Important mtg about chinook fishing in Victoria

[Governor]

All anglers from South Vancouver Island please read this post on the Important Meetings, Derbys and SFBC Get Togethers forum

http://www.sportfishingbc.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=14922

DFO are seriously contemplating increased chinook fishing restrictions - you need to get this on your radar!

Mods - sorry for this post being here on Salt Water Fishing but I am trying to get the message out and read by as many as possible. Gov

God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling - Izaak Walton

 

[Whole in the Water]

I plan on attending. This is an important meeting.

Long live wild salmon!!!
>&lt)))>

 

[wolf]

Best this thing be attened by any and all fisherman as this is really going to screw us if the FN gets there way ill be there for sure come say hi if you do ill probablly be beside LC.


Wolf

Blue Wolf Charters
www.bluewolfcharters.com

 

[Last Chance]

We need everyone to show guys. We really need this.

Last Chance Fishing Adventures

www.lastchancefishingadventures.com
www.swiftsurebank.com

 

[bananas]

Dodge around all of the questions is more like it unreal.I almost felt sorry for the guy but at the same time he should have been a little more prepared.The part i don't get is how can they have further restrictions when they don't even have any 09 numbers they don't even have any 09 guesstimates what a joke.

I have a bad feeling about this one boys i think they know exactly what there going to do.

 

[Deewar25]

the part that stuck out for me was his statement that they felt their slot size timing was too early and it should be pushed forward. That said to me their decision was already made up. Can you say Sheringham gong show this year?

 

[Barbender]

Wow what a coincidence, wild Chinook salmon is selling for $8.25 USD/lb right now to the wholesallers. That means a retail price of around $25.00 a lb. With the projected increase in Chinooks this year I wonder why the slot limit.

 

[chris73]

Guys, don't you get it? It was sooo clear from the presentation: it's not about any numbers or true impact mitigation by us - it was big on the screen! We have a 1.2% exploitation rate impact on those springs in trouble. There is NOTHING to be gained by any measure. What is needed by DFO is a simple politically driven restriction to the recreational sector in order to ask other stakeholders for more reductions. Plain and simple.

 

[aquasport]

My take on the meeting was that DFO won't, or can't, enforce restrictions on the FN who take the majority of the early run. They dodged the question of FN quota multiple times and they seemed to like the idea of a moratorium proposed by the Nicola Band.
I think they were going through the (consulting) motions with the recreational sector. The responses were scripted and DFO sent inthe junior staff to take a few hits for the team.
The FN get priority for chinook. The deal will be if FN's cut back on early Fraser chinook, recreational fishermen get zero.

On a different note, I thanked John Horgan(NDP MLA) for attending the meeting. He said he totally got the issues faced by the fishermen and found the meeting enlightening. I would encourage others to send him an email (john.horgan.mla@leg.bc.ca)and do the same.

 

[Silver Streak]

While the moratorium proposed by the natives is laudable, it should be them that cut back. After all, this is a conservation issue
and the natives are taking 2/3 of these fish. If DFO (ie. the
natives) took us off the water it would not, by itself, save these
fish. We take so few that the savings are negligible. The
natives have their nerve asking us to cut back further, when they
are taking virtually all of these fish. CONSERVATION comes first
before even native catch. It's about time DFO had some backbone
and went after the real fish hogs.

I believe this is a re-allocation from recreational to native
harvest in the long term. The way Treaty negotiations and
agreements are going, there won't be enough fish in the Fraser
for even the natives, let alone us.

Don't know if everyone in the room caught all of the letter
Chris read out from the Native group to Fisheries Minister
Gail Shea, which called for a closure of recreational and
commercial salmon fishing coincident with the native moratorium
proposed on these stocks of concern. CLOSURE TO SALMON FISHING -
not a non-retention of these stocks. They want us off the
water.

 

[wolf]

YES it was not a good thing to listen too, but realy we need more people to attend to these things there was maybe about 150 people there and I know for a fact there is way more people that fish area 19/20 than that.
If it was "standing room" only DFO would have said OH OH I think we are doing this wrong, we better re think this!!!! Dont get me wrong it was good to see the people that were there but if we dont get more next time dont cry on here when we dont have a season as the more people there it represents us better.

For some unknown reason they are picking on us I dont inderstand why

For people that didnt attend the explotation rate distribution for 2008 went like this from biggest to smallest for the ETF (early timed fraser fish)

FRASER FN NET 24.0%
NICOLA MOUTH SPORT 3.2%
GEORGIA STRAIT 2.0%
USA 1.9%
FRASER RIVER SPORT 1.4%
JUAN DE FUCA 19/20 1.2%
NBC TROLL .08%
ALBION TEST FISHERY .08%

So you can see we are getting shafted this isnt about conservation because if it was I know most if not all of us would like to see salmon for our future then shut it complettly for no one even FN as it is quite clear who is taking the most fish here. this isnt about conservation or allocation its about POWER</u>AND THE FN WANT IT ALL

There I said now you can call me a racist I dont care this is canada and we should be ruled under canadien law,ONE rule for all of us. Im getting tired of this getting crammed up our a$$ we shoul ALL be entitled to a fair share of what is there not because of race religion or color.

quoteon't know if everyone in the room caught all of the letter
Chris read out from the Native group to Fisheries Minister
Gail Shea, which called for a closure of recreational and
commercial salmon fishing coincident with the native moratorium
proposed on these stocks of concern. CLOSURE TO SALMON FISHING -
not a non-retention of these stocks. They want us off the
water.

As for this statement I dont blame this Chief as by the time the fish reach him way up in the upper fraser they are almost all gone hes not getting fish anyways as there getting taken by the others below him there is alot of infighting between tribes its really nasty. He put that letter in as hes got nothing to lose anyways, when you go to the well and theres nothing in it why not stir the pot hes pi$$ed off as well.


So you see its not political or conservation or allocation its all about POWER and because we are the lowest on the TOTEM POLE sorry couldnt resist we get the scraps.

If this go thru and I personally think it will the economic impact is going to hurt everyone including me but more for the marinas the B&Bs tackle stores this will have a huge domino effect.

The soultion for me anyways what ive said all along for the last 3 or 4 years insted of money going to hatcheries or charity from the money raised in the derbies etc.

It should all go into a trust so we can hire a high class lawyer to fight DFO just like the FN does cause when it goes to court and you say discrimation towards canadiens they wont want to touch it and then they will be forced to step back just like they are with the FN.

Ill personally throw in money from a full days charter just to fight these ba$tards.

Anybody else want to step up????????


MY RANT FOR THE DAY WOLF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Blue Wolf Charters
www.bluewolfcharters.com

 

[scott craven]

Just to clarify, are we talking about a complete Chinook closure
or just unclipped fish ?

 

[Deewar25]

quote:Originally posted by r.s craven

Just to clarify, are we talking about a complete Chinook closure
or just unclipped fish ?

FN are wanting complete closure for non FN

 

[bananas]

The part i find so unreal is this is all about 2 fish heads that were turned in from the strait yes thats what he said 2 fish what a joke.

 

[twinwinds]

FN's agreed to stay off the water as well. Not just non FN.
At least thats what I understood.

 

[chris73]

Correct Twinwinds, the moratorium calls for a total stop. However, as Wolf said, the chief suggesting this has nothing to lose as he wasn't getting any fish anymore anyway no matter how hard he tried up there.

Bananas: while 2 sound few but given the low total number of CWT induced, 2 does show that those fish come by here. Now you need to extrapolate according to the total number of CWT on this stock and you get the exploitation % that DFO showed. Granted, there is a LOT of risk and uncertainty with this low-number stat procedure but that's how DFO does it.

 

[Deewar25]

quote:Originally posted by twinwinds

FN's agreed to stay off the water as well. Not just non FN.
At least thats what I understood.

Perhaps Chris can clarify if I heard right - thought what I heard reading from their letter was 'close down fishing to all non-native' (think he termed it white-man to be honest!)

I think if they were willing to shut down 100% as well, we'd have absolutely no issue with the whole thing.

 

[Rockfish]

What an interesting meeting. For those who did not attend, here are a few highlights I found fascinating. Just my cut on it and sorry for the lack of brevity.
1. The Pink net pen sport fishing enhancement plan for Ogden Point and Sidney was rejected by DFO. What was fascinating was the primary reason given for the rejection of the Sidney plan. The DFO spokesperson advised that there were two creeks in the Sidney area that historically did not contain Pinks. He went on to explain that therefore Pinks were an alien species to that area and they could not risk possible disease/parasite transfer, creek population and other problems associated with introducing an alien salmon species. They are working under the precautionary principle when it comes to Pinks in the Sidney area. Keep in mind that Pinks occur naturally in other rivers nearby and swim past Sidney. Personally I think they are correct on this and if there is the slightest risk they should be cautious, even if the risk is hypothetical and infinitesimal. But what delicious irony and complete and total hypocrisy given how much of our tax dollars DFO and there Conservative Federal Government masters spend assisting, promoting and defending the introduction of Atlantic salmon to our coast, an alien salmon species not even from the same ocean. I seem to recall there are some parasite, disease and escapement problems with Atlantics.
2. I found DFO’s 2008 pie chart disturbing. It has quite the visual impact to see the 1.2% south island sport fishing take, so small you can barely make it out on the chart. Our little insignificant percentage of the catch dropped from 1.4 % in 2006/7 to 1.2% in 2008. Guess which user group had a major increase in terms of the percentage of total take of available early run Fraser Chinook during that same time period.
3. As for a total moratorium, the FN’s will not be able to come to an agreement between themselves, will ask to be exempted for the usual special purposes (I believe the DFO rep. suggested that possibility), or will not be able to enforce it with there own people once it is in place, - the woops, sorry, we tried tactic. If we were to agree to a total moratorium, it will be enforced and good luck trying to ever get it removed once it is in place, even if the stocks rebound.
I think as a sector we may need to be a little more political. Perhaps a few less Conservative MP’s on the coast is the only way to get the message across to Ottawa.
PS - will beer cure cynicism?

 

[cheech]

Guess it sucks to live in the big smoke.
Nanaimo is still relatively WIDE OPEN compared to you guys.
Best wishes to you all during the new season. Stay posted to our part of the world for up-dates!

 

[ratherbefishing]

Give your head a shake Cheech, I fish Nanaimo and that statement is shocking. If decisions are based on such a small number of recoveries then you know they are looking at catch data from other areas (i.e Nanaimo). Way to be united...