Conservation Measures for Northern and Southern BC Chinook Salmon and Southern Resident Killer Whale

I have read a lot of this thread and other similar threads but not all. I respect all of your knowledge and experience and its great that these discussions are happening. If anything mentioned has been covered, apologies.

Salmon populations on the West Coast are as important as almost anything else to everyone on the West Coast whether they know it or not. If salmon populations are at the point that they can not support the whale population as the primary food source then the bigger issue becomes the need to save salmon. Clearly shutting down sport fisheries for salmon will help not kill salmon. Is there a complete plan from the DFO that evaluates and removes all salmon lifecycle offenders?

If Salmon numbers are down, and we want to build them back up, why is it ok to harvest ANY forage fish that by the nature of them being in the water help salmon thrive as a food source? – End Herring fishery coast wide.

There is no argument that supports the harvesting of herring if salmon populations are this close to collapse and with whale populations at risk.

The only possible benefactor that I can come up with is the fish farm proprietor. As demand for herring as a food product is weak internationally - the herring (25,000 ton Quota Georgia Straight alone) must be being used to feed farmed salmon, but I really hope that’s not the case.

Remove fish Farms from the ocean immediately. There have been government funded studies that site fish farms as a threat to salmon. They create an artificial market for salmon that does not take into account all of the downside of the industry.

Again thanks for all of the informative stuff to read here guys and I am not nearly as experienced as you are but has the DFO at least gone after this low hanging fruit?
 
It is crystal clear that because of the threats from Suzuki and his merry band , and the desire of DFO for a quick and cheap fix that they could sell to the uninformed masses, that in their eyes, WE are the low hanging fruit.
 
Fortunately none of them were dragging noisy fishing lines, otherwise this would not be allowed. Perhaps whale watching boats go into stealth mode!
 
Wow they have 30 members in their group. Surely we can get attention if we are part of an organized group.
 
This just in-- whalewatchers want to get closer to transients and northern orcas https://www.campbellrivermirror.com...s-to-other-orcas-as-feds-set-200-metre-limit/
From the article: “We’re going, ‘Wait a minute guys.’ We’re taking a half million people a year in our boats with paying customers and they deserve to see the rest of the orcas at 100 metres.”

Pretty weak argument. So does a fishing license and gas entitle me to anything since I paid for them?
 
From the article: “We’re going, ‘Wait a minute guys.’ We’re taking a half million people a year in our boats with paying customers and they deserve to see the rest of the orcas at 100 metres.”

Pretty weak argument. So does a fishing license and gas entitle me to anything since I paid for them?

So oil tankers,container ships and ferries have no effect on whales
i'm sure the sound of them transiting the area has more effect with they're low beating noise pollution which travels a lot further than a small vessel
heaven forbid they close down all of bc's economy
 
Despite this video demonstrating something we don't like to see, I don't think we want to throw whale watchers under the bus too quickly just yet. In some cases we are getting support from them in the fight against creating thse closed "critical habitat" areas (areas that are being proposed based on assumptions and not proper scientific evidence). I'd be more inclined to try and get more to come to jin our side and agree to buffer zones as a strategy rather than closed to fishing areas. Whale watchers use us to find whales at times so I see there could be an aliance. I think videos like this show that those vessels are likely causing stress to the whales and are far too close but stopping that activity can be done with buffer zones. Throwing whale watchers undr the bus I don't think will keep our fishing open.
 
What cases are we getting support from them? I must have missed the article where they were on newspaper/video camera telling how terrible it was that Juan De Fuca straight and Pender island fisheries were closed. One minute that didn't happen. Mmmmm.

One example is even on a forum specifically for sport fishing .....this forum actually. TAKE ACTION - post#63. You can find many cases of lack of support from those of our own recreational side but I wouldn't suggest throwing them under the bus as any more productive in helping with a plan to get fishing areas kept open.
 
I can not understand why we stand by the whale watchers. They are on these whales year round and even heavier March-November. On the west coast they took 285,000 whale watchers out at about $130 a head in 1998 they generated revenue of approximately $14 million with a total revenue $108 million and that is in 1998, so I'm sure those #'s are much higher now. I don't know how much support they have given the sportfishing groups but I'm sure it wasn't much or is it just money to keep us quiet and not point fingers at them.
I'm also really getting tired of writing letters that seem to get us no where. I would of hoped that are sportfishing groups had a better plan as to a push back of some sort. Planning a fishing derby a month after the fact with a weeks notice isn't going to do anything. Guys are working and in the midst of the fishing season and are holidays so there is going to be little participation.We really have to get a single spokesman with a message to get in front of this with something big. I'm not slagging anyone as this is a thankless job and not one that I could do and am thankful for the people that do, do it. But we are long past the time of writing letters and hoping for the best. Either these groups are with us or there not. If one group is cut out of a area they all should be.
 
I deleted my earlier posts as I dont want to keep going after them. There isn't a point to start heading down this road again. We could in future be in alliance or we may not. What happened in the south wasn't a very good alliance in my opinion. We still have a forage zone with whale watching boats going in/out and the only thing that has been said publicly is that they want more salmon for the whales. Then they point to netpen they donated tin South Island when any questions are asked.

There also has been no mention of forage zones being a waste of time, or even any indication/support for the sport fishing business community that was effected by closure publicly. Not once have a seen Prince of Whales and other outfits in south areas even do something as simple to help put word that fishing is open for business in Sooke in there Facebook pages media etc. Maybe if I saw more of that I would change my mind. To be an ally you have to support each other, and I still haven't seen it yet. Anyway I will leave it alone, and see what happens.
 
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Totally agree SpringVelocity. They are either with us or there not.
 
So far they have no skin in the game. It’s great if you feel they are giving you moral support, but that’s it! Noise is noise, why is the noise from their boats different, get real it’s probably worse? Fact is though their boats are exempt the noise regulations we face! Why? Flying under the radar? You can bet if they were banned and we were fishing, they’d throw us under the bus in a heart beat!
 
Things are being organized.................
Derby, I'm not trying to be an arse hole or stir things up but I am sick and tired of hearing "things are being organized" We are working on it, be patient" etc I wanted to start a coast wide protest for the Pender Soooke closures, but backed off because "things were in the works" I have seen nothing, and I'm pissed off. Now we have the Swiftshire/ Laperouse banks and the top end of Graham Island added to the list for our patience.
I am a paid member of SIVAC and SFI . I have heard nothing from SIVAC on this latest issue and it took untill July 5th for the SFI to send me a letter to fill in the DFO survey I had already completed on July 1 and heard about the day before. It's agitating as hell sitting here waiting for some sort of coordinated effort from our provincial groups. So please stop being so cryptic, and if there is something afoot tell us what it is, because we are all about to start running around in different directions.
 
all I can say is its all about timing.... so if you feel the need then run in different directions then do so.... or
 
all I can say is its all about timing.... so if you feel the need then run in different directions then do so.... or
Ok then keep us in the loop. How about something like ...... We are working with ???????? We are planning ?????????? it will involve ??????? There are still details to work out but it looks like we should be ready to go around????????
I understand these things can take time, but I dont understand the need for secrecy. I do understand that a coast wide coordinated effort will carry the most weight. Keeping the members out of the loop is just fueling the suspicion that nothing is happening
 
Can do...problem is this is a public forum and one has to be careful about what is said...but for those of you that know me and a couple others on this forum... things are being worked on and stuff will happen & roll out.............
 
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