I see where you are going, and I wouldn't count on it. The truth is many not all of the anglers just think its all to do with FN harvest etc. Yes that is probably a component, but the problem is when we focus on just that we lose the bigger picture. I wouldn't expect to get support for boycotts etc. Hell we can't even get the joe angler to donate cash as they argue about who will be leader. THAT ABSOLUTELY KILLED US.
BE CAREFUL. Don't ignore these groups. If this is successful this year they will back again to take the rest of the inside of the straight and beyond. It will never ever stop.
As Greg Taylor from MCC stated yesterday with his comments to minister on SRKW protections, and re-quoting:
As a member of the SRKW Technical Working Group on Prey Availability and Accessibility, we find the actions taken on prey availability and accessibility insufficient. Our specific concerns are:
1. A key objective was to reduce disturbance associated with recreational fishing. DFO has proposed going to non-retention fisheries in Areas 20-1, 19, 18, and 29. Experience with non-retention fisheries in North America indicates that moving to non-retention may not reduce effort and therefore disturbance.
2. Non-retention fisheries only means mortality of key Fraser River Chinook populations is reduced, not eliminated. And research indicates short-term mortality is high, especially in respect to what is reported by DFO, see: https://www.mccpacific.org/.../Fraser-Chinook-FRIM...
3. In 2019 DFO is proposing to introduce a guidance that would ask recreational fishers to quit fishing if SRKW come within one kilometer of them. This is a voluntary requirement with little associated monitoring and no ability to enforce the guidance. It is disturbing that when fishery management agencies around the world are moving to independent, third party monitoring and tighter enforcement of fishing regulations; DFO is moving in the opposite direction. There is a reason why the rest of the world is moving to independent monitoring and better enforcement, good fishery management - as outlined by the FAO - demands it.
4. DFO, after persistent questioning, has indicated it has no plan to maintain fishery monitoring of effort and encounters in recreational fisheries at a level of what was in place in 2019. Nor does it plan to collect DNA samples from released fish to estimate the stock composition of the catch. Finally, DFO refuses to address the question of how many released chinook survive to eventually spawn, even in the face of its own science that says it is required.
5. DFO has not challenged the statements issued by the recreational industry saying that Fraser 4-2 and 5-2 chinook (which are of critical importance to SRKWs) represent only 1% of their total catch. DFO knows from their DNA samples that the proportion of 4-2 and 5-2 chinook in the recreational catch, in the months these populations are migrating through SRKW critical habitat, is significant. In 2018, the total escapement of these populations was around 16,000. The estimated totality mortality of these populations in the recreational fishery was between 12,103 and 15,428.
The MCC continues to recommend that, for the above reasons, all salmon fishing be closed in SRKW critical habitat between May 1st and July 31st. Anything else is indefensible.
Marine Conservation Caucus