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Trollers blast $30-million salmon treaty as 'buyout'
U.S. to pay Canada to reduce catch off B.C. coast; commission defends deal as necessary to save stocks from extinction
MARK HUME
From Friday's Globe and Mail
May 23, 2008 at 4:51 AM EDT
VANCOUVER — A $30-million payment to Canada by the United States under the newly negotiated Pacific Salmon Treaty is expected to raise sovereignty issues because the money will be used to buy out a fleet of commercial boats in British Columbia.
"I think we're about to be exterminated. ... This looks like the end of an era," Kathy Scarfo, president of the West Coast Trollers Association, said after being briefed on the agreement, which was released yesterday. "This is a buyout. It's an expropriation of the salmon troll fleet."
The Pacific Salmon Commission, which arrived at the new deal after 18 months of negotiations, describes the $30-million payment as money provided "to support transition in Canadian fisheries impacted by the conservation measures outlined in the agreement."
Those conservation measures call for a 30-per-cent reduction in the salmon catch off the west coast of Vancouver Island, where most of the fish are headed for rivers in Washington and Oregon, and a 15-per-cent reduction of the catch in Alaska, which should benefit Canada by allowing more salmon to escape to spawn in northern B.C. rivers.
Ms. Scarfo said it was clear that the big cutback on Vancouver Island's west coast will fall on the shoulders of the troll fleet, which operates 160 vessels out of small coastal villages such as Tofino and Bamfield.
"The days of looking at a harbour and seeing it full of salmon trollers are over," Ms. Scarfo said. "This is very sad."
She said the deal doesn't spell out exactly how the 30-per-cent catch reduction will be made but she has been told it will come almost exclusively from the commercial allocation, not the sports or native catches.
"We take the full hit," she said. "So if there are 100,000 fish [to be caught] off the west coast of Vancouver Island, the recreational fleet will take 50,000, the natives will get 5,000 ... and if they take 30 per cent off the top that leaves 15,000 [for the troll fleet] and that would support about 15 boats."
Ms. Scarfo said she would prefer the fleet to voluntarily tie up, with compensation paid to help fishermen survive until stocks rebound.
But she said the U.S. money is tied to "transition in the Canadian fisheries," which to her means the troll fleet is to be retired permanently, through a buyout.
"That raises several issues and the first one is sovereignty," Ms. Scarfo said.
"We are opposed to it out of principle - you don't sell your natural resources," she said.
Ms. Scarfo said she didn't know how many of the 160 trollers would willingly accept a buyout. The fleet, which is currently fishing, is being informed of the deal in a series of phone calls.
The agreement, although negotiated by the Pacific Salmon Commission - a joint U.S.-Canada body - must be ratified by both governments before it becomes official.
"It's not a done deal. ... It has to get endorsed yet," Ms. Scarfo said. "There will have to be a debate over this issue, and there should be because this is a national issue."
Arnie Narcisse, a Canadian commissioner on the Pacific Salmon Commission, said salmon are in trouble all along the West Coast of North America and a joint effort is needed if they are to be saved.
"As far as I'm concerned, the paramount importance is to protect the brood stock right now and hope for the best for the future because everything else seems to be working against the fish. ... Anywhere you look they are experiencing problems. It's just a miracle they are keeping going," he said.
"I've been very explicit in terms of my recommendations ... it's the conservation of the stock, first and foremost."
Mr. Narcisse said Canada and the U.S. can't afford to go back to the days when they engaged in "fish wars" in which each side tried to catch the other's salmon.
"God knows it's going to take all of our co-operation to save whatever the hell is left out there. Any confrontation ... any little fish war or anything like that will just drive certain stocks to extinction," he said.
Driving the new treaty has been the total collapse of salmon runs in California, Oregon and Washington, and dismal returns to the Fraser River, so small even native food fisheries are being restricted.
In addition to the $30-million payment from the U.S., each country will contribute $7.5-million over five years for a salmon tagging program and the U.S. will provide $10-million to study chinook stocks.
My Comments:
(Jim Pook, from Tahsis, BC, Canada) wrote: If you want to save the Salmon on the West Coast, (and I do!), there are a number of things that need to be done:
1. 1- Increase the budgets and the output of all hatcheries. They have been starved of funds in recent years and taken over by a "only a wild fish is a good fish" mentality. Hatchery fish in the wild is exactly the same as a river spawned fish.
2. 2- Cut back on the commercial fishing fleet, primarily the seine
boat fleet. The commercial Salmon catch is 92% of ALL Salmon caught.
3. 3- Stop the Herring fishery, especially roe-on-kelp fishery. If you want more Salmon, they need more food.
4. 4- Clean up and fix all the Salmon spawning rivers. Logging and
urbanization have hit these rivers hard. No spawning rivers - no Salmon.
5. 5- Logging is closing down all over North America - this would be a good time to put loggers and logging companies to work in fixing the damage they have done to Salmon streams in the past.
6. 6- Stop the native poaching in the Fraser River Canyon. These fish
are being sold by the tractor-trailer load. Stop it - stop it NOW!
7. 7- Make the West Coast fishery a separate ministry from the East
Coast fishery. Two Fisheries Ministers: West and East, and never the twain shall meet.
8. 8- Clean out the deadwood from DFO. There are some good people
there, but there are also many who wouldn't know a fish if you slapped them across the face with one.
If all of these steps are taken, we could have a flourishing fishery in 8 to 12 years. Putting restrictions only on sports fishermen is not the answer - they only account for 3.9% of the total Salmon catch. Fixing the problems is where this is going to be successful. Write your MP and make it happen!
Disclosure: I am a Fishing Guide on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. www.JimsFishing.com
* Posted 23/05/08 at 8:51 PM EDT
Trollers blast $30-million salmon treaty as 'buyout'
U.S. to pay Canada to reduce catch off B.C. coast; commission defends deal as necessary to save stocks from extinction
MARK HUME
From Friday's Globe and Mail
May 23, 2008 at 4:51 AM EDT
VANCOUVER — A $30-million payment to Canada by the United States under the newly negotiated Pacific Salmon Treaty is expected to raise sovereignty issues because the money will be used to buy out a fleet of commercial boats in British Columbia.
"I think we're about to be exterminated. ... This looks like the end of an era," Kathy Scarfo, president of the West Coast Trollers Association, said after being briefed on the agreement, which was released yesterday. "This is a buyout. It's an expropriation of the salmon troll fleet."
The Pacific Salmon Commission, which arrived at the new deal after 18 months of negotiations, describes the $30-million payment as money provided "to support transition in Canadian fisheries impacted by the conservation measures outlined in the agreement."
Those conservation measures call for a 30-per-cent reduction in the salmon catch off the west coast of Vancouver Island, where most of the fish are headed for rivers in Washington and Oregon, and a 15-per-cent reduction of the catch in Alaska, which should benefit Canada by allowing more salmon to escape to spawn in northern B.C. rivers.
Ms. Scarfo said it was clear that the big cutback on Vancouver Island's west coast will fall on the shoulders of the troll fleet, which operates 160 vessels out of small coastal villages such as Tofino and Bamfield.
"The days of looking at a harbour and seeing it full of salmon trollers are over," Ms. Scarfo said. "This is very sad."
She said the deal doesn't spell out exactly how the 30-per-cent catch reduction will be made but she has been told it will come almost exclusively from the commercial allocation, not the sports or native catches.
"We take the full hit," she said. "So if there are 100,000 fish [to be caught] off the west coast of Vancouver Island, the recreational fleet will take 50,000, the natives will get 5,000 ... and if they take 30 per cent off the top that leaves 15,000 [for the troll fleet] and that would support about 15 boats."
Ms. Scarfo said she would prefer the fleet to voluntarily tie up, with compensation paid to help fishermen survive until stocks rebound.
But she said the U.S. money is tied to "transition in the Canadian fisheries," which to her means the troll fleet is to be retired permanently, through a buyout.
"That raises several issues and the first one is sovereignty," Ms. Scarfo said.
"We are opposed to it out of principle - you don't sell your natural resources," she said.
Ms. Scarfo said she didn't know how many of the 160 trollers would willingly accept a buyout. The fleet, which is currently fishing, is being informed of the deal in a series of phone calls.
The agreement, although negotiated by the Pacific Salmon Commission - a joint U.S.-Canada body - must be ratified by both governments before it becomes official.
"It's not a done deal. ... It has to get endorsed yet," Ms. Scarfo said. "There will have to be a debate over this issue, and there should be because this is a national issue."
Arnie Narcisse, a Canadian commissioner on the Pacific Salmon Commission, said salmon are in trouble all along the West Coast of North America and a joint effort is needed if they are to be saved.
"As far as I'm concerned, the paramount importance is to protect the brood stock right now and hope for the best for the future because everything else seems to be working against the fish. ... Anywhere you look they are experiencing problems. It's just a miracle they are keeping going," he said.
"I've been very explicit in terms of my recommendations ... it's the conservation of the stock, first and foremost."
Mr. Narcisse said Canada and the U.S. can't afford to go back to the days when they engaged in "fish wars" in which each side tried to catch the other's salmon.
"God knows it's going to take all of our co-operation to save whatever the hell is left out there. Any confrontation ... any little fish war or anything like that will just drive certain stocks to extinction," he said.
Driving the new treaty has been the total collapse of salmon runs in California, Oregon and Washington, and dismal returns to the Fraser River, so small even native food fisheries are being restricted.
In addition to the $30-million payment from the U.S., each country will contribute $7.5-million over five years for a salmon tagging program and the U.S. will provide $10-million to study chinook stocks.
My Comments:
(Jim Pook, from Tahsis, BC, Canada) wrote: If you want to save the Salmon on the West Coast, (and I do!), there are a number of things that need to be done:
1. 1- Increase the budgets and the output of all hatcheries. They have been starved of funds in recent years and taken over by a "only a wild fish is a good fish" mentality. Hatchery fish in the wild is exactly the same as a river spawned fish.
2. 2- Cut back on the commercial fishing fleet, primarily the seine
boat fleet. The commercial Salmon catch is 92% of ALL Salmon caught.
3. 3- Stop the Herring fishery, especially roe-on-kelp fishery. If you want more Salmon, they need more food.
4. 4- Clean up and fix all the Salmon spawning rivers. Logging and
urbanization have hit these rivers hard. No spawning rivers - no Salmon.
5. 5- Logging is closing down all over North America - this would be a good time to put loggers and logging companies to work in fixing the damage they have done to Salmon streams in the past.
6. 6- Stop the native poaching in the Fraser River Canyon. These fish
are being sold by the tractor-trailer load. Stop it - stop it NOW!
7. 7- Make the West Coast fishery a separate ministry from the East
Coast fishery. Two Fisheries Ministers: West and East, and never the twain shall meet.
8. 8- Clean out the deadwood from DFO. There are some good people
there, but there are also many who wouldn't know a fish if you slapped them across the face with one.
If all of these steps are taken, we could have a flourishing fishery in 8 to 12 years. Putting restrictions only on sports fishermen is not the answer - they only account for 3.9% of the total Salmon catch. Fixing the problems is where this is going to be successful. Write your MP and make it happen!
Disclosure: I am a Fishing Guide on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. www.JimsFishing.com
* Posted 23/05/08 at 8:51 PM EDT
