Sushihunter
Active Member
http://www.bclocalnews.com/bc_north/terracestandard/sports/19447069.html
SKEENA ANGLER
By Rob Brown - Terrace Standard - June 04, 2008
Indie Science Review
If you’re a regular reader of this column, you’ve read about the debacle that was the 2006 fishing season. That was the year an enormous slug of Skeena sockeye arrived coincidentally with a puny return of summer run steelhead creating the perfect storm scenario the fisheries managers at Fisheries and Oceans Canada in Prince Rupert had been anticipating and dreading for years.
The departmental dread was well founded. The commercial fishing fleet had been languishing for season after season thanks, among other things, to a coho conservation crisis brought on in no small measure by themselves and their predecessors, habitat havoc, and, possibly, by as yet unfathomable oceanic perturbations.
The Department, which long ago put the conservation ethic demanded by its mandate in its back pocket, in order to better service the commercial fishing industry, was under considerable political pressure to give the fleet plenty of fishing time.
That they did so, causing a storm of protest from Sportsmen, conservationists, environmentalists, and First Nations fishers, is yesterday’s news.
In an egalitarian society, the controversy should have triggered a toothy government commission charged with putting the Department of Fisheries on the hoist to find out where the machine was broken and to then issue binding recommendations on how it might be fixed.
Sadly, we’ve had commissions before, toothless ones like the one conducted by forester and economics professor, Peter Pearse that was supposed to turn the tide. History shows us that not much of significance was gained.
The 2006 fisheries fiasco led to calls for an independent review by scientists. DFO (and by extension, the Federal government) bought into the idea.
The Provincial Ministry of the Environment and their political masters, whose fisheries division is charged with the stewardship of steelhead, agreed to participate too.
Funding was provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, a philanthropic organization that strives to create positive outcomes for future generations by forming partnerships with organizations bent on achieving “significant, lasting and measurable results” in environmental conservation.
After selection and confirmation, the panel consisted of independent fisheries consultant, James Lichatowich of Oregon, Dr. Randall Peterman, professor and Canada Research Chair in Fisheries Risk Assessment and Management School of Resource and Environmental Management at SFU, Dr. John Reynolds, a professor and BC leadership Chair in Salmon Conservation and Management Department of Biological Sciences, also at SFU, and Dr. Carl Walters, Professor, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada Fisheries Centre at UBC.
After reviewing all the relevant background documents provided by consultants given the task of rounding this literature up, the panel met with senior bureaucrats in both affected ministries, the staff of DFO and MOE, First Nations representatives, and the public in a series of meetings over a four-month period.
The main objective of the Scientists was to examine the management of Skeena salmon and to come up with a new method of managing the Skeena fisheries based on that information within the context of DFO’s recently adopted Wild Salmon Policy and mindful of First Nations’ interests, and way of collecting the best available scientific data to do that task.
To further guide its deliberations, the panel and those who empanelled it agreed that it was necessary to embrace some key principals. The first was that the conservation of wild Skeena salmon (and this includes steelhead, which now fall under that designation) and their habitats deserve top billing in resource management decision making.
The second was that resource management had to honour Canada’s obligations to First Nations.
The third – and this is a ground breaking and vitally important principle – decisions affecting Skeena salmon had to consider the biological, social, and economic consequences, reflect the best science including traditional aboriginal knowledge, and maintain wild Skeena salmon stocks for future generations.
The fourth, and final principle, that management decisions had to provide for sustainable First Nations, commercial, and recreational fisheries.
The third principle aside, these guiding ideas are almost identical to the DFO mandate, the one that they only paid lip service to.
Next week: the Panel’s Recommendations
Jim's Fishing Charters
www.JimsFishing.com
http://ca.youtube.com/user/Sushihunter250
SKEENA ANGLER
By Rob Brown - Terrace Standard - June 04, 2008
Indie Science Review
If you’re a regular reader of this column, you’ve read about the debacle that was the 2006 fishing season. That was the year an enormous slug of Skeena sockeye arrived coincidentally with a puny return of summer run steelhead creating the perfect storm scenario the fisheries managers at Fisheries and Oceans Canada in Prince Rupert had been anticipating and dreading for years.
The departmental dread was well founded. The commercial fishing fleet had been languishing for season after season thanks, among other things, to a coho conservation crisis brought on in no small measure by themselves and their predecessors, habitat havoc, and, possibly, by as yet unfathomable oceanic perturbations.
The Department, which long ago put the conservation ethic demanded by its mandate in its back pocket, in order to better service the commercial fishing industry, was under considerable political pressure to give the fleet plenty of fishing time.
That they did so, causing a storm of protest from Sportsmen, conservationists, environmentalists, and First Nations fishers, is yesterday’s news.
In an egalitarian society, the controversy should have triggered a toothy government commission charged with putting the Department of Fisheries on the hoist to find out where the machine was broken and to then issue binding recommendations on how it might be fixed.
Sadly, we’ve had commissions before, toothless ones like the one conducted by forester and economics professor, Peter Pearse that was supposed to turn the tide. History shows us that not much of significance was gained.
The 2006 fisheries fiasco led to calls for an independent review by scientists. DFO (and by extension, the Federal government) bought into the idea.
The Provincial Ministry of the Environment and their political masters, whose fisheries division is charged with the stewardship of steelhead, agreed to participate too.
Funding was provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, a philanthropic organization that strives to create positive outcomes for future generations by forming partnerships with organizations bent on achieving “significant, lasting and measurable results” in environmental conservation.
After selection and confirmation, the panel consisted of independent fisheries consultant, James Lichatowich of Oregon, Dr. Randall Peterman, professor and Canada Research Chair in Fisheries Risk Assessment and Management School of Resource and Environmental Management at SFU, Dr. John Reynolds, a professor and BC leadership Chair in Salmon Conservation and Management Department of Biological Sciences, also at SFU, and Dr. Carl Walters, Professor, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada Fisheries Centre at UBC.
After reviewing all the relevant background documents provided by consultants given the task of rounding this literature up, the panel met with senior bureaucrats in both affected ministries, the staff of DFO and MOE, First Nations representatives, and the public in a series of meetings over a four-month period.
The main objective of the Scientists was to examine the management of Skeena salmon and to come up with a new method of managing the Skeena fisheries based on that information within the context of DFO’s recently adopted Wild Salmon Policy and mindful of First Nations’ interests, and way of collecting the best available scientific data to do that task.
To further guide its deliberations, the panel and those who empanelled it agreed that it was necessary to embrace some key principals. The first was that the conservation of wild Skeena salmon (and this includes steelhead, which now fall under that designation) and their habitats deserve top billing in resource management decision making.
The second was that resource management had to honour Canada’s obligations to First Nations.
The third – and this is a ground breaking and vitally important principle – decisions affecting Skeena salmon had to consider the biological, social, and economic consequences, reflect the best science including traditional aboriginal knowledge, and maintain wild Skeena salmon stocks for future generations.
The fourth, and final principle, that management decisions had to provide for sustainable First Nations, commercial, and recreational fisheries.
The third principle aside, these guiding ideas are almost identical to the DFO mandate, the one that they only paid lip service to.
Next week: the Panel’s Recommendations
Jim's Fishing Charters
www.JimsFishing.com
http://ca.youtube.com/user/Sushihunter250
