DFO - given up?

[Foxsea]

Tom Davis, writing in the April issue of Boat Journal, says that "It may well be that DFO doesn't care about ocean fisheries any more."

Community groups and programs that have been working to protect and restore salmon and salmon habitat for decades are no longer supported: ..."DFO seems intent on pursuing courses of action that directly undermine those goals." ... "DFO is finding any way possible to offload its mandated responsibilities to look after our marine resources"... their attitude seems to be that "if it's too hard to manage, just close it."

"I don't see the (DFO) commitment to restore or enhance fish or to take into account their economic and cultural value" ... or that DFO understands the importance of salmon "as an iconic example of what the west coast of Canada is all about."
- all quotations credited to Tom Davis; Boat Journal: copyright 2012.

 

[JuandeOne]

Tom Davis, writing in the April issue of Boat Journal, says that "It may well be that DFO doesn't care about ocean fisheries any more."

Community groups and programs that have been working to protect and restore salmon and salmon habitat for decades are no longer supported: ..."DFO seems intent on pursuing courses of action that directly undermine those goals." ... "DFO is finding any way possible to offload its mandated responsibilities to look after our marine resources"... their attitude seems to be that "if it's too hard to manage, just close it."

"I don't see the (DFO) commitment to restore or enhance fish or to take into account their economic and cultural value" ... or that DFO understands the importance of salmon "as an iconic example of what the west coast of Canada is all about."
- all quotations credited to Tom Davis; Boat Journal: copyright 2012.

DFO? Yup!

Tom..don't think so.

 

[GLG]

The local DFO around here are a lot of help to the organization I belong to.
Sure we butt heads on some issues but all and all they have come through on every thing we needed from them.
A number of them give up their days off to help us and I can always call and ask questions.
I could site many occasions that they have gone beyond the call of duty but I think you get the point.
As for those pencil pushers in Ottawa, well bash away.
GLG

 

[Lipripper]

As for those pencil pushers in Ottawa, well bash away.
GLG

You win!

I am going relieve fin of the turbot/burbot sig an replace it with that......

 

[Foxsea]

The local DFO around here are a lot of help to the organization I belong to. Sure we butt heads on some issues but all and all they have come through on every thing we needed from them. A number of them give up their days off to help us and I can always call and ask questions. I could site many occasions that they have gone beyond the call of duty but I think you get the point. As for those pencil pushers in Ottawa, well bash away. GLG

Good to hear. Yeah - no doubt many DFO guys on the ground have the best interest of our resources at heart. They are also victimized by a dysfunctional bureaucracy in Ottawa. One recent incident that Tom Davis brings up is the "vandalizing" of a water release valve by DFO people, draining the lake behind Bill James dam on de Mamiel Creek in Sooke. The dam was used to provide enough water flow for fry to survive in the dry months. Volunteers had invested thousands of hours and $250,000 - under DFO supervision - to bring the dam up to standard. Apparently DFO was spooked by the liability imposed by the dam after a failure in Oliver. Damn DFO.

 

[Little Hawk]

Indeed, there are at least 2-tiers in the DFO: the passionate front line people in the field who work hard and understand fully the issues affecting our fish & habitat, then there's the peckerheads in Ottawa that call the shots who could care less about the importance of our fish to the ecology of the entire Province. While being bribed by the fish-farmers and big-buisness (oil & hydro-electric) they are content with the status-quo.

 

[Fisher Down]

You'd never guess DFO had a Mandate, Vision, or Mission.
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/us-nous/vision-eng.htm

F D

 

[Englishman]

I agree. I believe what we see as DFO “giving up” are symptoms of a fundamental change in philosophy, due to the conservative government. Harper and those guys see everything in dollars and cents, so they want to privatise everything. They see no intrinsic value in salmon because they are environmentally ignorant on the one hand, and see the value of the industries fisheries support as too small to bother with and too complex and expensive to manage on the other. In fact the wild fish are a nuisance because they prevent or get in the way of mega-development where the “real bucks are” as far as these Neanderthals are concerned. They want their oil pipelines and the run of the river hydro projects. They want their poisonous mining projects to be given a free hand, and they one day would love to dam the Fraser and sell electricity down South and the water from up here too!

Because the top echelons in DFO take their orders from the conservatives, they are abandoning all enhancement projects, getting out of habitat protection and management, encouraging fish feed lots so all the fish can be easily “accounted for” and no troublesome wild fish get in the way, and they are privatising what fisheries remain. The commercial halibut have been given to the slipper skippers and the commercial salmon are being given to the FN and the responsibility for habitat management and conservation is being pushed down to them. They get rid of a management headache and satisfy the political climate of the times as well. So they continue to slash staff, cut budgets and pull back from any enforcement and let the chips fall where they may. The loss of the west coast recreational fishery is just “collateral damage” in the drive to satisfy the conservative agenda. Make the rich richer, whatever the consequences and to hell with the rights of citizens to a clean and healthy environment. And as regards stewardship for future generations, it does not even feature in their thinking.

These guys are dangerous fundamentalists who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

 

[chris73]

Good analysis. While a liberal government already toyed with similar visions before, the conservatives certainly perfected and executed.

 

[Tsquared]

Here is a link that might give you a chuckle this morning.

canadiankayakanglers.com/forum/index.php?topic=2804.0

T2

 

[Whole in the Water]

I agree. I believe what we see as DFO “giving up” are symptoms of a fundamental change in philosophy, due to the conservative government. Harper and those guys see everything in dollars and cents, so they want to privatise everything. They see no intrinsic value in salmon because they are environmentally ignorant on the one hand, and see the value of the industries fisheries support as too small to bother with and too complex and expensive to manage on the other. In fact the wild fish are a nuisance because they prevent or get in the way of mega-development where the “real bucks are” as far as these Neanderthals are concerned. They want their oil pipelines and the run of the river hydro projects. They want their poisonous mining projects to be given a free hand, and they one day would love to dam the Fraser and sell electricity down South and the water from up here too!

Because the top echelons in DFO take their orders from the conservatives, they are abandoning all enhancement projects, getting out of habitat protection and management, encouraging fish feed lots so all the fish can be easily “accounted for” and no troublesome wild fish get in the way, and they are privatising what fisheries remain. The commercial halibut have been given to the slipper skippers and the commercial salmon are being given to the FN and the responsibility for habitat management and conservation is being pushed down to them. They get rid of a management headache and satisfy the political climate of the times as well. So they continue to slash staff, cut budgets and pull back from any enforcement and let the chips fall where they may. The loss of the west coast recreational fishery is just “collateral damage” in the drive to satisfy the conservative agenda. Make the rich richer, whatever the consequences and to hell with the rights of citizens to a clean and healthy environment. And as regards stewardship for future generations, it does not even feature in their thinking.

These guys are dangerous fundamentalists who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

I think you are bang on in your analysis Englishman!

So my questions is this.... How many people who care about wild salmon, the right to access our public resources (like fish), want a clean, healthy environment to enjoy and pass on to our grand children will still vote for the Conservatives or the Liberals in the next federal election???

IF you want change, then you need to vote for the people and the political parties that will support change!!!

Its time for us all to wake up and smell the bullsh!t that the two major political parties have been pilling up for decades!

 

[scott craven]

The problem i see is the lack of a political party that will truly support the environmental issues.
Conservatives are very strong with big business, which in turn drives the economy.
In my mind, even though they are bad for the environment they will stay strong in government.

Anybody know what stance the Liberals and NDP are taking on the environment ?

 

[Gunsmith]

I would think that at the time the Liberals had the best Fisheries and then the Environmental minister when Hon. David Anderson was in the seat.
1997-99 as Fisheries Minister he had a lot of controversy with the commercial fleets over his zeal to protect fish stocks, he brought about the no kill on Coho salmon,after six years of failures he struck an agreement with the U.S. under the Pacific Salmon Treaty to conserve the stocks and end the destructive competetive fishing by Canada'S and U.S.' commercial fleets.
As Environment Minister he enacted the Species at Risk Act and he was part of the KYOTO Accord.
He taught constitutional law,administrative law, and environment policy. His environmental work focused on coastal wetland protection and marine pollution from oil exploration and transportation.

It seems to me that even though he is retired he should be asked to be involved with all of our issues, I am sure he would be a BIG GUN in our struggle to protect these domains.
Just another BRAIN FART.