twinwinds
Active Member
Kerry Coast
New PST must mean limiting sport licenses?
Thu Jan 15, 2009 10:29AM
Regarding the new PST chapter on Chinook, I can't help wondering how this reduction is going to achieved?
According to the Department's selective (13% of fishermen surveyed)catch surveys of the recreational fishery, sporties caught more than a third of the Chinook that were harvested on the WCVI, that is, over 50,000. The renewed treaty calls for a 30% reduction of Chinook harvest in that area.
The new Sportsfishing Guide is out and available, and I don't see anything about a lottery system to limit the number of salmon retention stamps, or "salmon conservation stamps," as the license to retain salmon is ironically named.
In 2008, the Department sold almost 200,000 salmon stamps to sports fishers. The annual limit on those stamps is still 40 Chinook (+ 40 Coho, sockeye, etc), unless somewhere an impossible to find change has been made. With a little factoring on how many of the licenses they sold were annual, daily, weekly, etc, it would appear that the recreational fishery province wide had an informal allocation of about 5 million Chinook last year.
Until the SFAB come through on its promise (made last year in a vision agreement with DFO) to monitor sports fishermen's catch, and a realistic allocation is provided to the sports fishery, and the annual limit per license is reduced dramatically, and the number of salmon stamps is restricted, and these steps are combined with some kind of must-return license showing catch information is made mandatory, I wonder how this reduction is to be accomplished? Or to be shown to be accomplished?
While some limits were in place for various Chinook aggregates last year, phonecalls to Conservation and Protection agencies in the relevant areas proved that the majority of such offices were themselves unaware of any changes to recreational opportunities. At the time of the closures to sports fishers, Fishing charters in the relevant areas posted on their online blogs what great success they were having catching Chinook "about twenty feet from the Q&A line," which, upon pinpointing the reported location of their successes, means the no-fish retention boundary.
By way of an interesting comparison, it would appear that the aboriginal Food Social and Ceremonial fishery's share of WCVI Chinook was less than 3%. In a year when twelve meetings were held by DFO to consult with First Nations as to how to share out what would certainly be an inadequate number of sockeye for everyone's FSC needs to be met, and sockeye returns proved to be inadequate, I would say this is an interesting exception to the idea that aboriginal people have a priority right to fish for food, social and ceremonial purposes.
Aboriginal fishers did not meet their allocation, about 3%, while commercial and recreational fisheries appear to have exceeded theirs. And that's without the catch information from that other 87% of recreational fishermen.
The Chinook returns in the Fraser are down to 1% of their brood years in some cases, and the vast majority are not far behind. We must remember that the Washington and Oregon coastlines were closed to fishing for Chinook last year, while coastal fisheries in BC caught over a quarter million.
The idea to prioritize recreational access to Chinook and Coho was a political one, made in the 90's by Kevin Anderson. If the Department continues with this policy, perhaps they will prioritize their catch monitoring to match?
Pacific Salmon Treaty Renewal — , Wed Jan 14 7:21AM
Pacific Salmon Treaty Renewal January 2009 The Pacific Salmon Treaty (PST) was signed by Canada and the United States (U.S.) in 1985 and provides the framework through which the two countries work... more
New PST must mean limiting sport licenses? — Kerry Coast, Thu Jan 15 10:29AM
New PST must mean limiting sport licenses?
Thu Jan 15, 2009 10:29AM
Regarding the new PST chapter on Chinook, I can't help wondering how this reduction is going to achieved?
According to the Department's selective (13% of fishermen surveyed)catch surveys of the recreational fishery, sporties caught more than a third of the Chinook that were harvested on the WCVI, that is, over 50,000. The renewed treaty calls for a 30% reduction of Chinook harvest in that area.
The new Sportsfishing Guide is out and available, and I don't see anything about a lottery system to limit the number of salmon retention stamps, or "salmon conservation stamps," as the license to retain salmon is ironically named.
In 2008, the Department sold almost 200,000 salmon stamps to sports fishers. The annual limit on those stamps is still 40 Chinook (+ 40 Coho, sockeye, etc), unless somewhere an impossible to find change has been made. With a little factoring on how many of the licenses they sold were annual, daily, weekly, etc, it would appear that the recreational fishery province wide had an informal allocation of about 5 million Chinook last year.
Until the SFAB come through on its promise (made last year in a vision agreement with DFO) to monitor sports fishermen's catch, and a realistic allocation is provided to the sports fishery, and the annual limit per license is reduced dramatically, and the number of salmon stamps is restricted, and these steps are combined with some kind of must-return license showing catch information is made mandatory, I wonder how this reduction is to be accomplished? Or to be shown to be accomplished?
While some limits were in place for various Chinook aggregates last year, phonecalls to Conservation and Protection agencies in the relevant areas proved that the majority of such offices were themselves unaware of any changes to recreational opportunities. At the time of the closures to sports fishers, Fishing charters in the relevant areas posted on their online blogs what great success they were having catching Chinook "about twenty feet from the Q&A line," which, upon pinpointing the reported location of their successes, means the no-fish retention boundary.
By way of an interesting comparison, it would appear that the aboriginal Food Social and Ceremonial fishery's share of WCVI Chinook was less than 3%. In a year when twelve meetings were held by DFO to consult with First Nations as to how to share out what would certainly be an inadequate number of sockeye for everyone's FSC needs to be met, and sockeye returns proved to be inadequate, I would say this is an interesting exception to the idea that aboriginal people have a priority right to fish for food, social and ceremonial purposes.
Aboriginal fishers did not meet their allocation, about 3%, while commercial and recreational fisheries appear to have exceeded theirs. And that's without the catch information from that other 87% of recreational fishermen.
The Chinook returns in the Fraser are down to 1% of their brood years in some cases, and the vast majority are not far behind. We must remember that the Washington and Oregon coastlines were closed to fishing for Chinook last year, while coastal fisheries in BC caught over a quarter million.
The idea to prioritize recreational access to Chinook and Coho was a political one, made in the 90's by Kevin Anderson. If the Department continues with this policy, perhaps they will prioritize their catch monitoring to match?
Pacific Salmon Treaty Renewal — , Wed Jan 14 7:21AM
Pacific Salmon Treaty Renewal January 2009 The Pacific Salmon Treaty (PST) was signed by Canada and the United States (U.S.) in 1985 and provides the framework through which the two countries work... more
New PST must mean limiting sport licenses? — Kerry Coast, Thu Jan 15 10:29AM
