Sushihunter
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http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/story.html?id=8d212d58-2d6c-4ec4-b34d-cb646c3fd5ae
Can the Island's trollers survive?
Trollers on the Island's west coast say a proposed salmon treaty will kill their livelihood - if it isn't already doomed by declning stocks
Times Colonist
Published: Sunday, July 20, 2008
UCLUELET -- To Doug Kimoto, there's a hint of deja vu about the way trollers are being shoved out of business.
His was among the Japanese-Canadian fishing families sent packing during the Second World War. And now Ottawa, with its broken promises, red tape, never-ending fishery closures and a U.S.-Canada salmon deal that feels like a stab in the back, is doing it all over again, he says.
"To me it's nothing to do with conservation; it's expropriation," says Kimoto, standing at the wheel of the fishboat that his father bought new 58 years ago. "The troll fleet is basically getting sold out, eh?"
Doug Kimoto has been fishing since 1963, but a conservation closure has his boat tied to the dock -- again.
Debra Brash, Times Colonist
On the west coast of Vancouver Island, just 160 trollers remain tied up in places like Ucluelet and Bamfield and Zeballos. The fleet is less than a tenth the size it was 20 years ago.
Fishermen say the rest will disappear, too, if Canada and the U.S. ratify a salmon agreement that would cut the commercial chinook catch off the Island's outer coast by close to half. Trollers would take the entire hit; the recreational fishery would be unaffected.
Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans has a different take. American negotiators on the Pacific Salmon Commission, driven by endangered-species legislation that requires them to take action, were adamant that Canada reduce that particular chinook catch, three-quarters of which comes from beleaguered U.S. rivers. So Canadian negotiators got the Alaskans to forgo a similar number of chinook that spawn in rivers like the Cowichan and Fraser.
The salmon treaty would also see the U.S. come up with $30 million to mitigate Canadian losses on the west coast of the Island. DFO believes there will still be room for a sustainable commercial salmon fishery on the outside of Vancouver Island -- it's just not sure how big it will be.
But the fishermen say they can't make a living as it is, are already being forced out by closures like the one that has kept them leashed to the docks since mid-June.
"It seems like there's always something that they're using to keep us tied up," Kimoto says. Whether those closures are driven by conservation or politics, the result is the same.
The big question: Is the troll fishery doomed no matter what?
In the latest instalment of their Other Island series, photographer Debra Brash and columnist Jack Knox spend time with west coast trollers at the end of the line. Click here to read it.
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008
Jim's Fishing Charters
www.JimsFishing.com
http://ca.youtube.com/user/Sushihunter250
Can the Island's trollers survive?
Trollers on the Island's west coast say a proposed salmon treaty will kill their livelihood - if it isn't already doomed by declning stocks
Times Colonist
Published: Sunday, July 20, 2008
UCLUELET -- To Doug Kimoto, there's a hint of deja vu about the way trollers are being shoved out of business.
His was among the Japanese-Canadian fishing families sent packing during the Second World War. And now Ottawa, with its broken promises, red tape, never-ending fishery closures and a U.S.-Canada salmon deal that feels like a stab in the back, is doing it all over again, he says.
"To me it's nothing to do with conservation; it's expropriation," says Kimoto, standing at the wheel of the fishboat that his father bought new 58 years ago. "The troll fleet is basically getting sold out, eh?"
Doug Kimoto has been fishing since 1963, but a conservation closure has his boat tied to the dock -- again.
Debra Brash, Times Colonist
On the west coast of Vancouver Island, just 160 trollers remain tied up in places like Ucluelet and Bamfield and Zeballos. The fleet is less than a tenth the size it was 20 years ago.
Fishermen say the rest will disappear, too, if Canada and the U.S. ratify a salmon agreement that would cut the commercial chinook catch off the Island's outer coast by close to half. Trollers would take the entire hit; the recreational fishery would be unaffected.
Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans has a different take. American negotiators on the Pacific Salmon Commission, driven by endangered-species legislation that requires them to take action, were adamant that Canada reduce that particular chinook catch, three-quarters of which comes from beleaguered U.S. rivers. So Canadian negotiators got the Alaskans to forgo a similar number of chinook that spawn in rivers like the Cowichan and Fraser.
The salmon treaty would also see the U.S. come up with $30 million to mitigate Canadian losses on the west coast of the Island. DFO believes there will still be room for a sustainable commercial salmon fishery on the outside of Vancouver Island -- it's just not sure how big it will be.
But the fishermen say they can't make a living as it is, are already being forced out by closures like the one that has kept them leashed to the docks since mid-June.
"It seems like there's always something that they're using to keep us tied up," Kimoto says. Whether those closures are driven by conservation or politics, the result is the same.
The big question: Is the troll fishery doomed no matter what?
In the latest instalment of their Other Island series, photographer Debra Brash and columnist Jack Knox spend time with west coast trollers at the end of the line. Click here to read it.
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008
Jim's Fishing Charters
www.JimsFishing.com
http://ca.youtube.com/user/Sushihunter250
