Orca Food Security Program

[profisher]

We are all concerned about the condition of our endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKWs) and how the low abundance of Chinook salmon, their preferred food, is hindering recovery. Closing salmon fisheries is not the solution to saving SRKWs nor increasing Chinook abundance. If government does go ahead with fishing closures the socio-economic fallout will be dramatic for First Nations and many people in BC, especially those in small coastal communities. Since the federal government's October 2017 Orca Symposium in Vancouver, we have been waiting for an announcement about tangible Chinook enhancement actions that will benefit the SRKWs, maintain important salmon fisheries and protect the small coastal communities that rely on them. Sadly nothing meaningful has emerged. It is simple, we must produce more Chinook salmon and fast! For that reason, it is important that 'we, the people' lead the way and offer government viable solutions.

Working collaboratively with Brian D. Tutty and Bob Cole, I have prepared a recommendation paper "The Orca Food Security Program" a strategic Chinook enhancement initiative. The recommendation paper's summary document and supporting appendix 2 - "Sooke Chinook Enhancement Initiative" are attached for you to read. (Appendix: 3 - "Omega Pacific Hatchery Chinook Enhancement Initiatives Supporting Orca Food Sustainability" will be shortly). The documents describe a bold and innovative intervention strategy designed specifically to address the abundance of Chinook in the short and medium term while our wild Chinook salmon are restored.

I offer "The Orca Food Security Program - Recommendation Paper (summary document)" to you and hope you support the strategies and approaches described. It is designed to bring us together and work cooperatively on a noble cause that has broad benefits. In the coming days more information on how you can share you support and help move this bold plan forward will be made available.

Yours in conservation,

Chris
_____________
Christopher Bos
President
South Vancouver Island Anglers Coalition
(778) 426-4141
chris@anglerscoalition.com

 

[profisher]

Chris and others have been working hard at finding alternatives to closing our coast to fishing and instead putting forth a plan to rebuilt Chinook stocks, save whales and individuals and coastal communities that depend on our fisheries. (commercial and recreational) The SVIAC board has known that Chris has been working on this for some time and I've been biting at the bit to get this public. Today is the day!

 

[littlechucky]

This is fantastic.

Thank you.

 

[SpringVelocity]

Quick question are we proposing that Sviac group would be paid to implement and administor this program? This is listed in reference on pg.14.

This is where it gets a little grey. It looks good just trying to understand when we say paid administrators what and who does that mean? I can also see it coming into conflict with other hatchery operations that are unpaid. Just some thoughts.

 

[profisher]

Would the SVIAC board be paid for doing SVIAC work, no it is a non profit society. Would someone be paid for traveling around the province to set this huge project up in the local communities, raise the funds, lobby officials and make it happen? Does SFI, PSF. BCWF and others not have paid staff doing the same? Would you honestly expect someone to be able to devote full time hours (and likely more) to this on their own dime? Its one thing to be a dedicated volunteer and donate your spare time to a cause you believe in but to expect someone to devote their entire earning capabilities to a cause for free is silly.

 

[wildmanyeah]

Anyone that does this type of heavy lifting for our hobby should be well commended for their effort. Seems well researched. Hopefully they can gain traction and find funding.

Thank you Chris

 

[SpringVelocity]

Would the SVIAC board be paid for doing SVIAC work, no it is a non profit society. Would someone be paid for traveling around the province to set this huge project up in the local communities, raise the funds, lobby officials and make it happen? Does SFI, PSF. BCWF and others not have paid staff doing the same? Would you honestly expect someone to be able to devote full time hours (and likely more) to this on their own dime? Its one thing to be a dedicated volunteer and donate your spare time to a cause you believe in but to expect someone to devote their entire earning capabilities to a cause for free is silly.

Thanks just got my answer. Really man you take everything as an attack. I am just trying to find out what we are proposing here.

 

[profisher]

As with the Sooke net pen the hardest part is getting a project approved by the department and all the stakeholders. Once you get past that support builds on it own. The next couple of years will bring the first adult (3 then 4 year olds) returns back to Sooke from the first year net pen out planting. (250,000) If we see good returns (which we expect) and the SRKW and local anglers realize the benefits, that funding and volunteer support will only increase and become stable.

 

[Governor]

To SpringVelocity,

The Orca Food Security Program is proposed as a public-private-partnership and will require a small team of paid staff with the correct expertise necessary to bring together First Nations, stakeholders communities and to work with DFO to approve each local plan. These projects will not happen spontaneaously, are not insignificant and need a support team to help each identified local project steering committee design a plan within guidelines and successfully deliver it. Once funding has been secured through donations, grants and government support and run through an organization like the PSF, it will require searches for suitably qualified candidates for the OFSP Support Team that can be hired and paid on merit.

Putting together and delivering something as bold as the OFSP and its multiple Chinook enhancement projects is ambitious, but if achieved will be a truly remarkable show of how "we the people" care about our ocean, the Salish Sea, the Orcas, the Chinook salmon, Super Natural British Columbia and our way of life!

Respectfully,

Governor

 

[wildmanyeah]

Governor were you able to find any research done for salmon on this topic you mention? would a triploid fish enter freshwater and go spawn? I have recently become very curios on this topic and have not been able to find much. I read some research where they Triploid kokanee and the males lived to 3 years old and the females to 5 years old.

"(ii) Risks Associated With Cross-Breeding Between Wild and Hatchery Chinook Another strategy used by BC hatcheries (Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC) is to render freshwater trout fish sterile (or triploid) and could be deployed with hatchery raised Chinook salmon. This technique could be used to reduce undesired cross-breeding between wild and hatchery origin Chinook."

 

[profisher]

Maybe Whole in the Water wasn't aware that this topic was already posted here.

 

[Whole in the Water]

Please read the first line in my other post and you will find the answer.

 

[wildmanyeah]

Governor were you able to find any research done for salmon on this topic you mention? would a triploid fish enter freshwater and go spawn? I have recently become very curios on this topic and have not been able to find much. I read some research where they Triploid kokanee and the males lived to 3 years old and the females to 5 years old.

"(ii) Risks Associated With Cross-Breeding Between Wild and Hatchery Chinook Another strategy used by BC hatcheries (Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC) is to render freshwater trout fish sterile (or triploid) and could be deployed with hatchery raised Chinook salmon. This technique could be used to reduce undesired cross-breeding between wild and hatchery origin Chinook."

Only could find this old expermint for Chinook triploids

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1994-09-29-9409290061-story.html

RUMORS OF GIANT SALMON JUST A TALL FISH TALE


"Yes, dear beating heart, Michigan State University's multiyear experiment with "triploid" salmon-those genetically engineered fish designed to exceed the normal four-year life cycle and grow to unprecedented sizes-was about to bear fruit.

And then nothing happened.

No one caught any big ones. If anything, those triploid whoppers seemed to have disappeared in the greenish waters of Lakes Michigan and Huron.


Well, a few were collected by biologists at Michigan's weirs this year, and guess what? Instead of being monsters, they are midgets. One 5-year-old chinook salmon was no more than 18 inches long. In other words, the much-heralded triploid program has turned into a colossal bust."

 

[wildmanyeah]

yeah I read all those, most don't have practical data. IE Triploid chinook released and then measured how many returned 3, 4 and 5 years later and at what size.

Read some for trout and kokanee and coho but their seems to be a substantial difference on what happens between species.

I think a small pilot program might be worth exploring

 

[wildmanyeah]

https://www.google.com/search?q=stu...Gqw-bfAhUDJTQIHSDCB9IQpwUIJA&biw=1920&bih=966

2018 pdf uploads.

Thanks this one https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236119310_Welfare_Considerations_of_Triploid_Fish

was well worth the read, Triploids seem to be inferior in many ways

 

[dnibbles]

DFO has very recently conducted research on triploid Chinook and considered if and how they may fit into conservation or fishery-related hatchery programs. Triploid juveniles from Capilano hatchery were reared to smolts stage at West Vancouver Lab successfully, but the research wasn't pursued for several reasons.

There are several outstanding unknowns about triploid Chinook that make it an extremely difficult and expensive undertaking to pursue:
1) If the fish do not mature, are they likely to simply remain in the high seas for their entire life and not return to the coast and rivers?
2) Triploid males do mature, and are able to attempt to spawn although they are not fertile. If they return to rivers with wild salmon they are likely to compete with and displace diploid males and result in a lower productivity by spawning unsuccessfully with fertile females
3) In order to avoid this negative outcome, an all female broodline would need to be developed and used to create AF3n triploids (like the FFSBC does for rainbows). No facility currently exists that could do this, at least in the public realm.

 

[Dave]

An excellent read, thanks for posting.

 

[cuttlefish]

An excellent read, thanks for posting.

Thought provoking, to be sure.

 

[littlechucky]

First early run hatchery Chinook in the Columbia River of the year.

https://www.oregonlive.com/sports/o...f/2019/02/first_springer_caught_in_lower.html

They get decent returns on the early fish despite all the dams, etc.

(Though they do invest serious $).

Would be interesting if we could get one of size going on the upper Fraser.