Emergency SFAB Meetings About Proposed SRKW Fishing Closures

[ILHG]

Ouch.... please don't even mention the name... they butchered the budgets of DFO..... I didn't vote for the libs.....................

I agree... he is no hero!!! I can not say who is better. But my God, anything but JT. Honesty I would even take federal NDP before him

 

[SpringVelocity]

These restrictions coming down have nothing to do with the parties that are in power. Dfo has been saying 20 plus years salmon stocks were failing. We told them again and again. How many of you saw the graphs.

Fraser river perfect example. We just watched the stocks fall year after year until guess what not many fish left.

The changing environment and bad dfo management has got us here. It matters not which party is in power. Both parties have done damage. Had conservatives been in power we would still be here. These issues were bound to happen at some point.

Still we need to keep it together. Stop pointing at first nations and commercials. Blaming our issues because we think this government sucks. We have to keep focused at this issues and facts within our group. Personally I think we are doing a good job with what little resources we have.

 

[ziggy]

Didn't you read profisher's observations from last season? The SRKW hardly ever showed up in the JDF last year because there were no Chinook for them. He noted that the orcas sent a couple small scouting parties into the Strait and as they didn't find anything worthwhile the large pods stayed offshore. Another reason why these area closures are nonsense.

I read it, but apparently DFO and the enivironmentalists didn’t or if they did discounted it. Clearly the view is much better from an office than it is from a boat!

 

[fishin_magician]

@ilovehaidagwaii what the hell do the Liberals have to do with this mess? Did you conveniently forget that the majority of DFO directions are rooted in the Conservative era and Conservative leaning policies? The DFO is wrought with a bunch of senior public servants who are holding up change within the department and are still hanging onto Harper era policies! It’s also part of the reason we can’t get rid of f’n fish farms.

I’m a manager in a Crown Corporation and am currently dating a DFO Employee and I can tell you that many of the positions being held on this board are very comparable to what’s going on in DFO and Crown Corporations. It’s like a parallel universe to any big slow moving government corporation. Unresponsive, entrenched and fearful of change and progress by all interest groups.

 

[searun]

These restrictions coming down have nothing to do with the parties that are in power. Dfo has been saying 20 plus years salmon stocks were failing. We told them again and again. How many of you saw the graphs.

.

I have to agree, the underlying problem has nothing to do with current government, and more to do with decisions made by the Conservatives. We also have to bear in mind that up until recent times there wasn't a good understanding around why ocean survival was dropping so dramatically. With the research coming out of organizations like the Salish Sea Project and others, its becoming increasingly clear there are some big causes of smolt mortality (predation, pollution, lack of food). The road back will be long and require some very difficult decisions and serious funding.

That said, the politics driving these particular ineffectual management choices (Area Closures & closing rec fishing), are being driven by a political agenda out of Ottawa. They seem to be looking for politically expedient measures that are more about "fire for effect" than actually solving the underlying root causes.

Picking fights with recreational fishers by closing their fisheries down will not address the root cause, and the problem will continue to spiral out of control. Case in point, look at how the Province managed steelhead into extinction. Their sole management measure largely involved increasingly more restrictive controls on rec fishing, as opposed to actually addressing the root causes. Chinook and ergo SRKW will follow the same path if we stick to the "captain obvious" solutions that were used on Steelhead for example.

If Ottawa wants to see change, make the difficult decisions and financial commitment to actions that would make a difference....like:

1. Habitat Restoration
2. Augmentation using leading edge hatchery practices that pair fish to help promote increasing size at age
3. Pinniped control
4. Dramatic reductions in commercial fisheries for herring, krill, crab - all part of Chinook juvenile diet when they first out-migrate into the ocean - stop ocean mining the food chain!
5. Ocean Chinook net pen projects, such as the one in Sooke to provide immediate prey/food for SRKW
6. Implement a 400m bubble zone to create a mobile spatial exclusion area around whales at all times to address physical and acoustic disturbances
7. Force Victoria to clean up their act - stop dumping raw sewage and toxins into the environment - Similarly Vancouver should be developing enhancements to sewage treatment to improve discharge quality

Sorry for the rant, but unless we start thinking outside the box, Chinook and SRKW are doomed.

 

[ziggy]

Are you suggesting that the 756 million dollar sewage treatment system underway in Victoria is insufficient? What other measures need to be forced? I’m sure any of the other points would benefit from a similar 3/4 of a billion cash infusion.

 

[Tips Up]

I have to agree, the underlying problem has nothing to do with current government, and more to do with decisions made by the Conservatives. We also have to bear in mind that up until recent times there wasn't a good understanding around why ocean survival was dropping so dramatically. With the research coming out of organizations like the Salish Sea Project and others, its becoming increasingly clear there are some big causes of smolt mortality (predation, pollution, lack of food). The road back will be long and require some very difficult decisions and serious funding.

That said, the politics driving these particular ineffectual management choices (Area Closures & closing rec fishing), are being driven by a political agenda out of Ottawa. They seem to be looking for politically expedient measures that are more about "fire for effect" than actually solving the underlying root causes.

Picking fights with recreational fishers by closing their fisheries down will not address the root cause, and the problem will continue to spiral out of control. Case in point, look at how the Province managed steelhead into extinction. Their sole management measure largely involved increasingly more restrictive controls on rec fishing, as opposed to actually addressing the root causes. Chinook and ergo SRKW will follow the same path if we stick to the "captain obvious" solutions that were used on Steelhead for example.

If Ottawa wants to see change, make the difficult decisions and financial commitment to actions that would make a difference....like:

1. Habitat Restoration
2. Augmentation using leading edge hatchery practices that pair fish to help promote increasing size at age
3. Pinniped control
4. Dramatic reductions in commercial fisheries for herring, krill, crab - all part of Chinook juvenile diet when they first out-migrate into the ocean - stop ocean mining the food chain!
5. Ocean Chinook net pen projects, such as the one in Sooke to provide immediate prey/food for SRKW
6. Implement a 400m bubble zone to create a mobile spatial exclusion area around whales at all times to address physical and acoustic disturbances
7. Force Victoria to clean up their act - stop dumping raw sewage and toxins into the environment - Similarly Vancouver should be developing enhancements to sewage treatment to improve discharge quality

Sorry for the rant, but unless we start thinking outside the box, Chinook and SRKW are doomed.

You nailed it.
Missed getting nets off the rivers and a couple others. But we need to work on where the problems start. Not from where they finish.
The current measures are not solving the problem. Just prolonging them.

 

[ericl]

Talk about changing the feeding habits of SRKW's/letting them go extinct because they are so stupid , changing the Constitution (FN fishing rights) or bashing past/present politicians, and blaming everybody but yourself needs it's own web site & forum IMO. Right now the collective voices on here are something I could never support. There are some great ideas/comments IMO & I have "liked" them.

 

[wildmanyeah]

Only reason i'm mad is there is no policy to actually help salmon stocks recover, I did vote liberal this time around knowing that harper decimated environmental regulation and full well know that the Liberals have been historically more favorable to First Nations.

I believe all sectors could get on board with massive cuts if they were equally distributed and it would mean a material recouvery for future salmon stocks.

However, that is not where we stand with the current IFMP, What they have done is just shift the allocation to a group that has been historically bad at recording catch, poaching, protesting, over harvesting, demonstration fisheries, protest fisheries.

We are all mad because we know that there is going to be no recovery in chinook stocks!!! moving around allocation is not the answer, Actually helping salmon stocks recover is!! The First Nations have the ability to ramp up to a full scale commercial operation. We are not talking about them fishing FSC and stopping. They will be able to continue to ramp up their fishery based on abundances.

It's not hard to see if our Commercial guys take a 15% cut, We take a small cut, that it's going to end up in an FN fishery because there is no framework for them to take a cut.

I'm upset that commercial and recreation sacrifices are in vain.

 

[agentaqua]

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Whales
Washington State legislators are proposing a new $1.55-million program to feed the whales.
Authored byby John Stang
March 2nd, 2018
https://www.hakaimagazine.com/news/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-for-whales/

 

[Fishing?]

I have to agree, the underlying problem has nothing to do with current government, and more to do with decisions made by the Conservatives. We also have to bear in mind that up until recent times there wasn't a good understanding around why ocean survival was dropping so dramatically. With the research coming out of organizations like the Salish Sea Project and others, its becoming increasingly clear there are some big causes of smolt mortality (predation, pollution, lack of food). The road back will be long and require some very difficult decisions and serious funding.

That said, the politics driving these particular ineffectual management choices (Area Closures & closing rec fishing), are being driven by a political agenda out of Ottawa. They seem to be looking for politically expedient measures that are more about "fire for effect" than actually solving the underlying root causes.

Picking fights with recreational fishers by closing their fisheries down will not address the root cause, and the problem will continue to spiral out of control. Case in point, look at how the Province managed steelhead into extinction. Their sole management measure largely involved increasingly more restrictive controls on rec fishing, as opposed to actually addressing the root causes. Chinook and ergo SRKW will follow the same path if we stick to the "captain obvious" solutions that were used on Steelhead for example.

If Ottawa wants to see change, make the difficult decisions and financial commitment to actions that would make a difference....like:

1. Habitat Restoration
2. Augmentation using leading edge hatchery practices that pair fish to help promote increasing size at age
3. Pinniped control
4. Dramatic reductions in commercial fisheries for herring, krill, crab - all part of Chinook juvenile diet when they first out-migrate into the ocean - stop ocean mining the food chain!
5. Ocean Chinook net pen projects, such as the one in Sooke to provide immediate prey/food for SRKW
6. Implement a 400m bubble zone to create a mobile spatial exclusion area around whales at all times to address physical and acoustic disturbances
7. Force Victoria to clean up their act - stop dumping raw sewage and toxins into the environment - Similarly Vancouver should be developing enhancements to sewage treatment to improve discharge quality

Sorry for the rant, but unless we start thinking outside the box, Chinook and SRKW are doomed.

I haven't made the show.

But has anyone mentioned the fish farms as a outside possibility that salmon just might be getting infected and dying in the wild? This toxic infectious effluent has been dumped in the pathway of the salmon for 20 years, has anyone checked to see how long it lives in the ocean or if it gets into the food chain?

Pinniped vs Orcas, it should be just a numbers game there, unpopular but seals are not even close to being endangered while the whales are.

These two items could be handled at the Provincial level I think, at least the FF's.

IMO the purpose of any of these meetings is make reasonable people sound like crazy fanatics, I am sure that serious groups end up being infiltrated to make them look like nuts.

Just a couple of questions, what is the fine for a seal? Or dumping toxic effluents?

But lets face facts, when the cod fishery was destroyed they paid commercial fishers not to fish and cod will take many generations to recover.
For our salmon to recover it may take a total cessation from all parties for 5 or 6 years, that would allow all salmon available at least one generation for recovery.
And if not a total cessation then maybe use of nets being prohibited and only line and hook

 

[High Time]

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Whales
Washington State legislators are proposing a new $1.55-million program to feed the whales.
Authored byby John Stang
March 2nd, 2018
https://www.hakaimagazine.com/news/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-for-whales/

This action by Washington State and the announcement of them shutting down all fish farms in Puget Sound is making DFO look even more PATHETIC!!! THEY ARE BECOMING AN EMBARRASSMENT !!!

 

[searun]

I wouldn't be so quick to trash DFO, they have a boss who calls the policy shots! There's a lot of damn good people in the Department, but they can only do what their political bosses allow or fund! Solving the problems we are facing will take tremendous political guts. I haven't seen any exhibited yet...but there is still time in their current mandate to win me over.

 

[Charter Tofino]

I have to agree, the underlying problem has nothing to do with current government, and more to do with decisions made by the Conservatives. We also have to bear in mind that up until recent times there wasn't a good understanding around why ocean survival was dropping so dramatically. With the research coming out of organizations like the Salish Sea Project and others, its becoming increasingly clear there are some big causes of smolt mortality (predation, pollution, lack of food). The road back will be long and require some very difficult decisions and serious funding.

That said, the politics driving these particular ineffectual management choices (Area Closures & closing rec fishing), are being driven by a political agenda out of Ottawa. They seem to be looking for politically expedient measures that are more about "fire for effect" than actually solving the underlying root causes.

Picking fights with recreational fishers by closing their fisheries down will not address the root cause, and the problem will continue to spiral out of control. Case in point, look at how the Province managed steelhead into extinction. Their sole management measure largely involved increasingly more restrictive controls on rec fishing, as opposed to actually addressing the root causes. Chinook and ergo SRKW will follow the same path if we stick to the "captain obvious" solutions that were used on Steelhead for example.

If Ottawa wants to see change, make the difficult decisions and financial commitment to actions that would make a difference....like:

1. Habitat Restoration
2. Augmentation using leading edge hatchery practices that pair fish to help promote increasing size at age
3. Pinniped control
4. Dramatic reductions in commercial fisheries for herring, krill, crab - all part of Chinook juvenile diet when they first out-migrate into the ocean - stop ocean mining the food chain!
5. Ocean Chinook net pen projects, such as the one in Sooke to provide immediate prey/food for SRKW
6. Implement a 400m bubble zone to create a mobile spatial exclusion area around whales at all times to address physical and acoustic disturbances
7. Force Victoria to clean up their act - stop dumping raw sewage and toxins into the environment - Similarly Vancouver should be developing enhancements to sewage treatment to improve discharge quality

Sorry for the rant, but unless we start thinking outside the box, Chinook and SRKW are doomed.

Nailed this. As mentioned above, I think Fish farms have to be on the list as well. I would love to see dfo take a list like that and really put management and resources into it.

Pinniped culls won’t happen so something outside the box has to be done. Sterilization or relocation would be a difficult and expensive potential option.

There must be some outside the box method to try and reduce the impact on estuary predation of smolts where they’re most vulnerable. Electric fences or some kind of deterrent?

 

[OldBlackDog]

They have been there and done that. Only solution that worked was lead poisoning.

Nailed this. As mentioned above, I think Fish farms have to be on the list as well. I would love to see dfo take a list like that and really put management and resources into it.

Pinniped culls won’t happen so something outside the box has to be done. Sterilization or relocation would be a difficult and expensive potential option.

There must be some outside the box method to try and reduce the impact on estuary predation of smolts where they’re most vulnerable. Electric fences or some kind of deterrent?

 

[OldBlackDog]

Good rant, however as the Government of the day has said no to SARA for the SRKW do you really think they care?

You are right this is all about politics and always was. The difference now is the Greens and the Commercial Sector have lobbyist to produce results in Ottawa.

As noted we do not and as the sports fishing groups cannot get together or work together are loosing the war.


Sad.

I have to agree, the underlying problem has nothing to do with current government, and more to do with decisions made by the Conservatives. We also have to bear in mind that up until recent times there wasn't a good understanding around why ocean survival was dropping so dramatically. With the research coming out of organizations like the Salish Sea Project and others, its becoming increasingly clear there are some big causes of smolt mortality (predation, pollution, lack of food). The road back will be long and require some very difficult decisions and serious funding.

That said, the politics driving these particular ineffectual management choices (Area Closures & closing rec fishing), are being driven by a political agenda out of Ottawa. They seem to be looking for politically expedient measures that are more about "fire for effect" than actually solving the underlying root causes.

Picking fights with recreational fishers by closing their fisheries down will not address the root cause, and the problem will continue to spiral out of control. Case in point, look at how the Province managed steelhead into extinction. Their sole management measure largely involved increasingly more restrictive controls on rec fishing, as opposed to actually addressing the root causes. Chinook and ergo SRKW will follow the same path if we stick to the "captain obvious" solutions that were used on Steelhead for example.

If Ottawa wants to see change, make the difficult decisions and financial commitment to actions that would make a difference....like:

1. Habitat Restoration
2. Augmentation using leading edge hatchery practices that pair fish to help promote increasing size at age
3. Pinniped control
4. Dramatic reductions in commercial fisheries for herring, krill, crab - all part of Chinook juvenile diet when they first out-migrate into the ocean - stop ocean mining the food chain!
5. Ocean Chinook net pen projects, such as the one in Sooke to provide immediate prey/food for SRKW
6. Implement a 400m bubble zone to create a mobile spatial exclusion area around whales at all times to address physical and acoustic disturbances
7. Force Victoria to clean up their act - stop dumping raw sewage and toxins into the environment - Similarly Vancouver should be developing enhancements to sewage treatment to improve discharge quality

Sorry for the rant, but unless we start thinking outside the box, Chinook and SRKW are doomed.

 

[oldtimer]

Where is the Sports Fishing Institute in all these discussions? They are probably the strongest lobbying group that the rec fishers have yet not a constructive peep from them on this important issue. If you read their latest newsletter where they basically agreed with all the measures that the DFO are taking in area 18 and other areas you begin to wonder if they are not just a puppet of the DFO???

 

[wildmanyeah]

Vanouvers meeting has been set up

Friday March 9th at 7pm at Bass Pro Shop in Tsawwassen to deal with the proposed extra management actions to deal with SRKW. This meeting
is open to the public & we would like to get the views of anglers who fish in Area 29.

 

[terrin]

You nailed it.
Missed getting nets off the rivers and a couple others. But we need to work on where the problems start. Not from where they finish.
The current measures are not solving the problem. Just prolonging them.

Ya the Biggest and main one that cannot be ignored is Fish Farms. At least Washington State is doing it right even though the Farm owners spent $70,000.00 on lobbyists tring to stop it. Funny how Salmon stocks have plumetted with the introduction of these polluting Fish Farms and we havn't got rid of them yet and are now willing to accept more restrictions on sports fishing. Suckers(taxpayers) vs paid Lobbyists, looks like we are coming out short again. http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/n...+fish+farm+hurts+business/17131520/story.html Fish Farms need to go on land.

 

[terrin]

Where is the Sports Fishing Institute in all these discussions? They are probably the strongest lobbying group that the rec fishers have yet not a constructive peep from them on this important issue. If you read their latest newsletter where they basically agreed with all the measures that the DFO are taking in area 18 and other areas you begin to wonder if they are not just a puppet of the DFO???

I'm starting to think the Lobbyists have infiltrated some of our friends. Pretty sad. Lets hope the action taken in Washington State points our politicians in the right direction.