Is anyone paying attention - By Bob Hooton

[OldBlackDog]

Is Anyone Paying Attention?

On November 30 I posted here in response to a YouTube clip passed to me by a well informed Skeena steelhead contact. The clip illustrated MP Taylor Bachrach making a pitch in Canada’s parliam…

steelheadvoices.com

 

[Bryan Allen]

Thanks for posting this OBD....These reports from Bob are so damn frustrating for those of us that fished the Skeena and tribs, Fraser and Thompson , and the once excellent Island rivers. It is further frustrating to see that the only user group that CAN influence DFO/Government as a Government to Government equal is sitting on the side watching this go down.

 

[Sharphooks]

QUOTE

...”the only user group that CAN influence DFO/Government as a Government to Government equal is sitting on the side watching this go down...”

UNQUOTE

The FN? If that’s the group you’re alluding to, Bryan, I have a bit more jaundiced outlook...I see them as actively participating in driving these stocks off the edge of a cliff....stewards of the resource?????....my arse....when the FN in-river guys in the Fraser report ZERO steelhead interception over the last decade of fishing in their chum by-catch data, it’s all a blatant F_U to not only Canadians in general, but to Canadian fishery biologists in particular , the biologists who need accurate data so they can make appropriate management recommendations to DFO and Provincial fishery decision makers (whether DFO pays any heed or not)

It’s stunning to watch this go down. I just read Rob Bison’s report on IFS projected adult returns in 2021: 68 fish to the THompson and 32 to the Chilcotin. It’s an arrow in my heart to actually see the numbers written down in a report like that. I started fishing that river in the 80’s.....in 1985 the returning adults were pushing 3,500 fish for the THompson. So, the math shows that the projected 2021 return is a 98% drop .... on top of that, factor in what happened to the smolt population in the Nicola/Coldwater system after that flood event in mid-November......whatever
Plan B you might have had with those smolts to make up for the dismal returning adults this year were flushed down the toilet.....


There’s a special place in hell for the guys who have been actively netting the Fraser, flogging the chum roe (and probably tossing the stripped females in the dumpster). They absolutely are 100% aware they have driven an absolutely one of a kind race of fish to extinction. I’m betting they even get a rush of satisfaction knowing how much it drives guys like you and I crazy to have seen it happen. You can imagine how they snigger in their beer every time they report ZERO bycatch to whitey

I gag on my porridge every time I hear that ridiculous phrase ...”stewards of the resource”

And of course if we ever got them in a room, gave them a few drinks, and asked them who taught them that type of resource extraction behavior they’d look us squarely in the eye and say...”you did”...

And they’d be right

 

[Whitebuck]

Post of the year^

 

[terrin]

I don’t think you can lump all the FN into one group like that. I’m sure some share the concern for the steelhead and other depleted stocks.

QUOTE

...”the only user group that CAN influence DFO/Government as a Government to Government equal is sitting on the side watching this go down...”

UNQUOTE

The FN? If that’s the group you’re alluding to, Bryan, I have a bit more jaundiced outlook...I see them as actively participating in driving these stocks off the edge of a cliff....stewards of the resource?????....my arse....when the FN in-river guys in the Fraser report ZERO steelhead interception over the last decade of fishing in their chum by-catch data, it’s all a blatant F_U to not only Canadians in general, but to Canadian fishery biologists in particular , the biologists who need accurate data so they can make appropriate management recommendations to DFO and Provincial fishery decision makers (whether DFO pays any heed or not)

It’s stunning to watch this go down. I just read Rob Bison’s report on IFS projected adult returns in 2021: 68 fish to the THompson and 32 to the Chilcotin. It’s an arrow in my heart to actually see the numbers written down in a report like that. I started fishing that river in the 80’s.....in 1985 the returning adults were pushing 3,500 fish for the THompson. So, the math shows that the projected 2021 return is a 98% drop .... on top of that, factor in what happened to the smolt population in the Nicola/Coldwater system after that flood event in mid-November......whatever
Plan B you might have had with those smolts to make up for the dismal returning adults this year were flushed down the toilet.....


There’s a special place in hell for the guys who have been actively netting the Fraser, flogging the chum roe (and probably tossing the stripped females in the dumpster). They absolutely are 100% aware they have driven an absolutely one of a kind race of fish to extinction. I’m betting they even get a rush of satisfaction knowing how much it drives guys like you and I crazy to have seen it happen. You can imagine how they snigger in their beer every time they report ZERO bycatch to whitey

I gag on my porridge every time I hear that ridiculous phrase ...”stewards of the resource”

And of course if we ever got them in a room, gave them a few drinks, and asked them who taught them that type of resource extraction behavior they’d look us squarely in the eye and say...”you did”...

And they’d be right

 

[Sharphooks]

I had zero intention of insulting the FN as a group. My post specifically refered to down-river FN guys who use gill nets as their weapon of choice to harvest salmon in the Fraser.

You probably read or heard stories of rec-fish guide operations in the Columbia systems who voluntarily shut down their operations after hearing about the low projections for Deschutes and Clearwater River steelhead returns this past Fall. They could have legally fished, but with the obviously hurting steelhead stocks in mind, they made the conscious decision not to. There weren’t alot of them who made this business decision, but there were a few, guys who willingly and publically took a pay cut to at least acknowledge the sad state of the resource. That is what I call a Steward of the Resource. Putting your money where your mouth is.

I submit that if just one or two of the FN guys in the lower Fraser made a similar public declaration that Chum returns appeared to be marginal, and why continue to beat up on them with drift-net openers when it’s already known that stocks are down; and why even take the chance of fishing depressed Chum stocks when there is the on-going risk of IFS steelhead by-catch, steelhead stocks that have been loudly and very publically proclaimed to be on their last legs?

It would have been a huge wake-up call to DFO managers if even one or two FN guys stepped up and publically questioned the wisdom of these in-river openings, ESPECIALLY after that huge catastrophic flood event in the middle of last month, a natural catastrophe that anybody with a pulse would have concluded had compromised every chum egg recently deposited in every bit of gravel in every feeder creek flowing in to the Fraser.

That would have been the move of a Steward of the Resource. Instead, it was an on-going stampede before and after the flood to get every last chum and every last steelhead because.......because DFO said we could.

And anyway, we need beer and chip money for the party this weekend, and chum roe sales are hot

 

[onefish]

I know on one river here on the ECVI there are a small number of FN that gill net. They refer to Steelhead as "snake fish" and have zero use for them either as bycatch or foodfish. I don't know if this is the view of FN in general to steelhead or just what the local tribe thinks of them.

 

[Islandson31]

I agree. Just because you can or it’s your right doesn’t mean you should. And I hear a lot of talk about the future generations but no one wants to be the one who gets affected by the change that would be necessary. “Ok, this time we’re really serious. We’ll make the necessary changes starting.........................