Illegal Gillnet this weekend on the Fraser River

Saw that photo this am. Apparently another two upriver were sighted as well.
With how low the Fraser is right now, pretty easy decimate the early endangered springs.

News wont touch this because you will be labelled rascist for showing the truth!

On another note...the DFO site isnt showing any updates for legal openings.
Guess the site has been down for 3 months....
 
Saw that photo this am. Apparently another two upriver were sighted as well.
With how low the Fraser is right now, pretty easy decimate the early endangered springs.

News wont touch this because you will be labelled rascist for showing the truth!

On another note...the DFO site isnt showing any updates for legal openings.
Guess the site has been down for 3 months....
I dare anybody to go for a drive, from chilliwack to hells gate there is lots of net, park and walk down to all the creek mouth, nets nets and more nets, PS dont go down there if there is trucks there, they not to friendly
 
And there goes your fishing for the future.
Pretty damn sad.
 
We do not need global tv or any other news station to get this ******** out to the general public. Someone with a high quality drone and camera could film all of this stuff. I have no idea how to edit video etc but a lot of people nowadays do. Maybe we should do a go fund me to pay someone with the skills and equipment to put something together that could be shared on social media etc. If they could fly the river a couple times a month between now and August I’m sure It would very easy to show just how much poaching is going on.If it was done professionally it may gain some traction. Maybe this is something the Pacific fishing Alliance would be interested in? Just an idea.
 
We do not need global tv or any other news station to get this ******** out to the general public. Someone with a high quality drone and camera could film all of this stuff. I have no idea how to edit video etc but a lot of people nowadays do. Maybe we should do a go fund me to pay someone with the skills and equipment to put something together that could be shared on social media etc. If they could fly the river a couple times a month between now and August I’m sure It would very easy to show just how much poaching is going on.If it was done professionally it may gain some traction. Maybe this is something the Pacific fishing Alliance would be interested in? Just an idea.


I actually know a guy who does that kind of stuff with a drone and has won multiple awards. I am willing to contact him, but I don't think this kind of work would be cheap. The Fraser is a pretty long river.
 
I wouldn't be much help for the help with the video but I would for sure donate. Something well put together with something similar to Alexandra Hortons video but maybe not to the extent. No idea what that would cost
 
COVID Consequences? By Bob Hooton
A few weeks ago when the COVID-19 scenario really started to crystallize it occurred to me it might be a good thing for fish. If commercial and recreational fleets remain idle for many weeks ahead there couldn’t help but be more fish getting to their natal streams than would otherwise be the case. Earlier today those musings seemed a bit more founded when I pulled up a recent publication from Smithsonian Magazine. It’s a highly instructive reminder of what harvest reduction can mean. Whereas it speaks to global fisheries rather than local situations, the parallels are obviously there. Have a look. It isn’t a long and contorted read. The general findings are echoed by UBC’s own Dr. Daniel Pauly, an internationally renowned heavyweight on such matters. Some may recall Dr. Pauly was the guest speaker at the annual Roderick Haig-Brown Lecture in Campbell River last October.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/fish-stop-covid-19-180974623/

Ah, but there’s another dimension to all of this with respect to our salmon and steelhead. There is this other fishery, largely beyond control, that focuses on what remains after all the fisheries in front of it have exacted their toll. I’m talking the in-river First Nations fishing that utilizes the most destructive fishing method known to our waters – gill netting. (Remember, many FN people are commercial fishers who would normally be part of the overall harvest scenario in tidal waters.) If anyone tries to sell the nonsense there is some measure of control over such practices, any monitoring, any credible catch reporting I challenge them to provide evidence…..and I don’t mean transcripts of agreements struck in the endless boardroom meetings between FN administrators and spokespersons and their counterparts in our increasingly infamous federal government’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

An example to illustrate my point – on Easter Weekend a picture of a gill net deployed from a vessel that could only be classed as something beyond “traditional” was posted on social media. The picture was taken on the Fraser just below the Vedder River confluence. That net net, later alleged to be but one of several similarly deployed along the Fraser all the way into the Fraser Canyon, was reported to DFO. I’m told by the reporter there has been no response other than acknowledgement that a report was made.

Fraser-R-just-below-Vedder-confluence-Easter-wknd-2020.jpg

The gill net deployed on the Fraser near the Vedder River confluence on Easter Weekend, 2020.
There is a conservation crisis facing upper Fraser chinook stocks is there not? When we’re down to retrieving 20 year old cryopreserved chinook sperm in a desperate attempt to fertilize the last remaining two or three females of one of several chinook stocks that was already on the brink of extirpation even before the Big Bar Slide, how can it be that First Nations gill nets are being deployed to target chinook? What does it take for First Nations people to accept the meaning of conservation and actually practice it? When will our governments apply the same standards to all Canadians, not just those who understand and accept that conservation entails sacrifice?
 
Are we 100 percent that these were FN nets? Has anyone actually verified?

I am not saying there aren't issues on the river but there also a lot of non-native poachers doing this as well. Look at those net fairly pristine condition?

Above all its poaching native or non-native. There was no opening.
 
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While I don't live there anymore I can all but guarantee those are Indian nets. I grew up and lived on the Fraser for 50 years and the timing is right for them to be out there for early Fraser Springs. DFO has been mandated since the 80's to leave them alone.
 
While I don't live there anymore I can all but guarantee those are Indian nets. I grew up and lived on the Fraser for 50 years and the timing is right for them to be out there for early Fraser Springs. DFO has been mandated since the 80's to leave them alone.

But that's an opinion. I am asking if we know for sure they are FN. White guys poach 2.
 
But that's an opinion. I am asking if we know for sure they are FN. White guys poach 2.

Well here is an opinion. They are first nations nets. It is true that there are many kinds of poaching and done by many ethnically and racially diverse individuals, but not nets in the Fraser by non first nations, especially if they were salmon nets. How do I know they are first nation nets? The reaction, or rather lack of reaction to their presence.

Lets hold in abeyance the issue of whether these are FN salmon or Eulachon nets or both.

If some non FN poachers were to deploy unauthorized nets in the river, all hell would break lose and it would happen very quickly. Local Fraser River First Nations themselves would be screaming blue murder and revving up the protests. The risk of confrontation and actual physical conflict would be substantial between First Nations and those non FN poachers deploying the nets. DFO, RCMP and the Crown would be all over it and not going slow or low budget on the removal of the nets, investigations and prosecutions. The press would also be all over. Can you imagine the headlines if non first nations were net poaching in the river, the most endangered earlier run Fraser Chinook.

Is any of that happening? - no, just crickets.
 
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Well here is an opinion. They are first nations nets. It is true that there are many kinds of poaching and done by many ethnically and racially diverse individuals, but not nets in the Fraser by non first nations, especially if they were salmon nets. How do I know these are first nation nets? The reaction, or rather lack of reaction to their presence.

Lets hold in abeyance the issue of whether these are FN salmon or Eulachon nets or both.

If some non FN poachers were to deploy unauthorized nets in the river, all hell would break lose and it would happen very quickly. Local Fraser River First Nations themselves would be screaming blue murder and revving up the protests. The risk of confrontation and actual physical conflict would be substantial between First Nations and those non FN poachers deploying the nets. DFO, RCMP and the Crown would be all over it and not going slow or low budget on the removal of the nets, investigations and prosecutions. The press would also be all over. Can you imagine the headlines if non first nations were net poaching in the river, the most endangered earlier run Fraser Chinook.

Is any of that happening? - no, just crickets.

Pretty solid observation I would say.
 
I am just asking. With COVID 19 going on non native poachers could easily put a net in river.

Thanks guys so the answer is no we don't know. There are many river systems across BC with both native and non native poachers. All I asked was this net confirmed that it was FN before we all go off. Mainly because of the conditions of those nets they look brand new.

I do not like any nets in river, and would like to see FN move to selective fishing methods like weirs etc.

I only mention this because non-native guys don't like to look at themselves either. We need to eliminate all poaching, and that also comes from non-native. Just pointing that out. And sorry the press is focusing on COVID 19. River poaching is last of their worries right now.
 
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Has there ever been a documented case of caucasians using a gillnet above the Mission bridge and caught poaching?


Im sure DFO will do absolutely nothing about this!

It was a 5 inch grid on the net apparently.
So definetly not an oolie net, and definently not up that high in the river.
 
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Spoke with a buddy on the weekend who said there was a group netting the lower lilloet now too, he got back to his truck to find a hostile group taking photos of his vehicle. The road was closed off the next day.
 
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