So yes I am an old fart in my 70th year and I tend to rant and ramble. But I believe that we as sport fishers need to re-evaluate how we react to DFO Policy and our new Fisheries Minister.
Over the last 20 years we have seen a decline in our fishery and our ability to influence and be included in Fishery Policy.
20 years ago I had a belief that fishery policy was science driven and that decisions were made on the basis enhancement and fishery viability. I don't believe that is the case now. We have watched as the scientific end of DfO was withered and and died and the bureaucracy in Ottawa grew to be the largest budget line.
Years of record keeping and scientific data disappeared at the hands of the Harper Government.
DFO still maintains that decisions are science driven in spite of an abundance of evidence that policy decisions have very little basis in science but have the stamp of politics.
If we go back a few years to the Cohen Commission we see DFO looking to the Canadian Food agency for permission to respond to the Commissions questions.
In more recent times we see the outgoing Fisheries Minister ignoring his departments counsel last summer in imposing draconian regulations in regards to protecting early fraser chinook. Those were not science based decisions . The department had no valid data on how many fish were returning to the upper fraser tributaries and had spent 10 years removing enhancement by the 3 hatcheries in the area. To add insult to injury the minister followed up the northern Georgia Strait closures with a month long slot size that included hatchery clipped fish??? Throw back put and take fish?
I can only conclude that the regulations were imposed to cause economic chaos in our fishery. Don't get in the way of the pipeline unless you are prepared to bleed.
So lets step back and take another look at how we deal with the new fisheries minister. I look at DFO and see it as a broken culture. Lots of good people on the ground but still a bureaucracy that has lost track of its mission!
Maybe we should be approaching this new Minister differently. Lets kick it around and see what kind of ideas we can come up with. Please this is too important towrite off. I don't have a ton of time to fish but I do ahve children and grandchildren that deserve the opportunities I've had!
Over the last 20 years we have seen a decline in our fishery and our ability to influence and be included in Fishery Policy.
20 years ago I had a belief that fishery policy was science driven and that decisions were made on the basis enhancement and fishery viability. I don't believe that is the case now. We have watched as the scientific end of DfO was withered and and died and the bureaucracy in Ottawa grew to be the largest budget line.
Years of record keeping and scientific data disappeared at the hands of the Harper Government.
DFO still maintains that decisions are science driven in spite of an abundance of evidence that policy decisions have very little basis in science but have the stamp of politics.
If we go back a few years to the Cohen Commission we see DFO looking to the Canadian Food agency for permission to respond to the Commissions questions.
In more recent times we see the outgoing Fisheries Minister ignoring his departments counsel last summer in imposing draconian regulations in regards to protecting early fraser chinook. Those were not science based decisions . The department had no valid data on how many fish were returning to the upper fraser tributaries and had spent 10 years removing enhancement by the 3 hatcheries in the area. To add insult to injury the minister followed up the northern Georgia Strait closures with a month long slot size that included hatchery clipped fish??? Throw back put and take fish?
I can only conclude that the regulations were imposed to cause economic chaos in our fishery. Don't get in the way of the pipeline unless you are prepared to bleed.
So lets step back and take another look at how we deal with the new fisheries minister. I look at DFO and see it as a broken culture. Lots of good people on the ground but still a bureaucracy that has lost track of its mission!
Maybe we should be approaching this new Minister differently. Lets kick it around and see what kind of ideas we can come up with. Please this is too important towrite off. I don't have a ton of time to fish but I do ahve children and grandchildren that deserve the opportunities I've had!
