Sushihunter
Active Member
http://www.canada.com/Eyes+full+tears+seals+decimate+salmon+runs/1349764/story.html
Eyes full of tears as seals decimate our salmon runs
Comox Valley Echo March 3, 2009
My heart hurts and my eyes are full of tears.
Spring is fast approaching and with it the attempts of our baby salmon to make their way to sea.
A few days ago, while preparing for a meeting of our Comox Valley chapter of the Steelhead Society of B.C., I discovered a set of minutes from 2003. In those minutes I had written, "The Puntledge River salmon stocks are approaching historic levels." The 2003 numbers were: summer chinooks 1350, fall chinooks 13,446, coho 14,1000, chum 102,000 and pinks 69,000.
The numbers in 2008 were: summer chinooks 602, fall chinooks 4,682, coho 4,500, chums 72,500 and pinks 3,000.
In 1998, DFO removed predatory seals from the Courtenay River (the lower Puntledge). By 2003 the results were clear. The fish population had rebuilt.
Now the seal populations ahve rebuilt and the results are again clear. The fish populations are way down, and in the case of the unique stock of summer chinook, dangerous low.
I don't hate seals. In fact, I rather like them in appropriate places and appropriate numbers.
But I love salmon and trout. And salmon and trout are better for the economy of our valley and the ecology of the river.
Further, seals are worse than people: They add nothing to the river, they only take from the river.
People at least have the potential, if they understand and care, to protect and enhance the river. Fish bring themselves to the river and take almost nothing from the river and offer themselves up and add to the river and enrich the river.
So, what if we allow these salmon to go extinct and disappear from our river?
My heart will be empty but my eyes will still be full of tears.
Larry Peterson
Courtenay
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
Jim's Fishing Charters
www.JimsFishing.com
http://ca.youtube.com/user/Sushihunter250
Eyes full of tears as seals decimate our salmon runs
Comox Valley Echo March 3, 2009
My heart hurts and my eyes are full of tears.
Spring is fast approaching and with it the attempts of our baby salmon to make their way to sea.
A few days ago, while preparing for a meeting of our Comox Valley chapter of the Steelhead Society of B.C., I discovered a set of minutes from 2003. In those minutes I had written, "The Puntledge River salmon stocks are approaching historic levels." The 2003 numbers were: summer chinooks 1350, fall chinooks 13,446, coho 14,1000, chum 102,000 and pinks 69,000.
The numbers in 2008 were: summer chinooks 602, fall chinooks 4,682, coho 4,500, chums 72,500 and pinks 3,000.
In 1998, DFO removed predatory seals from the Courtenay River (the lower Puntledge). By 2003 the results were clear. The fish population had rebuilt.
Now the seal populations ahve rebuilt and the results are again clear. The fish populations are way down, and in the case of the unique stock of summer chinook, dangerous low.
I don't hate seals. In fact, I rather like them in appropriate places and appropriate numbers.
But I love salmon and trout. And salmon and trout are better for the economy of our valley and the ecology of the river.
Further, seals are worse than people: They add nothing to the river, they only take from the river.
People at least have the potential, if they understand and care, to protect and enhance the river. Fish bring themselves to the river and take almost nothing from the river and offer themselves up and add to the river and enrich the river.
So, what if we allow these salmon to go extinct and disappear from our river?
My heart will be empty but my eyes will still be full of tears.
Larry Peterson
Courtenay
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
Jim's Fishing Charters
www.JimsFishing.com
http://ca.youtube.com/user/Sushihunter250
Hopefully we cooked our seals...
