizations are serving notice that, in their view, enough is enough. They want constitutionally defined conservation measures enforced and their legal requirements satisfied.
The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled unequivocally that conservation needs trump all others, followed by aboriginal food and ceremonial fisheries requirements. Only after these needs have been satisfied can commercial and recreational fisheries be authorized.
A particularly galling issue for first nations has been the opening of recreational fisheries in tidewater while the commercial sector has been largely closed and while aboriginal fisheries further up the river have been either closed or severely restricted when predicted runs failed to materialize.
In a letter to Fisheries Minister Gail Shea, the Nicola Tribal Association wants an end to all fishing of Fraserbound Chinook. Recent evaluations by DFO indicate that in 2009, even as some Fraser-bound Chinook and coho stocks were in deep crisis, sport anglers contributed to about one-third of the mortalities of early run Nicola Chinooks.
Such Chinook returning to the tribal association's collective territory have declined precipitously, and last year's returns were down by more than 90 per cent from a decade earlier, Siska Band Chief Fred Sampson informed Shea on March 22.
Sampson said that to maintain a stable spawning population and sustain aboriginal and other fisheries, at least 25,000 Chinook must return to their spawning streams.
"In 2009, the total spawner return for the seven stocks in this group was approximately 2,000 fish," he wrote. "Louis Creek had six spawners return. In our territory, fewer than 80 returned to the Coldwater River and only 26 were left to spawn in the wild. This group of fish is in crisis and has been for many years ... These stocks cannot sustain ANY harvesting."
On the basis of such grim numbers, Sampson wrote, the tribal association will forgo its aboriginal right to harvest fish. It will enforce a self-imposed moratorium on fishing in its watersheds. But it wants DFO to impose a simultaneous closure for recreational and commercial fisheries where migrating Fraser chinook are present.
The Okanagan Nation Alliance has also written to DFO advising that chinook runs to its traditional territories are "in a state of crisis."
"Given the depleted condition of these stocks, it is critical that DFO immediately implement all possible measures to eliminate mortality impacts from non-aboriginal fisheries," wrote Grand Chief Stewart Phillip. "'Sharing the burden' amongst different sectors does not meet DFO's legal duties to the Okanagan Nation and other first nations; what is required is the elimination of mortality impacts from competing sectors."
Sounds like a reasonable proposal to me. First nations are showing the kind of leadership we should expect from our federal government in protecting wild salmon stocks.
DFO should be shutting these fisheries down right, left and centre for strict conservation reasons. Only as stocks recover former abundance and first nations' access to traditional food and ceremonial harvests can be satisfied should commercial and recreational fisheries be reactivated.
In the meantime, anglers who care about their sport and the stocks that sustain it are already putting their rods away. Only the greedy and the stupid squabble over who gets to kill the last fish for fun.
shume@islandnet.com
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/...+will+Ottawa/2988302/story.html#ixzz0n4iEdxso
Someone outta kick this one... Right in The Nadz methinks! [}
]
