Chinook and Killer Whales

Rockfish

Well-Known Member
http://www.timescolonist.com/techno...vest+benefit+killer+whales/4214648/story.html


Canada, U.S. may restrict chinook salmon harvest to benefit killer whales
By LARRY PYNN, Vancouver Sun February 2, 2011 10:33 PM •Story•Photos ( 1 )
Fishermen in Canada and the U.S. may have to give up part of their lucrative chinook salmon catch to help the recovery of endangered resident killer whales.Photograph by: Dave Ellifrit, ReutersFishermen in Canada and the U.S. may have to give up part of their lucrative chinook salmon catch to help the recovery of endangered resident killer whales.


The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a news release Wednesday it plans to hold a science workshop with Fisheries and Oceans Canada in the spring to discuss potential catch restrictions.


The federal agency said that "killer whales depend to a substantial degree on large chinook salmon as a high-calorie food source" and that "killer whale productivity is affected by chinook abundance."


As a result of the workshop, both countries will be "better able to determine whether and to what extent additional constraints on salmon fishing may be necessary," it said.


The action comes as NOAA considers a Puget Sound management plan for the native and non-native sport and commercial chinook harvest through 2014.


Chinook is the largest species of Pacific salmon; any move to reduce harvests of the lucrative and tasty fish in favour of killer whales is certain to be controversial.


NOAA says that because of the extensive range of the southern resident killer whales, fisheries from California north to southeast Alaska may be affected.


lpynn@vancouversun.com

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Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/techno...iller+whales/4214648/story.html#ixzz1CsziyjZG
 
To bad DFO never had the foresight to consider the whales in there fishing plans years ago when the commercials over fished every salmon species into then ground. To bad DFO never had the foresight to realize that a drastic reduction in hatchery production would result in a severe drop in what food the whales had available to them. I don't think the whales care if a big Chinook salmon is clipped or not, they just need to eat. They can't survive waiting for wild stocks to magically rebound. Its time DFO found some foresight.
 
Pro; how come you are always pointing the finger and never acknowledging that 300,000 anglers can have a major impact on a stock. The johnston straits troll fleet has been closed for 15yrs, the sein fleet is not allowed to harvest chinook or coho for at least that long, yet the stocks are not building back. I know there is problems with habitat but that doesnt change the fact that there is not enough fish in the waters around here to balance off the effort. oh yeah i forgot about the seals.

I do agree fully with you that dfo needs to start to do their job and manage all fisheries unless there is a huge amount of money dumped into hatcheries and i dont see that in the near future.
 
Fish4all, no point in me pointing a finger at us sporties as I know others will look after that. ;) If you really knew me you would already know that I'm probably one of the few who already want to see some kind of plan from DFO to deal with future growth in some areas of our fishery. I want this to prevent possible future harm. A major impact? keep it real...we do have an impact but not a major one. It will take millions of us out on the water to have a major impact like the seiners/gill nets/trollers, logging, mining and water draw off for irrigation had in their day. The commercial east coast cod fishers are gone after their work on those stocks...no sporties out there at all....the fish rebounding there yet after what 15 to 20 years?
 
Fish4all, no point in me pointing a finger at us sporties as I know others will look after that. ;) If you really knew me you would already know that I'm probably one of the few who already want to see some kind of plan from DFO to deal with future growth in some areas of our fishery. I want this to prevent possible future harm. A major impact? keep it real...we do have an impact but not a major one. It will take millions of us out on the water to have a major impact like the seiners/gill nets/trollers, logging, mining and water draw off for irrigation had in their day. The commercial east coast cod fishers are gone after their work on those stocks...no sporties out there at all....the fish rebounding there yet after what 15 to 20 years?

Fair enough. I respect your position unfortunatly there are not more that think like you.... on this issue :)

I am sure you are aware the the east coast cod was wiped out primarily by the foreign cod fleets. I understand they still wont back off on the boot that extends past the 200 mile limit. That with the damage a trawl can do to the bottem I would say the east coast has a long ways to go.

Major may not be the right word, but i do feel that 300,000 anglers having estimated 2.2million rod days is not a drop in the bucket. Especially when you couple it with the electonics and gear being used these days.

Any way I do appreciate your position and points.
 
Again lets just stop replying to fish4all.....just a waste of time....

fair enough. I respect your position unfortunatly there are not more that think like you.... On this issue :)

i am sure you are aware the the east coast cod was wiped out primarily by the foreign cod fleets. I understand they still wont back off on the boot that extends past the 200 mile limit. That with the damage a trawl can do to the bottem i would say the east coast has a long ways to go.

Major may not be the right word, but i do feel that 300,000 anglers having estimated 2.2million rod days is not a drop in the bucket. Especially when you couple it with the electonics and gear being used these days.

Any way i do appreciate your position and points.
 
There is nothing wrong with debate...he is entitled to his views...he doesn't agree with most of ours and visa versa. Things are more likely to get out of control when you stop talking. I think there are some areas of common ground as I think he has mentioned some time in the past the lack of true accountability of our actual catch...whether it is salmon or ground fish. I agree with him totally and believe it to be true for the FN sector too. Neither have a system in place that is good enough for proper fish management to occur. That doesn't mean I think we are catching a huge amount over or under what DFO thinks we take...but with defensible and accurate numbers comes a better ability to defend our fisheries and for DFO to make the correct decisions.
 
It would be a relatively easy process to fix.
Simply amend the license to show an additional column for hatch or wild Chinook .
All angler's must turn in their old license for data analysis prior
to obtaining a new license.
 
It occurs to me that if you want to increase the food supply of Killer whales (Salmon) you may want to start by increasing the food supply of Salmon (herring, pilchards etc.) by decreasing the commercial fishing of these species. You may also want to revoke the over allocation of water leases which are causing our rivers to be drained and the water temperature in them to rise to dangerous levels for spawning salmon and their offspring. Then there is the strip mining of the spawning gravel from our rivers to provide cheap construction aggregate under the thinly failed pretense of flood control. I could go on but you get the idea. It is unfortunate that these large business/corporate interests continue to have such disproportionate influence over our politicians and the corporate media at the expense of our salmon.
 
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It occurs to me that if you want to increase the food supply of Killer whales (Salmon) you may want to start by increasing the food supply of Salmon (herring, pilchards etc.) by decreasing the commercial fishing of these species. You may also want to revoke the over allocation of water leases which are causing our rivers to be drained and the water temperature in them to rise to dangerous levels for spawning salmon and their offspring. Then there is the strip mining of the spawning gravel from our rivers to provide cheap construction aggregate under the thinly failed pretense of flood control. I could go on but you get the idea. It is unfortunate that these large business/corporate interests continue to have such disproportionate influence over our politicians and the corporate media at the expense of our salmon.

Rockfish hit the nail on the head. The real debate is not about a lack of fish , it's about habitat management .

Southern Resident killer whales will and do eat hatchery chinook.It is believed that they only eat chinook and chum. The Northern Resident killer Whale diet is more diversified and includes other types of salmon and even halibut. (do they have a quota ?)

beemer
www.killerwhale.ca
 
Until the wild fish rebound in numbers what salmon are the whales going to eat. That is where Canada was short sighted in stopping most of it's hatchery production pretty much overnight. I'm sure the local southern residents (whales and sporties) are both just as thankful the Americans didn't do the same.
 
What's the story with the Esq.(Esq. Anglers) net pen release program? Considering the loc.would that not benifit the whales/anglers,maybe simular pens placed in other V.I locations would help the whales/anglers.
 
What's the story with the Esq.(Esq. Anglers) net pen release program? Considering the loc.would that not benifit the whales/anglers,maybe simular pens placed in other V.I locations would help the whales/anglers.
The Esquimalt Anglers' Association has been releasing Nitinat chinook in Esquimalt Harbour and more recently at Fleming Beach boat ramp as well
for the last 20 years or so. Initially the chinook fry were held in a netpen and fed for about a month before release. Over the last half dozen
years, the fry have been held to release date at the Howard English Goldstream Hatchery before being put directly into the ocean. Because of
production hatchery cutbacks, in this case Nitinat, the number of surplus chinook eggs available to the EAA has dwindled. This year we are
holding only 80,000 Nitinat chinook fry at Goldstream for a June release off Esquimalt. A couple of years ago, the EAA received NO chinook eggs
from Nitinat because of poor escapement there. Its time DFO started producing more hatchery chinook like the United States does. This would
benefit anglers, the Orcas, seals, etc.
 
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