Islandgirl
Well-Known Member
From Bob Cole aug 12
Hello Paul,
“With due respect” is all that I am asking for from DFO.
Don’t postpone important meetings when timely decisions need to be made to salvage any modicum of a tourist or recreational fishery in our community this year.
I am not “hate mongering” nor spreading “misinformation”. Check the stats. This is a year of VERY LOW Chinook abundance and, as last year, recreational priority should apply.
If for whatever reason the sport fleet doesn’t catch anywhere near their expected catch, as they haven’t for the past five years, the additional surplus can be added to the commercial quota, as it has been in the past, after Labour Day.
The community and local businesses need to know now, not next week, whether there will be a reasonable opportunity to fish for Chinook so that they can be up front and credible with their customers. The damage to our once “Salmon Capital” and “Ultimate Fishing Town” reputation is being done every day there is a delay in a decision by DFO.
What part of this message don’t you understand?
By the way, in the absence of our in season meeting this week, this is the only forum that I have left to try and get some action on one of the most important issues facing this community.
Bob Cole – Chair ASFAC
from Bob Cole aug 12
Paul,
You don’t understand. This is not about the Salmon Festival. It has run in years when there was no fishing. It is about the ten days that we have left in our once 2 month long upper inlet Chinook fishery.
Most of the local guides and charter boats don’t even book customers for the derby but they do book daily for the week and a half before the derby. If there is reasonable catch in the week prior to the derby, many more people come and enter or just enjoy the spectacle. If there is poor fishing before the derby, few come, few enter and all the non-profits and local salmon enhancement groups that receive funding through the Salmon Festival Society lose.
This could very well be the last year of the Salmon Festival and the McLean Mill hatchery, “Gently down the Creek”, “Stream of Dreams” and Salmonids in the classroom programs will lose precious local support and funding.
The WSP and production side needs to be re-invented. We have been pushing for early, middle and late run ripe fish egg takes and for net pen rearing in the estuary for years, to bring back the extended, fishable (for all sectors) fish that we once enjoyed when the hatchery management focused on the results, not the bottom line.
The hatchery (with budget restraints) has become a self sufficing entity and really doesn’t even plan to produce excess fish for harvest or catch. Look at their rationale for cutting Coho production in half again. Too many fish coming back. More than they need for egg takes. Isn’t that the purpose of the hatchery?
I guarantee, if there is a commercial net fishery in the upper inlet before Labour Day, from both a perceptual and an actual reality, the sport fishing will be poorer in the week and a half leading up to the festival and that will adversly affect the festival and the entire community for a long time thereafter.
The community and our reputation can’t afford another hit.
I hope this explains our position and the situation more effectively.
Bob "
Call these fools at dfo
Bill Shaw 250 756-7270
Paul Preston 250 720 4440
As a side note I came back down the canal yesterday afteroon and saw LOTS of people fighting chinook close to town..Lets hope the retards at DFO dont unleash the seines
Hello Paul,
“With due respect” is all that I am asking for from DFO.
Don’t postpone important meetings when timely decisions need to be made to salvage any modicum of a tourist or recreational fishery in our community this year.
I am not “hate mongering” nor spreading “misinformation”. Check the stats. This is a year of VERY LOW Chinook abundance and, as last year, recreational priority should apply.
If for whatever reason the sport fleet doesn’t catch anywhere near their expected catch, as they haven’t for the past five years, the additional surplus can be added to the commercial quota, as it has been in the past, after Labour Day.
The community and local businesses need to know now, not next week, whether there will be a reasonable opportunity to fish for Chinook so that they can be up front and credible with their customers. The damage to our once “Salmon Capital” and “Ultimate Fishing Town” reputation is being done every day there is a delay in a decision by DFO.
What part of this message don’t you understand?
By the way, in the absence of our in season meeting this week, this is the only forum that I have left to try and get some action on one of the most important issues facing this community.
Bob Cole – Chair ASFAC
from Bob Cole aug 12
Paul,
You don’t understand. This is not about the Salmon Festival. It has run in years when there was no fishing. It is about the ten days that we have left in our once 2 month long upper inlet Chinook fishery.
Most of the local guides and charter boats don’t even book customers for the derby but they do book daily for the week and a half before the derby. If there is reasonable catch in the week prior to the derby, many more people come and enter or just enjoy the spectacle. If there is poor fishing before the derby, few come, few enter and all the non-profits and local salmon enhancement groups that receive funding through the Salmon Festival Society lose.
This could very well be the last year of the Salmon Festival and the McLean Mill hatchery, “Gently down the Creek”, “Stream of Dreams” and Salmonids in the classroom programs will lose precious local support and funding.
The WSP and production side needs to be re-invented. We have been pushing for early, middle and late run ripe fish egg takes and for net pen rearing in the estuary for years, to bring back the extended, fishable (for all sectors) fish that we once enjoyed when the hatchery management focused on the results, not the bottom line.
The hatchery (with budget restraints) has become a self sufficing entity and really doesn’t even plan to produce excess fish for harvest or catch. Look at their rationale for cutting Coho production in half again. Too many fish coming back. More than they need for egg takes. Isn’t that the purpose of the hatchery?
I guarantee, if there is a commercial net fishery in the upper inlet before Labour Day, from both a perceptual and an actual reality, the sport fishing will be poorer in the week and a half leading up to the festival and that will adversly affect the festival and the entire community for a long time thereafter.
The community and our reputation can’t afford another hit.
I hope this explains our position and the situation more effectively.
Bob "
Call these fools at dfo
Bill Shaw 250 756-7270
Paul Preston 250 720 4440
As a side note I came back down the canal yesterday afteroon and saw LOTS of people fighting chinook close to town..Lets hope the retards at DFO dont unleash the seines
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