Goldstream River native fishery??

[Deewar25]

Just curious if anyone knows what methods they 'should' be using for their fishery. It would seem to me that if they had rights to their traditional way of life/survival, I'd of thought it would be reasonable for them to be expected to actually use traditional methods of catching salmon like their ancestors. Whether it be spear or whatever. I took issue today though strolling with my young children and seeing them out there with the biggest landing net you could imagine and catching 3 or 4 each dip of beauty 15-20 pounders at a time, chuckin them on shore and beating the hell out of them. They want the rights to their past, but use the highly advantageous tools of the present. I'd expect better.

I also asked one of the guides around there and she was surprised - said never heard of just a landing net being used - usually just a gaff and that created enough complaints as it was from park visitors.

Disappointing, thats all, needed to vent....wasn't fun trying to explain to my young kids what was going on and why.

 

[Roe Bags]

Pretty sure theres enough rotting river chum for the natives to go around. Infact stopped by the Goldy on the way home from up Island with Fishrite to enjoy the show. We were up the highway a bit and met a dad teaching his 3 sons the ins and outs of spear fishing. They were fishing a small pool with only a few chummlys, they had obviously overlooked the pool just down from them holding well over 50 that fishrite had spotted just earlier. We were delighted to tip them off and enjoy the carnage to follow. Within 15 minutes the 2 chum had risen to 15 dead bodies strewn on the bank. I turned my back for 2 minutes and loooked down at the bank, there was fishrite right in the mix rubbin bellies lookin for fresh berries. He managed one full tank, quickly into our beer cooler and off we went

 

[darmin]

hey Deewar didnt we take their rights away years ago, did you explain that to your kids most of us (WHITES)including myself see this issue thru our own eyes put their shoes on for a while i would be pissed just my opion

 

[Last Chance]

Regrettably, if we are going to can their rights to fish the rivers, then we'll probably have to loose ours as well. I don't think a spear or a dipnet is going to make a large difference in how many fish they can get, when you are picking them up from 2 feet of water, all you are going to do is save just a little bit of time. Thing about a net, if the native fisher misses, chances are a lot better the fish will live then if it gets mortally wounded by a spear.

 

[Deewar25]

Not questioning their rights to fish one bit - I know thats a given, was just questioning the method and the whole argument that if this is all about tradition, then fish the traditional way. I did clearly explain to my kids about history, land taken away, their rights etc, still didn't mean it was a fun thing for them to see on a Saturday afternoon. Would have been nice to be able to explain to them that this was traditionally how they gathered their food and they were maintaining their traditional rights and methods even today.

It's all good, just wish my kids didn't have to see that at 2 in the afternoon on a busy Saturday....