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this is pretty old news but i thought id pass it on[:I]
New Salmon, Halibut Regulations Are Here
By: D.C. Reid
Victoria Times-Colonist
March 20, 2008
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimes...l?id=1082a01d-d867-4243-bd4d-7b6891c4f6d2&p=2
I reported last week that your halibut catch has been reduced by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans because of concerns that mid-age halibut are in too few numbers. The annual winter January closure was doubled to include February, and only one fish may be retained until May 31. After then you may only have two halibut as your possession limit for the rest of the year. Stiff measures, indeed.
So, you could have knocked me over with a feather, when I read with shock in the Times Colonist on Saturday that William Strong, local commercial fisherman had whacked 2,000 pounds of halibut in the past week on long line -- precisely the same fish in precisely the same fishing area that sport fishermen had just been legislated out of for the preceding two months.
Assuming a dressed carcass of 15 pounds, that equates to 133 halibut, or several weeks of early sport fishing pressure in the Victoria portion of Juan de Fuca Strait. On top of this, sport fishermen have been asking for years for the local long liner not to be on this urban water at all because one good line takes all the fish.
Having picked myself off the floor, let me move on to salmon. You should be aware that there is a new regulation promulgating a slot limit for areas 19 and 20 in the Victoria area and 18 and 29: anglers may retain only two Chinook of 45- to 67-centimetres -- winter springs of two- to seven-pounds -- whether hatchery marked or unmarked. The period is from March 11 to May 15 and the intention is to allow early Fraser River spawning Chinook a chance to pass through our area from west of Port Renfrew to as far up the Fraser as Hope.
Of fascinating common and scientific interest, the fish that migrate the farthest up a river, and the Fraser is 1,368 kilometres long, are the first to enter, hence the current timing of the slot limit in Victoria. Poor ocean survival in 2005 affects five year old Chinook stocks, which most of the protected fish are, most heavily this summer (not to mention the Alaska mid-water Pollock trawl that wracked up a staggering 712,000 incidental by-catch of salmon in 2005).
The spawners we are protecting are from Louis Creek on the North Thompson, Spius Creek, and the Coldwater, Cottonwood, Upper Chilcotin, Chilako, both tributaries of the Nicola and Birkenhead rivers (The latter have actually rebounded so much in the past few years that they are not really a conservation concern in 2008).
Anglers a little longer in the tooth will remember the big May fish are what we have long called Columbians -- but B.C. fish, not Columbia River fish. They will also remember the King Fisherman Contest the TC used to run. Alec Merriman, great columnist and voluminous fish-info mind, listed hundreds of 40- and 50-pound springs in the paper in May to early July. Virtually all of these fish are gone, and the remainder is what we are protecting. In addition, the abysmal derby numbers last summer are also mostly Fraser absentees, so preserving them is necessary pain.
Anglers longer in the tooth will remember that this is the same period there used to be an upper size limit to protect American, Samish and Nooksack 'spring' springs. These fish are in better numbers now, as are most Puget Sound rivers, unlike ours. So ponder the next clause of the current regulation: anglers may not retain any marked Chinook above the 67 cm upper limit. These are all American fish, from rivers in good shape. With DFO 'considering' the issue with the Americans, the season will pass without any fishing for these fish we should be able to keep.
Finally, many sport fishermen put hundreds of volunteer hours on everyone's behalf in the SFAB process. The minister grants his ear and does not want to hear complaints outside of the co-opting process. Having both these salmon and halibut regulations come down with only last minute rush consultation has made committed volunteers question the process.
Now the kicker: most smaller salmon we are presently allowed to keep are juveniles of the very stocks we are protecting.
dcreid@catchsalmonbc.com
***********
BCWF ALERT
John B Holdstock
BC Wildlife Federation
Kelowna, BC
New Salmon, Halibut Regulations Are Here
By: D.C. Reid
Victoria Times-Colonist
March 20, 2008
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimes...l?id=1082a01d-d867-4243-bd4d-7b6891c4f6d2&p=2
I reported last week that your halibut catch has been reduced by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans because of concerns that mid-age halibut are in too few numbers. The annual winter January closure was doubled to include February, and only one fish may be retained until May 31. After then you may only have two halibut as your possession limit for the rest of the year. Stiff measures, indeed.
So, you could have knocked me over with a feather, when I read with shock in the Times Colonist on Saturday that William Strong, local commercial fisherman had whacked 2,000 pounds of halibut in the past week on long line -- precisely the same fish in precisely the same fishing area that sport fishermen had just been legislated out of for the preceding two months.
Assuming a dressed carcass of 15 pounds, that equates to 133 halibut, or several weeks of early sport fishing pressure in the Victoria portion of Juan de Fuca Strait. On top of this, sport fishermen have been asking for years for the local long liner not to be on this urban water at all because one good line takes all the fish.
Having picked myself off the floor, let me move on to salmon. You should be aware that there is a new regulation promulgating a slot limit for areas 19 and 20 in the Victoria area and 18 and 29: anglers may retain only two Chinook of 45- to 67-centimetres -- winter springs of two- to seven-pounds -- whether hatchery marked or unmarked. The period is from March 11 to May 15 and the intention is to allow early Fraser River spawning Chinook a chance to pass through our area from west of Port Renfrew to as far up the Fraser as Hope.
Of fascinating common and scientific interest, the fish that migrate the farthest up a river, and the Fraser is 1,368 kilometres long, are the first to enter, hence the current timing of the slot limit in Victoria. Poor ocean survival in 2005 affects five year old Chinook stocks, which most of the protected fish are, most heavily this summer (not to mention the Alaska mid-water Pollock trawl that wracked up a staggering 712,000 incidental by-catch of salmon in 2005).
The spawners we are protecting are from Louis Creek on the North Thompson, Spius Creek, and the Coldwater, Cottonwood, Upper Chilcotin, Chilako, both tributaries of the Nicola and Birkenhead rivers (The latter have actually rebounded so much in the past few years that they are not really a conservation concern in 2008).
Anglers a little longer in the tooth will remember the big May fish are what we have long called Columbians -- but B.C. fish, not Columbia River fish. They will also remember the King Fisherman Contest the TC used to run. Alec Merriman, great columnist and voluminous fish-info mind, listed hundreds of 40- and 50-pound springs in the paper in May to early July. Virtually all of these fish are gone, and the remainder is what we are protecting. In addition, the abysmal derby numbers last summer are also mostly Fraser absentees, so preserving them is necessary pain.
Anglers longer in the tooth will remember that this is the same period there used to be an upper size limit to protect American, Samish and Nooksack 'spring' springs. These fish are in better numbers now, as are most Puget Sound rivers, unlike ours. So ponder the next clause of the current regulation: anglers may not retain any marked Chinook above the 67 cm upper limit. These are all American fish, from rivers in good shape. With DFO 'considering' the issue with the Americans, the season will pass without any fishing for these fish we should be able to keep.
Finally, many sport fishermen put hundreds of volunteer hours on everyone's behalf in the SFAB process. The minister grants his ear and does not want to hear complaints outside of the co-opting process. Having both these salmon and halibut regulations come down with only last minute rush consultation has made committed volunteers question the process.
Now the kicker: most smaller salmon we are presently allowed to keep are juveniles of the very stocks we are protecting.
dcreid@catchsalmonbc.com
***********
BCWF ALERT
John B Holdstock
BC Wildlife Federation
Kelowna, BC
