From Blog,
Eric
January 17, 2022 at 3:22 pm
Thanks for bringing up the Canadian commercial recreational fishery on WCVI, Bob. I’m a Washington State salt chuck fishermen and it’s not lost on me that our local rec salmon seasons would be much longer and would offer far greater fishing success if it weren’t for the Canadian rec fishery’s interception of those fish (hatchery springs that I paid for!!!) on La Perouse Bank and in Barkley Sound. That interception knife cuts both ways and I’m not sure the majority of Canadian rec fisher’s realize that.
Meanwhile, the Noyes Island and Cape Fox intercept fisheries that impact Canadian stocks, especially Skeena steelhead, aren’t exactly well-publicized and sitting on the tips of many Canadian tongues as perhaps they should be.
I’ve heard it said that Skeena lodge owners and Skeena guide groups have in the past been notorious for not showing up at fishery conservation meetings, or for banging any types of conservations drums at all other then the one that that has the long boring refrain that goes:
“mine”, “mine”, “mine”….
Maybe it’s time they reached into the bags of money they’ve been making off the backs of the Skeena steelhead resource for the last three decades and invest some of it in a PR campaign to bring these intercept fisheries to people’s attention. Witness the clout of the ENGO conservation groups associated with the recovery strategy for the Northern and Southern Resident Killer Whales……with the click of a mouse people sitting in coffee houses in Vancouver can register their voices to help shut down both commercial and sport fisheries in BC waters….
The fact that ISF steelhead were left to swirl down the drain in a river system that flows through Vancouver’s front yard without even a peep from the people that live there is all the testimony one needs to realize someone needs got start a messaging campaign to place front and center the plight of Skeena steelhead and what might be done to cauterize the flow of Skeena steelhead blood
REPLY
