Stop Fishing Chinook, Save them for the Whales???

[FisherTim]

Okay, so where I'm from, there seems to be a rumor going around that everybody who sport-fishes for Spring salmon is evil and killing the whales, because apparently whales ONLY eat Springs...
Honestly I think it's a load of crap... I was just wondering if anyone else had heard anything about this...

Anyone?

 

[Rover]

Heard about it. I think we should feed them sealions

 

[Aces]

Maybe you should move...

 

[mhbradley]

My understanding is that resident pods get 90% of their diet from chinook salmon.

The transient whales are the ones that we like, as they primarily eat mammals.

Whales eat hatchery chinook too though, so we just need to keep working hard on conservation and spawning ground rehabilitation in order to share the resource.

Maybe the commercial harvest should give up a small amount of their quota to save the whales, as sport fishing community takes significantly less fish than the commies.

 

[Halibut-face]

The lions share of the research has been done in the summer months, when Chinook are running. (Fecal surveys and dip netting for prey samples) I've seen our local resident orcas feasting on coho and chum too later in the fall. The researchers will disagree, but they'll do it from the comfort of their offices in mid October at the same time the whales natural food source switches to coho and chum.

 

[agentaqua]

If the marine mammal advocates really want to help the resident orcas - they should also advocate for culling harbour seals.
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hGbAKtTejH0?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>