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

[OldBlackDog]

Interesting that this morning the news says they have extended the distance you are to stay away from all whales.

Did not notice anything on this from DFO?

So, are we to now expected to believe this?

Thought there was a legal system involved?

 

[Blackmax]

Not sure who is happier to see us go, DFO or whale watchers. There really should be a campaign to stop the public from buying wild salmon, where are environmental groups ?

 

[wishiniwasfishin1]

Looks like a seal cull may not be out of the question:

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/exploding-salish-sea-seal-population-sparks-call-for-a-cull

 

[High Time]

Another day on Pender Bluffs in the "quiet foraging zone" that DFO have created for the SRKW by turning the area into a Marine Park. No fishing of any kind for anything, by sport fishers, but business as usual for all the other user groups.
In the middle of this flotilla of vessels is a pod of Orcas that were followed around for a couple of hours by whale watching boats, roaring in and out of the area from all directions and several freighters and a tug with a barge passing through.
What has happened to the sport fishers in Area 18 is a travesty and DFO should be ashamed of the sham they have created. Politicians and bureaucrats have reached a new low...

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[casper5280]

Another day on Pender Bluffs in the "quiet foraging zone" that DFO have created for the SRKW by turning the area into a Marine Park. No fishing of any kind for anything, by sport fishers, but business as usual for all the other user groups.
In the middle of this flotilla of vessels is a pod of Orcas that were followed around for a couple of hours by whale watching boats, roaring in and out of the area from all directions and several freighters and a tug with a barge passing through.
What has happened to the sport fishers in Area 18 is a travesty and DFO should be ashamed of the sham they have created. Politicians and bureaucrats have reached a new low...

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This is the kind of stuff that we should be posting on social media.

 

[SpringVelocity]

Another day on Pender Bluffs in the "quiet foraging zone" that DFO have created for the SRKW by turning the area into a Marine Park. No fishing of any kind for anything, by sport fishers, but business as usual for all the other user groups.
In the middle of this flotilla of vessels is a pod of Orcas that were followed around for a couple of hours by whale watching boats, roaring in and out of the area from all directions and several freighters and a tug with a barge passing through.
What has happened to the sport fishers in Area 18 is a travesty and DFO should be ashamed of the sham they have created. Politicians and bureaucrats have reached a new low...

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OMG!!

 

[Derby]

wow....

 

[Rockfish]

Wow! That is quit the quiet resident Orca zone. All it is missing is the Canadian and American Coast Guards and Navies blowing it up with explosive ordinance and high Powered Military sonar like we have in the hilariously named JDF whale quiet zone. Apparently sport boats with slow, small, quiet kicker motors are the problem. We are banned completely, but no one else is.

 

[Blackmax]

Wow! That is quit the quiet resident Orca zone. All it is missing is the Canadian and American Coast Guards and Navies blowing it up with explosive ordinance and high Powered Military sonar like we have in the hilariously named JDF whale quiet zone. Apparently sport boats with slow, small, quiet kicker motors are the problem. We are banned completely, but no one else is.

Its criminal what has happened, we need to vote Trudeau out for a start.

 

[ziggy]

Send the clip to the local news outlets! Or send it to the Enviros who claim we are causing the noise problems!

 

[Clint r]

Yeah send it to Rumina Daya at global. She’s gets her teeth into something and she never lets it go.

 

[Clint r]

Or let’s get a lawyer, theres gotta be a court case there somewhere.

 

[IronNoggin]

... Politicians and bureaucrats have reached a new low...

Actually pretty much business as usual methinks...

Nog

 

[capt hook]

Looks like a seal cull may not be out of the question:

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/exploding-salish-sea-seal-population-sparks-call-for-a-cull

maybe Capt Hook will get his wish .

 

[capt hook]

When i commie trolled , we sometimes were way out on the edge of the canyons . place we called the FENCE...usa /canada line 30 miles offshore fishing Springs/Chinook.
Fishing was awesome some days with decks full of slabs....and a big fleet of commie trollers , concentrated along a edge 50/75 large trollers.
The grey whales were diving into the feed , birds everywhere and Orcas...they were not scared off by our noise...and we had allot of machinery , running freezers , powerful depth sounders hydralic screaming and they would swim under us.
Then along comes our Navy towing a target and some active war games begin with aircraft over head etc. and them coming onto VHF trying to get us to move and we telling them to **** off obviously as the fishing was good.
They would send shells blasting at target from several ships and still the ORCA stayed ...and the fish.
It was all good , we all went about our business.
Big grey whales eating the plankton , killer Whales eating springs and we catching springs , and navy sending shells over us to targets and big explosions and splashes in water with missed shots. This would go on for hours.
Then it was like someone turned on a switch...this was hours after the shells were exploding...and woosh...the whales disappeared.
Then a Sub or 2 would surface....

 

[SpringVelocity]

If you want to get to know your enemies so to speak. Have a read. This is all the feedback to DFO before they made their decision. Very interesting document.

http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/mamm...-revuebaleine/heard-entendu/page01-eng.html#1

From the document Executive summary : The majority of participants from the general public favored fisheries closures for Chinook salmon or at least would support putting strict restrictions in place that are actively monitored and enforced.

Even more interesting is in the list of groups that engaged with government for feedback and the whale watching group/association isn't listed. Seems bizarre.

 

[ziggy]

There is an explanation for why the Whale Watchers only had a small contingent. From the report there is this statement.

“Few whale-watching industry representatives were present at the in person/webinar meetings focused on acoustic disturbance due to it being 'high season' for their work. A written submission from tourism industry provided some supplemental feedback from the whale-watching industry”.

Clearly the Whale Watchers had some input.

 

[wildmanyeah]

If you guys don’t remeber at the time the main message from our sports fishing reps were “we need to do our part” “these are iconic species”

Had people had know that it wouldn’t just be a chinook closure in some critical area or a reduction but a total fin fish ban. I believe the message from our reps would of been totally different.

As such the general fishing community at the time was majority in favour of taking some action.

I believe had we known then what we know now. The message from our reps would of been totally different and we would of been able to mobilize a solid amount of people against this or been able to generate more participation from fishermen.

As such I think our government is going to find far more opposition in the future from us on these topics.

 

[scott craven]

They may face more opposition, but ultimately they will do as they please
as they already done.

 

[wildmanyeah]

They may face more opposition, but ultimately they will do as they please
as they already done.

Yeah but they won’t be able to say they have overwhelming support from the general public. They only had inputs from less then 900 people.

This was though an online forum on the GC website in March

“A total of 893 individuals registered to participate in the online engagement Let's Talk Whales (for all three endangered whale populations)”


5.4 What the General Public Said
The main question on the Let's Talk Whales online platform presented a list of four actions identified by scientists to help mitigate the threat of reduced prey availability. Participants were asked to rank the actions according to how important they felt they were to helping the whales (see Figure 5, below).


Figure 5: The General Public’s Ranking of Identified Actions to Address the Threat of Reduced Prey (Food) Availability

Of the 265 who responded : Footnote 23

• 42% ranked protecting and preserving the habitat of important whale prey species as the most important action, while 24% ranked it second.
• 31% ranked making it easier for certain types of whales to find and catch fish through quieter oceans first, while 25% ranked it second.
• Reducing competition with commercial and recreational fisheries followed closely with 23% of respondents considering it number one, and 34% considering it as a second priority.
• A fourth action, ensuring that the prey that the whales rely on have enough prey to eat themselves, was viewed by most general public participants as the least important, with only 3% ranking it as the first priority and 17% as second

“
6.4 What the General Public Said
The Let's Talk Whales online portal included an open-ended question designed to ask for opinions on the actions identified by scientists in the Phase 1 science assessment to address the threat of entanglement. The list of actions included:

• • Modify fishing gear to reduce entanglement risk;
  • Remove fishing gear from areas highly used by whales when whales are present; and,
  • Have an effective network of responders to disentangle whales.
• Approximately half of the responses directly addressed the above actions. About one third of responses mentioned other actions, with other responses being more general statements not related to particular actions.
• The tone of the comments was overwhelmingly positive towards the actions proposed, with very few comments expressing caution regarding the impact of actions.
• Comments addressing direct actions were relatively balanced among the three actions presented. The action which received the highest response was modifying fishing gear to reduce entanglement risk, followed closely by removing fishing gear from areas highly used by whales, and having a network of responders to disentangle whales.
• Comments related to modifying fishing gear focused on the importance of implementing this action and the need for innovation in fishing gear design. Some comments that supported removing fishing gear from high use areas also identified the need for more enforcement of the action.
• The need for stronger legislation or regulations was a common theme among other actions suggested by those who responded, e.g., larger fines for infractions. This topic was brought forward not only by the general public, but also by some participants self-identified as members of the government, environmental non-governmental organizations and businesses.
• Other responses related to the perceived need to improve the process for identifying and implementing proposed actions. Some participants suggested improving research, modelling and data collection methods to better understand the whales and their habitat. Others highlighted the need to prioritize preventive threat reduction measures.