Taken from Blog.
The latest developments don’t end there. What I find most distressing is a message I received from a member of the conservation community who was brought into the lower Fraser chum fishery scenario by one of the participants in DFO’s chum working group. Here’s a clip from that message dated October 30: (I deleted the names of the plants to protect the author.)
“For the last couple of days, I’ve seen a stream of gillnetters offloading chums at the _ _ _ _ _ _ which sits next to _ _ _ _ . I have no idea where the fish are coming from, under what regime they were harvested, or where they’re going. There does not appear to be any monitoring whatsoever. When we asked on the last chum working group how any chum fishery could be conducted if we weren’t close to achieving the escapement targets, we were provided some bafflegab response about allowable harvest allowance. Really? So conservation isn’t a priority then?
I’m disappointed with the ENGOs which seem selective in terms of their criticism of conservation issues. Their silence is deafening.”
What will ever change and how will that happen in time to forestall the inevitable downward spiral toward extirpation of Interior Fraser steelhead? What is it going to take for every user group with an interest in any aspect of management of Fraser fisheries to understand what conservation means? When will there ever be acceptance that no harvest sector is exempt from accountability?
