cohochinook
Well-Known Member
Couldn't agree more as a general rule. Appreciate folks getting frustrated hearing how critical having genetic stock composition data is to finding times and locations where stocks of concern are not encountered. To have any shot at fishery opportunities we need to establish areas/times where stocks of concern are not encountered in significant numbers to pose a meaningful risk to recovery of those stocks.
The simple facts are without; 1) good quality data collected over a long period of time; and 2) strong evidence your area fishery doesn't pose a risk; then those areas not meeting these 2 criteria are not likely to be opened up until these stocks recover.
We hear over and over from other sectors...no data = no fishery.
The reality also is....that data will not open fishery opportunity if there is higher risk of encounters of stocks of concern for a particular area or time. Placing all our hopes and wishes in the data basket are not going to improve the situation if geography and the migration routes and timing these particular stocks of concern are using works against us. Location matters. There isn't any data that will overcome the fact that in some locations these stocks are prevalent. Saying this not to **** anyone off, but to caution against getting hopes up pursuing data as a panacea. It's not a silver bullet for some areas.
Hold your politicians accountable that's the answer. It is only thing that will change the mandate being sent to DFO managers. They take their directive on fisheries management from Prime Minister Trudeau and Minister Jordan. Sitting back and bitching on a forum will do nothing! They don't pay attention to this, but they will pay attention to public pressure that impacts their ability to stay in power!I am a realist.. not a dreamer waiting and hoping for a miracle to happen... So what do you suggest? We continue to follow the instructions from DFO to collect more data that will NOT be used properly? If DFO was data driven we would not be in this position.. The data does not show that a complete shutdown of the chinook fishery until September(for the vancouver region) is necessary. So should we continue to be obedient dogs listening and waiting for scraps from our master(DFO) to be thrown at us? The answers are obviously not clear, easy as this is contentious issue involving a lot of different groups and factors. What needs to happen is for the rest of the 99.5% of the sport fishing members from this province to get out and show disobedience, demonstrate outside DFO and government official offices, bang drums, make noise... When we only get a handful of people out for last year's demonstration/protests it shows that the BS policies DFO announces year after year only **** off a handful of people. Until the rest of our group give a damn and does something about it, NO amount of letters will make a difference. The letter writing initiatives have never worked and will never work. We need more pissed off anglers who will draw a line in the sand and will be willing to do something about it. Until that happens we have been screwed and will continue to be screwed. From what I recall, there was 300,000 saltwater fishing licenses issued last year in BC... yet only a handful are pissed off enough and willing to take a day off from work to show up for a rally last year.