Emergency SFAB Meetings About Proposed SRKW Fishing Closures

[oldtimer]

Reading between the lines my guess is that this is turning into a far bigger, more far reaching, problem than any of us could have possibly imagined and the areas of concern are now spreading. The DFO are now talking about closing some or all of area 29 which is a huge area. These complicated studies, that they are proposing are going to take years to complete, so it is not too likely that these proposed closures are going to be by any means temporary. When you start to think about all the negative variables that are in play here it is a bit mind boggling to try and wrap your head around them. In fact, there are so many known and unknown factors in play here that it is hard to understand how the DFO is ever going to pin point the main cause of the Orca's not getting enough to eat? Who really knows what is really going on here and who knows if the Orcas are really starving? It looks to me like these proposed closures are going to be very long term. The DFO has a premeditated agenda here and they are going ahead with it whether we like it or not or whether they have a clue what they are doing or not. Based on their track record to date, I do not have a lot of faith in the crisis management style of the DFO.

 

[wildmanyeah]

Their looking at protecting Fraser river chinook coast wide. They have promised a document today or next week that’s going to be be broken down by area/ fishery and what stocks of Fraser river are caught at what percentage in each area/fishery.

They are also looking at a 35% reduction in all chinook fish fishery’s.

Obviously this has not any where close to being finalized in the IFMP.

It also may not be this year or next but the reductions are going to be made unless the stocks start to recover.

I also herd some contradictions information from the DFO biologists about the closures being implemented due to the the SRKW. I will email DFO today to try to get some clarifications.

I can tell you that our area has asked DFO to fin clip all hatchery produced chinook so if closures are implemented that we will be able to fight for atlest the retention of clipped chinook. After all these hatchery produced chinook are ment to supplement fishery’s.

 

[ericl]

All i can say after going to the SFAC meeting tonight is GOD HELP US!

People have no idea the pain that's coming

Sorry but down here in WA we have been feeing the pain since the late 1970's. Westport used to have a fleet of 300 charter boats holding 20+ anglers each; it's down to 30 boats now with many of those boats doing Tuna & Bottomfish.
Without hatcheries we would have no fishery as retention of wild Chinook is generally banned. Fishing the hatchery fish is limited due to catch & release mortalities on the intermingled wild fish.
We used to have about 10 bait docks in the Seattle area; all are gone.
Puget Sound summer Chinook fishery takes about 2 weeks to reach the 2K fish quota on hatchery only fish. About 75% of Puget Sound Chinook are caught on both sides of Vancouver Island. That's also where a lot of Fraser fish are caught, so your restrictions should ease our pain a bit.

 

[Aces]

Sorry but down here in WA we have been feeing the pain since the late 1970's. Westport used to have a fleet of 300 charter boats holding 20+ anglers each; it's down to 30 boats now with many of those boats doing Tuna & Bottomfish.
Without hatcheries we would have no fishery as retention of wild Chinook is generally banned. Fishing the hatchery fish is limited due to catch & release mortalities on the intermingled wild fish.
We used to have about 10 bait docks in the Seattle area; all are gone.
Puget Sound summer Chinook fishery takes about 2 weeks to reach the 2K fish quota on hatchery only fish. About 75% of Puget Sound Chinook are caught on both sides of Vancouver Island. That's also where a lot of Fraser fish are caught, so your restrictions should ease our pain a bit.

True you will probably see more Chinooks return.
It’s no secret why all the US boats have been coming up to BC for many years....access to the fish.

 

[ericl]

Yeah, I have been one of them since 1985 or so; used to moor my boat at Chevron (Method Marine). Got grandkid's now & would be nice to go out with them locally.

Looking at a 1960 WA fishing book today while cleaning-up; reported the Puget Sound sport catch of Chinook at a tad over 80K fish. It also went on & on about what an example of a Salmon disaster the Columbia river was, the Chinook catch there was 40K for the same year. First year I moored in Tofino the school principle was telling of catching numerous 40# fish up some of the inlets north of town. Would be nice to see the SEAK slaughter of the WCVI runs greatly reduced - but seeing as they don't have any fish to bargain for. Seems they are an independent party when it comes to the Salmon treaty.

 

[oldtimer]

It seems obvious from the mountain of evidence, that the reason why the Orca's are supposedly starving is because the Seals and Sea Lions are eating millions of salmon smolts as they come out of the rivers and than they are feasting on the adult salmon when they return to spawn. There used to be a $5.00 a nose bounty on seals and since this bounty was removed there has been an unprecedented increase in the number of Seals in the Gulf of Georgia and in recent years the Sea Lions have also invaded these waters. It seems logical to start to solve this crisis by immediately starting a major cull of the Seals and Sea Lions? What is this $9.1M study that Ottawa has announced supposed to accomplished, when the DFO and everybody else already know that the Seals are a major cause of the shortage of salmon for the Orcas? The DFO can continue to blame the problem on the noise from boat motors and sounders etc., the harassment of the Whales by the Whale watchers or the taking of to many salmon by the Sporties? How can the DFO continue to sit back and do nothing about the Seal problem and continue to allow this destruction of our fisheries to happen in real time on their watch? Everybody expected the Eastern Cod fishery would go on forever, but, look what happened to that fishery? It seems like history is repeating itself?

 

[pescador]

It seems obvious from the mountain of evidence, that the reason why the Orca's are supposedly starving is because the Seals and Sea Lions are eating millions of salmon smolts as they come out of the rivers and than they are feasting on the adult salmon when they return to spawn. There used to be a $5.00 a nose bounty on seals and since this bounty was removed there has been an unprecedented increase in the number of Seals in the Gulf of Georgia and in recent years the Sea Lions have also invaded these waters. It seems logical to start to solve this crisis by immediately starting a major cull of the Seals and Sea Lions? What is this $9.1M study that Ottawa has announced supposed to accomplished, when the DFO and everybody else already know that the Seals are a major cause of the shortage of salmon for the Orcas? The DFO can continue to blame the problem on the noise from boat motors and sounders etc., the harassment of the Whales by the Whale watchers or the taking of to many salmon by the Sporties? How can the DFO continue to sit back and do nothing about the Seal problem and continue to allow this destruction of our fisheries to happen in real time on their watch? Everybody expected the Eastern Cod fishery would go on forever, but, look what happened to that fishery? It seems like history is repeating itself?

You can be assured that anything to do with guns and killing of anything will never be approved by the Liberal government of this country and its Ladyboy leader. You "might" have a chance with a Conservative gov, but never with any of the other options....Sadly, they just don't have the cajones.

 

[cohochinook]

It seems obvious from the mountain of evidence, that the reason why the Orca's are supposedly starving is because the Seals and Sea Lions are eating millions of salmon smolts as they come out of the rivers and than they are feasting on the adult salmon when they return to spawn. There used to be a $5.00 a nose bounty on seals and since this bounty was removed there has been an unprecedented increase in the number of Seals in the Gulf of Georgia and in recent years the Sea Lions have also invaded these waters. It seems logical to start to solve this crisis by immediately starting a major cull of the Seals and Sea Lions? What is this $9.1M study that Ottawa has announced supposed to accomplished, when the DFO and everybody else already know that the Seals are a major cause of the shortage of salmon for the Orcas? The DFO can continue to blame the problem on the noise from boat motors and sounders etc., the harassment of the Whales by the Whale watchers or the taking of to many salmon by the Sporties? How can the DFO continue to sit back and do nothing about the Seal problem and continue to allow this destruction of our fisheries to happen in real time on their watch? Everybody expected the Eastern Cod fishery would go on forever, but, look what happened to that fishery? It seems like history is repeating itself?

This is not news to anybody on the Forum. Bitching about it here isn't going to change anything. You need to take your concerns to your Member of Parliament or bring it up at your next sfab meeting.

 

[oldtimer]

For those of us that have a lot of skin in this game, we are battling for our very financial survival here. I am very sorry that my posts have offended a few of the long time, respected members and that my posts have come across as bitching and whining. What I have just been trying to do is summon a call to action to try and awaken the forum members to the fact that if we do not head off this impending, out of control, DFO train wreck, our fishery as we have known it will be forever changed and not for the better. The changes that are coming will be a real game changer in the way that our fisheries are managed in the future. What is coming will even surpass the stupid decisions that the DFO made in Johnstone Strait in 1994 which wiped out the fishery on the Eastside of the Island for the next 20 years.

 

[cohochinook]

For those of us that have a lot of skin in this game, we are battling for our very financial survival here. I am very sorry that my posts have offended a few of the long time, respected members and that my posts have come across as bitching and whining. What I have just been trying to do is summon a call to action to try and awaken the forum members to the fact that if we do not head off this impending, out of control, DFO train wreck, our fishery as we have known it will be forever changed and not for the better. The changes that are coming will be a real game changer in the way that our fisheries are managed in the future. What is coming will even surpass the stupid decisions that the DFO made in Johnstone Strait in 1994 which wiped out the fishery on the Eastside of the Island for the next 20 years.

No offence taken and glad that you're sharing some good points. All I am trying to say as a group we need carry our concerns forward more than just on this forum. Hopefully with all the good discussion here, it will empower more forum members to engage and speak out outside the forum.

 

[persistent]

For those of us that have a lot of skin in this game, we are battling for our very financial survival here. I am very sorry that my posts have offended a few of the long time, respected members and that my posts have come across as bitching and whining. What I have just been trying to do is summon a call to action to try and awaken the forum members to the fact that if we do not head off this impending, out of control, DFO train wreck, our fishery as we have known it will be forever changed and not for the better. The changes that are coming will be a real game changer in the way that our fisheries are managed in the future. What is coming will even surpass the stupid decisions that the DFO made in Johnstone Strait in 1994 which wiped out the fishery on the Eastside of the Island for the next 20 years.

What happened in 1994 in Johnstone strait? I'm not trying to derail, pm me if you like.

Thanks

 

[screaminreels]

Yes please elaborate was old enough to see the change but to young too look for the reason as to why it happened

 

[oldtimer]

In the summer of 1994 there was a so called fish war going on between Canada and the US and the DFO decided to intercept the Adams River Sockeye run in Johnstone Strait rather than let the American Commercial fleet get any of them when the crossed the border before continuing up the Fraser River. There was an estimated 10M salmon in this run and the DFO directed over 700 commercial boats to Johnstone Strait to intercept them. Of the 10M Sockeye that comprised this run just over 600K reached the spawning grounds that Fall. Not only did the DFO almost wipe out the Adams River run, but, they also almost wiped out many other coastal Chinook and Coho runs. The feeding frenzy of commercial boats in and around Johnstone Strait that August was so unbelievable, that the people of Campbell River formed a blockade of boats across Discovery Passage to protest what was happening. From that day onward the Salmon fishing on the Eastside of the Island was finished and it has taken over 20 years for the fishery to partially recover and it still hasn't recovered to the pre 1994 days. Over the years the DFO has made many stupid decisions and this has to go down as one of their all time biggest and history is about to repeat itself.

 

[wildmanyeah]

You left out the 100 years of history about what led DFO to take actions like theses.

 

[oldtimer]

100 years of history or not, there was no justification for the inexcusable action that the DFO took in Johnstone Strait in 1994. Look at the catastrophic consequences? When an organization like the DFO, keeps repeating the same mistakes over and over again and somehow expect a different result, that is a very good definition of insanity or total incompetence.

 

[wildmanyeah]

100 years of history or not, there was no justification for the inexcusable action that the DFO took in Johnstone Strait in 1994. Look at the catastrophic consequences? When an organization like the DFO, keeps repeating the same mistakes over and over again and somehow expect a different result, that is a very good definition of insanity or total incompetence.

Without the PST the US would be rapping all our stocks. Not to mention that in the 1900's the USA paid the majority to repair the hell gate slide during the construction of the railroad. As part of the agreement we promised them the rights to harvest the lion's share of fraser river sockeye sockeye in perpetuity AS IN FOREVER!. Without protest actions like these from the Canadian government we would be screwed. The US if they wanted could take just about ever fish we have in BC.

 

[pescador]

Without the PST the US would be rapping all our stocks. Not to mention that in the 1900's the USA paid the majority to repair the hell gate slide during the construction of the railroad. As part of the agreement we promised them the rights to harvest the lion's share of fraser river sockeye sockeye in perpetuity AS IN FOREVER!. Without protest actions like these from the Canadian government we would be screwed. The US if they wanted could take just about ever fish we have in BC.

Nothing is in perpetuity.......as Trump has now shown us. Everything is negotiable. A nations word today doesn’t seem to mean much, much less a mans.

 

[wildmanyeah]

Please eat all the seals!!!

There’s fricken’ orcas!’ Mom and toddler react to killer whale pod in Vancouver Harbour

https://globalnews.ca/news/4106420/vancouver-harbour-orcas/

 

[oldtimer]

Hi Wildmanyeah
After reading your recent posts I have to ask you whose side are you really on here? Are you a double agent? Because your confusing logic in trying to explain why the DFO was justified in doing what they did in Johnstone Strait in 1994 does not make any sense? I get the feeling that you are in full agreement with the long term devastating decisions that were made at that time and that you trying to undermine our efforts here and if you are than shame on you? If the majority of the SFBC membership is in your corner on this than the best of luck to you? For an historic thread of such importance, I am surprised at such a small number of members of SFBC that have gotten involved in this discussion? There are a handful of hard core members, like yourself, that seem to control this forum? If you silent members don't step up to the plate and protest what the DFO is doing here than you are going to have to suffer the long term consequences and they are coming and soon and you can take that to the bank.

 

[wildmanyeah]

oldtimer what would you like everyone on this forum to advocate for? Clearly list it out and let them decide