DFO Meeting re Pender Bluffs Aug 13

[High Time]

Important meeting for folks on Pender and Pender Bluffs fishers - DFO and Transport Canada will be present. A great opportunity to discuss our concerns with the (NON) evidenced based decision making and the closures.
Tuesday August 13th
4:00 to 6:00 at the Pender Island Community Hall

 

[PenderBluffsFisher]

Apparently doors open 3:30 pm. Let's get a good turnout of people who want sensible helpful solutions for the whales, not what we have now.

DFO seems to think we are all in favour of these closures and sanctuaries and will want to expand them. Let's let them know what the people who are actually impacted think.

 

[wildmanyeah]

Would have more space to fish if the cowichan closures weren’t in place

 

[High Time]

Would be more space to fish if DFO would scrap all the useless No-Go, no fishing,interim whale santuary zone,etc, etc. and simply have a whale avoidance regulation for the whole area, when and if they ever appear here,which the SRKW haven't done yet this YEAR!

 

[ziggy]

Important meeting for folks on Pender and Pender Bluffs fishers - DFO and Transport Canada will be present. A great opportunity to discuss our concerns with the (NON) evidenced based decision making and the closures.
Tuesday August 13th
4:00 to 6:00 at the Pender Island Community Hall

Great timing for the unemployed, and of course those who work for ENGO’s, did Misty set up the schedule? I guess that’s the target audience DFO wants though. They should also hold a similar meeting in Sidney given the number of boats from there that fish the Bluffs if they’re serious. Sometimes I think DFO goes out of its way to tailor its audiences

 

[wildmanyeah]

It’s always worth going if nothing else then to see who you are up against.

 

[Fins -n- Skins]

No area has been hit harder over years than 18. Its also time to talk about opening the Legendary Separation point fishery again as the numbers on the Cowichan have increased since they shut it down in 2003 ?

 

[High Time]

I think your right Ziggy. We could use some representation from the SFAB etc. at this meeting to help put forward a coordinated, sensible, alternative to the ridiculous closures they have imposed on this area.

 

[Aces]

I hate to say it but this is how DFO works.
They have these meetings under the guise of getting the rec fishers to think they have some input then do whatever they want

 

[Blackmax]

Yup , complete waste of time . I’ll be tying up rigs while DFO feeds lies .

 

[wildmanyeah]

Should try to attend to send a clear message the whales are not here and it’s causing unnecessary harm to tourism on pended island for little to no benefit to the whales.

 

[Blackmax]

Are you guys aware of the other meetings that have been held? Zero was accomplished for sport fishers. I’m not going to let DFO use me for their pr publicity crap. I said 2 years ago stop buying licences, boycott everything .

 

[ziggy]

I hope those who can attend will attend or else DFO will simply be preaching to its ENGO choir. I’m surprised that this meeting seems to have been only transmitted by word of mouth. Certainly not much effort to publicize it or get the word out. We’re the SFAC or SFAB made aware of this? If not you have to ask why!

Seems DFO has a targeted audience which is not us, so that to me indicates the best thing we can do as turn up in as large of numbers as possible. I once again though question, given the number of people affected in Sidney area that fish the Bluffs, why no meeting here? Afraid of not getting the DFO target audience?

 

[Nigels]

I fish(ed) the bluffs and would love to have attended this meeting but having only noticed this thread today and living in Maple Bay it is impossible to attend. I wonder if my question to the DFO can be done by proxy, if so would someone on this forum, who can attend, do it on my behalf. Blackmax?

My questions/requests are:

1. Will the DFO please provide verifiable data, of the negative impact that the individual sectors, commercial, aboriginal and recreational have had on Chinook numbers in BC over the past 10 years. In other words how has each sector affected Chinook stocks as a percentage of overall stocks.
2. It is my opinion that the sector that has the least impact on fish stocks, by a huge margin, "recreational", has unfairly suffered the largest financial burden which is affecting the economy of BC. Will the DFO provide data, by sector, of how the economy of BC in 2019 has been affected by the 2019 measures and can they justify it when applying the percentages as described above.
3. Needless to say the DFO should be able to provide answers to 1 and 2 above for all species of salmon.

I hope someone will take this up and present my questions.

PM me if you want my full details.

 

[ziggy]

I emailed David Busch last night, the Conservative Candidate, with my concerns and asked if he would be attending. I probably left it too late, but it’s worth a shot. Will see if I can dig up the NDP and even Liberal candidates name for future emails. Pretty much told Liz I’ve given up on her. Still haven’t seen anything official on this meeting?

 

[Stizzla]

Thanks to all who are able to make it to the meeting! I just can’t get there.

 

[Oceaneco]

The Southern Resident Killer hales have been present in the inland waterways for 2 days since May 6th 2019 prior to that they weren't present since April. DFO enforcement officers are saying that policing these no go zones are taking away from patrols in other areas and are a total waste of time and taxpayers money.

 

[Pearl dog]

How did it go?

 

[fogged in]

The Southern Resident Killer hales have been present in the inland waterways for 2 days since May 6th 2019 prior to that they weren't present since April. DFO enforcement officers are saying that policing these no go zones are taking away from patrols in other areas and are a total waste of time and taxpayers money.

Can't say if it's J Pod, but a BIG group of Orca's have been hanging out off Port Renfrew for the last few days including today!
I guess those Fraser River Chinook that DFO are saying are critical for their survival are late this year!!!
J Pod hung out off California longer then usual due to the big return of salmon to the Sacramento River but DFO would have you believe they only eat Fraser River Chinook, thus all our closures.

 

[PenderBluffsFisher]

Key notes:

Not a single person spoke up in favour of the sanctuary zone / closures, several people spoke up pointing out many Pender fishers do not possess large enough boats to transit to the non closed areas and if they did, it would produce a higher carbon footprint in this climate emergency. There was general frustration at the fact that basically only locals are affected because nobody else knows/cares about it and that the exercise was futile with 0 (zero) SRKW activity in the area year to date.

Real time monitoring hydrophones are in place that can detect whale activity reasonably reliably (and improving by the month, a team from Google and others wrote the algorithm) - the given explanation why areas cannot be closed when whales are detected was we don't have the legislation that permits it.