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.
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.