quote:Kind of surprised to see my photos resurface after all these years. Do I get royalties? Anyway, lets put things into perspective: Catch in 1991 totalled 1,161,000, including 763,000 seine and 283,000 gillnet (total commercial), recreational 79,000, First Nation 37,000. Escapement was 543,000 for a total run of 1,704,000 - a record return and near record escapement. The smolts from that escapement came out into the mackerel invasion. So, even in hindsight what would you have done? I do recall the recreational sector arguing, a few years later that DFO's escapement targets were too high... A slower paced extended seine fishery would have been preferred but that was not possible in the management regime of the day. That would have meant several weeks of still significant seine fisheries - I wonder what the rec sector would have thought of that? 1991 was the first year of significant rec catch of sockeye, followed by 2 years of catches exceeding 100,000. The Pilot Sale Fishery, later the Somass Food and Sale Fishery, came into being the following year. A lot has changed since than. The tools of the day were crude compared to those that exist now. Frankly, managing that seine fishery scared the hell out of me. Perhaps it's not too early to think about how one would manage a return of that size, unlikely as that seems now. Somass sockeye are a precious resource. It saddens me to see that some of the same battles are going on. One would think there are enough intelligent, well-meaning people in the department and all fishing sectors to come up with a fair and equitable sharing and fishing plan that would not endanger the resource, no matter how hard that might be.
Anyway, great to see your still fighting the good fight - interesting that many of the names from the '90's are still there.
Regards, Laurie Gordon