Fishing Guides Doing Their Share

P

profisher

Well-Known Member
I attended the Victoria PSF dinner and auction this year and during the night the owners of a local whale watching company were brought to the front and introduced. Their company decided to collect $1.00 from every customer that went on a whale tour last year and donate those funds to the PSF. I believe it totalled around $12,000 from one company. I was impressed but also somewhat embarrassed. One whale watching company donated more money to fish than the entire local charter industry did. That got me thinking the past few days. I'm going to make contact with as many of the guides/charter operators in the area from Victoria to Port Renfrew and call a meeting one night. The idea is to place a mandatory $5.00 surcharge on every guided fishing trip in the area with all the funds being donated to the Sooke River Chinook Revitalization project. I would supply every operator an info sheet explaining why this money is being charged and where it is going. Obviously remitting the funds would be on the honour system. I know $5.00 a trip isn't going to chase customers away and in fact they may be impressed that you are concerned and are making efforts to ensure they will be able to come back and enjoy the fishing in the future with even more fish available.
I would strongly encourage other charter operators in other areas to organize a similar effort and direct their funds towards a project in their area. $5.00 is not a lot of money on its own but if as an example you do 100 trips a season that is $500, then multiply that by the number of operators. It becomes a seizable chunk of money. A donation that shows this sector is concerned and isn't in this business solely to put money in their pockets.
 
Why not propose a $5 surcharge matched with another $5 donated by the guiding outfit? This way not only the customer is donating to the cause.
 
Lots of lodges collect a pittance from guests and donate the final sum to local hatcheries or PSF.
 
Why not the 5 bucks comes out of the guides pocket instead of the clients pocket? You are the ones making a living off the resource.
 
I want this to get maximum support and therefor raise a nice size year end donation, not the opposite where only the same few participate. I think starting off by saying I'm just going to ask you for $500 to $1000 from your sales will get me few buyers and therefore wasted efforts on my part. Few people part with that much money even when they know it benefits them in the long run. I'm only going to spend my time on projects that have a reasonable chance at achieving the set goals. In this case, a very seizable donation.
 
I'm not a guide but I think this is an excellent idea..good on you for at least trying to think and start something up
 
profisher said:
I want this to get maximum support and therefor raise a nice size year end donation, not the opposite where only the same few participate. I think starting off by saying I'm just going to ask you for $500 to $1000 from your sales will get me few buyers and therefore wasted efforts on my part. Few people part with that much money even when they know it benefits them in the long run. I'm only going to spend my time on projects that have a reasonable chance at achieving the set goals. In this case, a very seizable donation.
Click to expand...
Put back into it, what you take out of it. Why should the client pay the freight? To me its just another fee.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Last year some of the guides in Tofino formed a group that we donate 1% of our gross revenue to the Tofino Salmon Enhancement Society and offer the clients a chance to donate to the case and be a part of it.

called " 1% for the Fish ".

Easy to do and totally optional for the clients
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Ok let's throw your idea back at you. You willing to come to a meeting and hear a plan where by very time your boat leaves the dock you donate $5.00? I might be and a couple more might sign up but the majority will not...just like everyone who fishes should be doing something on their own time to help with bringing fish back. It doesn't happen, never has, never will. Always the same few...and that is the problem, very little of meaning gets accomplished in quick fashion. If you want to call it a fee, fine.
I know my customers would be happy to donate $5.00 to such a cause if it was explained where the money was going.
 
Shawn, kudos to you guys in Tofino for doing that. How much money was donated in the end?
 
Dennis.t said:
Put back into it, what you take out of it. Why should the client pay the freight? To me its just another fee.
Click to expand...

What if client throws the 5 bucks in and the guide matches it....making it $10. That would make a huge purse Rollie

So if you have a $800(averaging the coast) dollar day that equals 0.625 profit loss... That is not even 1%
 
profisher said:
Shawn, kudos to you guys in Tofino for doing that. How much money was donated in the end?
Click to expand...


Rollie, i'll have to talk to the treasurer who's on vacation right now but it was well over $9000.

Not everyone bought in that time around but we are hoping the rest of the guides will
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I like that maybe some sort of box with a lock on it to sit on the dash so clients can see what its all about and ask us guides about it as the clients are the ones benefiting from taking home the fish they caught, and a laminated explanatory paper explaining "WHY" the money is being collected you may find people donating more.


Ive said this now for many years at events we should have been donating BACK to our systems ...not to somewhere else

Wolf
 
I think what a lot of people don't realize is how much guides, charter boats and lodges already give back. Rollie, I agree with your idea in most ways, but some say it should be mandatory for guides to give up 5 bucks a trip.
I already donate a 2 day trip with accommodation that gets raffled off for a possible 10 thousand dollars to run a volunteer hatchery. You can only get so much out of people. I get tiered of join this and that and donate every where.
 
Let's say your a (non-guide) member on this website and your boosting about how much money you make.
Let's say 250K a year.... perhaps one half days pay to give something back.
That would be on average $625.....
That would make a dent for the salmon.
But then again that would be too much to ask for from some member here.
GLG
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

cohochinook
Must watch video by Tom Davis on the Threats Facing the Future of Salmon Fishing
Replies
18
Views
2K
ship happens
ship happens
kaelc
Insurance or regs violation for accepting gas money
Replies
10
Views
1K
ab1752
ab1752
Salted
Straightwatch - Who are they really?
Replies
10
Views
1K
vicsurfer
vicsurfer
Scotty Fishing Products
  • Locked
  • Sticky
Scotty Fishing Products
Replies
0
Views
200
Scotty Fishing Products
Scotty Fishing Products
Whole in the Water
Concerns about herring kills at B.C. fish farms
Replies
26
Views
2K
Fishing?
F
Back
Top