Conservation Measures for Northern and Southern BC Chinook Salmon and Southern Resident Killer Whale

[california]

The inevitable extinction of this group is due to 3 things.
a. The captures took mostly large males out of the population and limited the genetic diversity of the group. The balance of male to females of breeding age is grossly out of whack and has led to a significant imbalance.
b. Lack of Chinook and change in size. The southern residents prefer chinook, but they also eat chum and probably sockeye. The inconsistent returns and the gradual decrease in size of chinook ,due to over fishing and poor management in California , Oregon, Washington state , Alaska and BC.
c. Pollution, The main culprit is PBDE's a fire retardant found mostly in children's clothing. When you wash juniors clothes the fire retardant attaches itself to molecules of water and is flushed out into the strait where it enters the food chain , shrimp-salmon-whales. When a new born killer whale is breast feeding the milk is produced by the mothers fat where the PBDE's hide. If the mother is malnourished she feeds her calf a toxic milk soup and the calf invariably dies. The survival rate of newborns in this group is less than 50%.

While the removals by Bob Wright no doubt were detrimental, the population did recover after captures were stopped and peaked at 100 in the mid 1990s and have dropped since then, so it seems they were able to breed successfully post capture era. points "b" and "c" may be more the issue, and yes unfortunately extinction may be inevitable even if point "b" were to now improve.

 

[Viking]

The new daily limit, imo just kills more chinook and here's why:
Now especially, the solo fisherman will be playing catch n release until he or she hooks a big one. The obvious problem with that is the wounded, bleeding, tired fish left for predators. I get that some fisherman purely fish for sport and do not retain fish, which is fine, but think how many more fisherman will be throwing the small keepers back....I fish solo alot and will be letting HEALTHY, not bleeding, fish go until i find a 10 to 20 pounder. Dont get me wrong, first bleeder gets bonked. I spend a lot of time packing, gasing up, launching, driving to the fishing grounds and want to fish! Sometimes the first fish is on in the first 10 min! What, then im done after all the work to get out there? If you dont know this, some of these bigger boats,(not my 18 ft) have built in live wells. Whats to say someone doesn't just throw a 62 cm in there all day and toss it back barely alive when they catch a bigger one. Again another dead spring. I never really did much catch and release with keepers but now i will be if the day is early. I really think the daily limit restriction will cause more damage. Dumb management approach again. More chinook will die not less.

 

[bigdogg1]

The new daily limit, imo just kills more chinook and here's why:
Now especially, the solo fisherman will be playing catch n release until he or she hooks a big one. The obvious problem with that is the wounded, bleeding, tired fish left for predators. I get that some fisherman purely fish for sport and do not retain fish, which is fine, but think how many more fisherman will be throwing the small keepers back....I fish solo alot and will be letting HEALTHY, not bleeding, fish go until i find a 10 to 20 pounder. Dont get me wrong, first bleeder gets bonked. I spend a lot of time packing, gasing up, launching, driving to the fishing grounds and want to fish! Sometimes the first fish is on in the first 10 min! What, then im done after all the work to get out there? If you dont know this, some of these bigger boats,(not my 18 ft) have built in live wells. Whats to say someone doesn't just throw a 62 cm in there all day and toss it back barely alive when they catch a bigger one. Again another dead spring. I never really did much catch and release with keepers but now i will be if the day is early. I really think the daily limit restriction will cause more damage. Dumb management approach again. More chinook will die not less.

Thanks for this post. I was thinking the other day about the impact this will have on my time on the water when my usual crew deems the conditions unfavourable. I enjoy being out there anytime and having the opportunity to catch a second spring is a huge difference from only one. I was wondering about that first fish in 10 - 20 minutes after all the preceding prep time. I was thinking less fishing time as my practice has been to pull in once my two were landed. You raise an interesting point.

 

[chris73]

I think you would do well polishing up your catch and release practices, buy the proper tools for this and enjoy fishing! At least you are fishing in contrast to other areas that are completely closed. Would you prefer that?

 

[casper5280]

Just saw this on Facebook. I’ll give you the first one looks like they are taking samples maybe but the other 2 does it not look like they are a little close. This is what I don’t get.
I’ve been fishing many times and the whales have come to me, so I would say I’m not bothering them. The whale watchers continue to chase them but what’s okay. Just don’t get it.

 

[cohochinook]

We have to get organized as group here and start hammering our local MP's and the Fisheries Minister on the fact that they ignored recommendations put forward by the SFAB. This closure a best will leave a few more Chinook for the SRKWs and does virtually nothing to address both SRKW's real challenges or increase Chinook numbers.

It doesn't address toxins in their bodies which are high in many of the older whales, that can live to be 100 years and effect breeding abilities. We still have noise pollution. SRKW when hunt they need to communicate coordinate attacks between their pod, and use their vocalizations to do this. We have heavy shipping noise that is low frequency and travels through the water at long distances, which disrupts their communication. We have more tankers coming with FEDS buying Trans Mountain pipeline and whale boats that can chase them all day. We have a massive increase in the number seals and sea lions, which eat huge amounts juvenile salmon that migrate out of the rivers. There is little money being spent on Chinook habitat and enforcement on the Fraser River and their spawning tribs is virtually non-existent, with DFO's budget being cut and offices closed.

We need to focus on this and not arguing over catch release that some anglers will do to get a nice 1 legal fish.

Step up and call your MP now to voice your anger. Write a letter to Minister LeBlanc at min@dfo-mpo.gc.ca

 

[SpringVelocity]

Just saw this on Facebook. I’ll give you the first one looks like they are taking samples maybe but the other 2 does it not look like they are a little close. This is what I don’t get.
I’ve been fishing many times and the whales have come to me, so I would say I’m not bothering them. The whale watchers continue to chase them but what’s okay. Just don’t get it.

Great. That exactly the type of thing we need to record. Casper keep the photo. Derby is going to start another thread and will also include the live fire exercises taking place in JDF forage zone today I just posted.

 

[oldtimer]

It is hard to say how these new regs are going to impact our fishery and our industry moving forward. When the limits were 2 Chinook a day I was hearing comments from people that they didn't feel that the value was there any more paying mega $ to go to the high end Lodges in the Charlottes. This latest round of reductions may be a deal breaker for some of these areas that have been really hit hard with these new regs? As I see things, it is all about opportunity and when you take away the opportunity you take away the incentive to even go fishing. I think that many Sporties and Lodge goers might just say screw it and give up the sport. We use on the average about 200 liters of fuel a day in our area to reach the fishing grounds and at $1.72 a liter that is about $350.00 a day in fuel. I think that there is a point where folks are going to say that it is just not worth it anymore and we may have reached that point?

 

[Bifmalibu]

The sad reality of all of this is; it is just too much pressure from all angles on everything. Too much pressure on the Salmon, too much pressure on the Whales, too much pressure on the environment, economy etc. etc. etc. Too many ******* people in this planet all jockeying to grab the last slice of pie. Doom and gloom, but reality. Let's hope the blob was a one off and macro level prey sources can come back and the Salmon can have a resurgence. It does't seem like that long ago things were really good.

 

[Ian wagner]

Fresh Fraser king salmon 5$ lb in Bellingham Craigslist today

 

[The Jackel]

Have a question can the Fn's fish in the closed zones during the closures??

 

[tyee1on]

WTF IS UP WITH THAT **** SELLING FRASER FISH TO THE USA
DFO /GOVERNMENT NOT DOING THERE JOB AGAIN
THAT MAKES ME REALLY REALLY MAD THAT THIS IS HAPPENING IN OUR FISHERY
IT HAS TO STOP NOW BEFORE THERE ALL GONE

 

[StirItUp]

brutal. sure wish we had some enforcement on the fraser

 

[california]

Fresh Fraser king salmon 5$ lb in Bellingham Craigslist today

Add lists a Chilliwack area number in the contact details

 

[ziggy]

Forward the add to DFO!

 

[high tide]

No surprise here....... Yet Government turn away ........ Sickening

 

[The Jackel]

Have a question can the Fn's fish in the closed zones during the closures??

WEll...... can anybody answer the question

 

[Whitebuck]

Yes...they can because DFO will not do a damned thing!

 

[Gong Show]

Funny thing is that if FN were sport fishing it would attract more DFO attention then if they were commercial fishing.

 

[SpringVelocity]

Thing is though in Area 19/20 forage closure/ slot restrictions is actually placing a lot of harm on the Becher Bay band. Their business is down at marina in some of the months from all the political BS. Remember a lot of First Nations also rely on us fishing. Not everyone it tied to the Fraser.