Area 14 (Oyster River to Parksville) SFAC meeting

[lorneparker1]

This was my first SFAC meet. It wasnt a special invitation or post card. it was posted on here, I went.

Firstly the 250k, We would also like to know, but the bottom line is the DFO uses creel surveys' and he said "i know you guys hate them, but they are as accurate as we can get, they are deemed acceptable on 3 continents, numerous boards and committtees and the IPHC"



As far as the 10-20 people making the decisons.

Well honestly you might not like my answer, but you want to have your say, go to the meetings. I Mean this was posted a week ago. and you know who showed up? basically our group of accquantinces in the valley (duffer, CS, Fish assian, glg, duffer, jencourt and 2 buddies and myself) other then that there was 4 other guys who i did not know personally but are memebers in other committiees in the club. The chair (forget her name), Bryan, a few commercial guys, and a few dfo guys. You are right there are thousand and thousands of anglers. I have to ask WHERE WERE YOU GUYS! I overheard someone say there used to be hundreds of people at these things. These are 100% open forums with structure. If you would have been there you could have "had your say" Anyone can go, and anyone can comment and everyone votes. Over 50% of the people there are from this forum( 2 guides and a bunch of like minded sport anglers) and there was only 20ish total people. I am just some guy with a dirty mustache. To me there are tons of people that love to ***** about stuff and say they want change. but do **** all besides ***** on forums and to there friends. This is no different then someone who doesnt vote and ******* about the result.

Btw that wasnt directed at you personally.

Lorne

 

[Jencourt]

Something also worth noting is that the 10 fish total that was voted on last night represents the majority vote of those who attended the area 14 meeting. This may or may not get the approval from the majority vote in other areas.

 

[Sculpin]

Thanks for the explanation Lorne. Just asking some questions was all. I figured the 250,000 number was pulled out of the air. Good to know that there used to be hundreds that attended. I guess I have to get off my butt and go to one of these meetings.

 

[gamechanger]

Thanks to the guys that came out last night, lots of good discussion with the guys who showed up. I just want to add the more people that come to these meetings the more attention they get, both in the government and in the public eye. They become a bigger deal, and more people from the DFO pay attention to them and attend them, and thats only a good thing for rec fisheries. Ya Ya I know, not everybody can make them all the time, but seriously with the amount of "chatter" that goes on in this forum you would think that we could get bigger numbers out.

A big part of it's education, on both sides right. You guys come and hear from DFO reps about issues you may not have understood or knew much about, there are good discussions, DFO staff get an opportunity to learn and hear whats important on a local level and can take back your comments and feed them up the chain. The SFAC does the same thing with forwarding comments and motions into the SFAB process through minutes from the meeting and motions put forward from each of the areas. Thats how change happens in the rec fishery, and if you don't show up than your piece isn't heard and you are outside looking in. These meetings are open to the public, its as simple as that, and if you don't want to participate, you can't complain about the results.

If you guys want rec fisheries to be as important as they should be help create the movement and momentum that they need.

 

[Sculpin]

Thanks for the explanation and great points gamechanger. I'm getting the idea now on how it all works. I will probably go to the one this weekend at the Coast Bastion in Nanaimo.

 

[Fish Assassin]

Where were the beer sales? When attending these meeting we could support the Fish & Game Club by buying a couple of beers or any other bevy. Guess next time it's BYOB.

 

[Hali killer]

FA i dont know if getting a room full of dfo, commies, and sporties all together and then adding booze is such a great idea. Hahaha

 

[lorneparker1]

FA i dont know if getting a room full of dfo, commies, and sporties all together and then adding booze is such a great idea. Hahaha

hahah that is exactly what i said. Yagerbombs and hali allocation discussions!

 

[Hali killer]

Would be interesting if nothing else.

 

[Fish Assassin]

Come on guys. A beer, coffee or water some thing to drink. Make it enjoyable for people to come to and they will come. People on both sides of the room mentioned the lack of bevy's. There were bevy's at the last meeting I attended. Maybe the board has decided to frown on drink sales at the meetings. Maybe some thing happened in the past we don't know about.

 

[Hali killer]

Yeah there was nothing last year either. Coffee pop water would be great. Booze not so much.

 

[Cuba Libre]

Yup-- just had a phone discussion with Owen-- he didnt think drinking out of the washroom sink was a great idea!! LOL!!! The issue is that it requires one of the club members with "Serving it right" certificate to open the bar. And frankly, the Courtenay Club had already waived to the normal fee for using the hall , and its pretty tough to get a licensed server (volunteer) to come out on a dark and stormy night to serve a few beers!!! LOL!!!

I had nothing to do with arranging the hall-- but next time I will request at least an urn of coffee . ( I got thirsty as well!)

But dont let this little slip up deter fishers from coming. The Chair (Megs) asked if anyone was interested in putting a little time into the process by volunteering to be a part of the committee --- hopefully some of you will respond.

Cheers!
Bryan

 

[Fish Assassin]

Let me see if my serving it right is still valid.

 

[vetteman]

Thanks for the explanation and great points gamechanger. I'm getting the idea now on how it all works. I will probably go to the one this weekend at the Coast Bastion in Nanaimo.

It's a different show in Nanaimo this weekend. This is the SFAB meeting that is being held at the Coast Bastion. The local SFAC meeting was last month at the Nanaimo F & G Club. Everyone is still welcome to attend though.
Dave

 

[GLG]

CL can you post the Halibut motion we passed?

 

[Cuba Libre]

Probably will get the complete info when the minutes are done up and distributed, but basically it was that Area 14 SFAC supports taking a motion to the South Coast meeting that an annual limit of 10 halibut be included on the recreational saltwater license. There are other motions that have been put forward in the past that were tabled ( I think) at the SCSFAC which called for a 5 fish and a 30 fish limit. These came from other area SFACs. Its now up to the SCSFAB to decide what to do with the motions...... bump them up the ladder to the Main Board (joint north and south representatives) where they can forward the motion (s) to DFO , or vote it down, or table it.
Stay tuned......

 

[GLG]

Thanks for the info CL
As you know I'm not fond of a yearly limit on Halibut.
I do agree that we as a sector can't keep going over our yearly limit.
We are morally obligated to do what is right for the fish.
To bad it may come down to capping our sector to live within our TAC.
GLG

 

[GLG]

Perhaps when the commercial season ends (Nov 18, 2011) someone could post up how many pounds they left in the water this year.

Just found my answer..... It's for today but I'm sure there are numbers to come in.

GLG