Whole in the Water
Well-Known Member
That is pretty much what I have posted many times so we don't really disagree. Fishing restrictions in of themselves will not bring the runs back without fixing the other issues you mention. However they are I think a necessary evil to buy time, but time that will be in all likelihood wasted I fear. But we cant just keep fishing at the same rate in the face of declining runs. The catch statistics are from the attached publications. My theories on which runs may be the most impactful for SRKW are just that, theories they have not been to my knowledge researched formally. In 2015 the sport sector caught 306K Chinook commies 188K and FN (legal fisheries) 35K , In 2016 Sport 210K, Commies 213K and FN 31K. Of the sport caught fish about 45% were south coast, and 30% WCVI. It doesn't break out which specific stocks.
Thanks for the catch data. I agree with the conservation logic that says that we cannot keep fishing at the same rate with declining returns. However, we cannot just ratchet back the rec and commercial sector and do little else to increase Chinook numbers.
Unfortunately this is no longer much of a conservation issue now as a political one. As such we need to educate and pressure our politicians to take a holistic, multi-pronged, multi-sectoral approach to solving this problem. If we don't in the long term it could result in a greatly reduced rec and commercial sector, damaged local economies with decreasing Chinook numbers and SRKW's possibly going extinct. We do not want this!