Emergency Victoria @ Area SFAB Mtg Re: 2018 Chinook - May 4/18

[Whitebuck]

Pro fisher.. sockeye are always worth more money. That’s why almost all the time they are using 4inch grids, even if they are required to use a 5 inch or 8inch grid. What was the most common infractiom by FN last season? Wrong sized grid was almost every offence.
As for the protest fishery....I was there when Bill Otway took a stand and we demonstrated at Pegleg.
Lots of media attention that day on only 1 fisheries officer showed up!

 

[terrin]

Thxs for your meaningful and well written and thought out post.
This is the way I feel also. Everything BUT fish farms, will be doing the heavy lifting to try to slow the decimation of our wild salmon runs, when one of the biggest contributors to their decimation is backed by science and staring us in the face. And this problem of virus and disease laden, incubating and spreading open net pen fish farms is 100% controllable and preventable. And hardly a peep or a mention here about this in this thread. And not a word or ounce of effort to do what's right about this from DFO. Their efforts are all to support and prop up the industry at any (taxpayer) cost, rather than regulate it the way it should be regulated.
sad imo.
I can get onboard with other restrictions, but it's a slap in the face when the fish farms are not only carrying on with their day to day activities, but also expanding and growing in sensitive salmon and smolt migratory routes with little restriction, enforcement or meaningful oversight.

I also agree with this sentiment. Lets hope Horgan has the balls. www.mainstreetresearch.ca/majority-support-for-immediate-ban-on-open-pen-net-salmon-farms/

 

[wildmanyeah]

Zipper liped since the 1pm meeting yesterday.....

 

[Fishalot]

?

 

[Derby]

Zipper liped since the 1pm meeting yesterday.....[/QUOT

It will be coming out of your local SFAC today.....

 

[profisher]

I'll be giving up an hour or two on a Friday night to hear what is going on.

 

[capt hook]

What are you protesting? Are you protesting against being asked to contribute to the protection and restoration of Chinook runs that are in trouble? Are you protesting against having the chance to provide input before being told? Are you protesting against lack of restrictions and enforcement in the river regarding FN. are you protesting to put pressure on DFO to step up efforts regarding ocean survival and freshwater habitat. I only ask because this entire issue is loaded with more questions than answers. If you are going to put recfishing in the forefront along side the NGO’s, reconciliation, starving whales,predators that look like puppies, and dangerously low salmon returns, you better have a clear and sensible point before asking for public support. That said if DFO refuses to do any more than restrict for the point of optics, then I would support this line of thinking.

The West Coast has to Protest against a Ignorant Eastern thinking Government . And replacement of the Minister of fisheries who has publicing stated he will finish the job his father started...which was the destruction of the west coast fishery, sport and commercial.
He has lobbied federal judges to convince them that give First Nations huge concessions to pay some BS debt to Society.
Leblanc hates the WEST and needs to be replaced ASAP...He will use the racist constitution to destroy us.
We need all the things jencourt pointed out....but NO $$$$$ or help will come from Le Blanc to achieve any of it.

 

[spoiler]

You have to be so carefull with large scale protests. The media will always find the loose cannon in the group and the message will be spun. So easy for the story to look like a bunch of greedy fishermen pissed off that they can't keep taking fish while FN fishers say they have cut back, enviros say whales are starving and the Fish Farms say they are taking pressure off wild stocks.
Take a lesson from the groups that are beating us up. Its all about having the funds and the talent to run a smart campaign that wins the public ear and minds.

I agree with you on this one Profisher! Because of my job I have been fortunate to be able to do 1-3 trips up North every summer to most of the top lodges on our coast. One thing I noticed is the clientele is mostly made up of very wealthy corporations and individuals including CEO's and high powered lawyers. If there was a way to get these people involved you would have the funds, the brains and companies that have leverage with our federal and provincial governments on our side. It would also be a good way to spread the word that our salmon and other stocks are in trouble.

 

[Che]

Signed up to follow this thread.

Folks, the way to win this war is through proper use of social media like facebook and twitter. Not squabbling on niche forums like this one or at emergency panel meetings that only anglers will attend. The general population is easily manipulated by well funded and organized NGOs that want to shut down our fishery in order to 'save the whales' through their emotional appeals on social media.

A feel good video on Facebook with a clever hashtag is what gets people thinking that shutting down a chinook fishery is somehow going to keep the Southern Resident Killer Whales from starving. When we know that the reality is that the local whales are starving because of an overall decline in salmon stocks due to things like loss of habitat and increased predation. The whales would be better served by planting eel grass in estuaries than cancelling recreational fishing opportunities. But the common person, who isn't involved in fishing, will never hear that. Instead they will be told by these NGOs that the only way to keep the whales from starving is to #savethewhales and hit like and subscribe, or maybe donate some money.

I never see any social media campaigning to strike back at these NGOs in the public form. Instead its always on niche forums that are only reaching a small group of people. So perhaps these alphabet type panels and committees can realize that going for high tea and singing to the choir is going to get us nowhere.

 

[SpringVelocity]

It's because no one is really listening to NGO as much anymore. Most groups are ealready face to face with department and facebook doesn't solve the issues. It brings a awareness but not solutions.

Anyway how did meeting go? I assume you guys are going with slot restriction till end of July then August normal which doesn't sound that bad in grand scheme of things...

 

[wildmanyeah]

Emailed area 29 chair, still haven’t herd anything.

 

[SpringVelocity]

Emailed area 29 chair, still haven’t herd anything.

Maybe phone?

 

[SpringVelocity]

No one went to meeting at all??

 

[wildmanyeah]

Maybe phone?

I don’t have his phone number our chair is Ed George.

I googled to try to find his phone number, nothing

 

[SpringVelocity]

I don’t have his phone number our chair is Ed George.

I googled to try to find his phone number, nothing

You can try PM Derby maybe he can direct u.

 

[Deewar25]

No one went to meeting at all??

Don't officially quote me until we hear from the main guys as I don't remember all the specifics, but the proposal going forward is a blanket 1/1 of which 1 can be wild 67-85 and 1 hatch, but extended to (either, can't remember) end of Aug or end of Sept and I believe entirely up Georgia Strait as well (they have a big impact on the Harrison). CB will also 'review' the model to determine what would happen with 1 any size mid July to mid August but the belief is the reduction will not be sufficient enough.

(my apologies if I got any of that wrong)

No one...yeah, pretty much, even with short notice, for the amount of bickering on here.

 

[Che]

It's because no one is really listening to NGO as much anymore. Most groups are ealready face to face with department and facebook doesn't solve the issues. It brings a awareness but not solutions.

Nobody listens to the David Suzuki Foundation? Really? Nobody listens to these pipeline protest groups?

These groups are masterful manipulators, and they use emotional feel good appeals through social media. People want to feel good about themselves and these groups know it and exploit that for their own gain. When the common person, who knows nothing about fishing, hears that whales are starving because there aren't enough salmon, their minds are shaped to believe we should stop just fishing for salmon. Well no, we should not just stop fishing, we should look at what things benefit all salmon.

Quick example. In False Creek this spring, I think it was the Squamish Streamkeepers, that installed herring spawning nets. This resulted in an estimated one billion herring spawning in False Creek. That's a lot of herring for Chinook salmon to eat, which will help those populations. More chinooks means more Southern Resident Killer Whale food, means everyone is happy. Did any of these Alphabet groups jump on this opportunity to talk about the good work done here to help Salmon? Nope. Hashtag #whalefoodchain

We have the Sooke project, dumping however many hundred thousand fish in to the ocean. Guess what? The RainCoast Conservation Foundation is critical of this. No joke, check this out:
https://www.raincoast.org/2016/07/will-chinook-net-pens-help-killer-whales/
But are we hitting them back on their own turf? Hashtag #whatRUdoing4whales?

Up in Campbell River, the Tyee Club does a big cleanup of the esturary. Pulled something like 200 old tires out, and are planting eel grass. Hashtag #eelgrassfeedswhales

Imagine if the public's image was changed from one of this doom and gloom, hell in a handcart, humans foxed it all up, need to ban everything mentality to one of excitement and prosperity. One of wow, look the salmon are coming back strong through hard work from these people. Its easy enough to start do this by shaping the public's opinion through social media.

 

[profisher]

Basically for Victoria Sooke the option B or Blanket plan will mean an extension of the 45cm to 85cm slot size for wild Chinook will extend to the end of July instead of around the 18th of July. If either of the A or B options had any real benefit to us for the future I would have no problem supporting them. However this is just a continuation of a methodology of the department to do nothing meaningful but to just look like they are managing. I see us back at a future meeting talking about other Fraser Chinook stocks requiring exploitation rate cuts and us being asked to restrict the August time period. And why? Sure as hell isn't because the Chinook restrictions from March to July and the entire summer Coho restrictions are working to bring our salmon runs back!!!! A 3rd option was added because 3 of us in the room said NO to either. The SFAB has to work with what is given to them I understand that. However I wanted my voice to be recorded as enough is enough. I want meaningful management with POSITIVE results.

 

[Whitebuck]

More restrictions on us when the Harrison stock will just be thrown out along the Fraser as a wasted bycatch of the chum roe fishery!!

 

[california]

Imagine if the public's image was changed from one of this doom and gloom, hell in a handcart, humans foxed it all up, need to ban everything mentality to one of excitement and prosperity. One of wow, look the salmon are coming back strong through hard work from these people. Its easy enough to start do this by shaping the public's opinion through social media.

To have excitement and prosperity we would actually have some success enhancing chinook, somewhere. SEAK stocks have declined dramatically, North Coast stocks have crashed, WCVI are not healthy, Fraser are a disaster, Columbia this year are at critical levels, . The only place identified as having runs rebuilding are ECVI, and that's mainly the Cowichan and to a lesser extent Campbell/Quinsam. The reality is most of these efforts as noble as they may be, are small measures that may be slowing declines somewhat. I think it would be great to say the salmon are coming back strong, but that is far from reality. Hard to put that much lipstick on that pig, would need one hell of a PR firm to run the social media campaign. Maybe the Russians could do it, they have had some success fairly recently....