How did the commercial guys do in alberni last night

[DHA]

You will find stats and data posted later this week, or early next. Barkley management area which includes Barkley sound and the Alberni Inlet has data based reports that show Sport fishers as harvesting well over 20,000 chinook, commercial gill net near 7000 by DFO numbers, however commercial rumors are in or around 8000 chinook from their two hour opening, which did have a short extenuation. Native harvesters are exceeding 10,000 pcs. with 7000 pcs. being taken in last nights opening with aprox. 50 small boats participating. Sport harvest at this point exceeds both commercial and native fisheries combined. DFO is now forced to reassess the stock, thereby increasing the early stated stock assessments to a greater value. The run is larger than expected. Awesome! DFO did exactly as the sport sector dictated that they wanted, that being no commercial fishery until the annual sportfishing derby closed. Yay!

All's well right? Life is peachy right? WRONG! The seine fleet wants to know why they did not have an opportunity to participate with allocation numbers being exceed as far as they have. The coho are now staging, and showing opportunities and numbers of a huge run - Seines, Hhmmm?

Careful what you wish for, as the end result may not necessarily be exactly what you want.

Just sayin'!

DHA.

 

[Islandgirl]

. Sport harvest at this point exceeds both commercial and native fisheries combined.
DHA.

In my conversation with Bill Shaw July 05 I was told that sockeye is a commercial fish and the commies have FIRST right to those fish AND that Chinook is a recreational fish and we have FIRST right to those fish. I do not agree with natives and commies taking every last fish swimming, that is waiting to go up the river. When will DFO figure out that dead fish dont spawn.

 

[Jencourt]

I do not agree with natives and commies taking every last fish swimming, that is waiting to go up the river. When will DFO figure out that dead fish dont spawn.

X2 fore sure!

That is IT in a nutshell!!
Sadly I am sure they know and do not care. It is all about Who lines the big pockets and that is all

 

[Cuba Libre]

Another reincarnation Robert?

 

[Lipripper]

He already used that name....

Welcome back..... again

 

[gamechanger]

Everybody gets an allocation, you guys all know that, and when the run size supports all 3 fisheries everybody gets a shot.

 

[Islandgirl]

Everybody gets an allocation, you guys all know that, and when the run size supports all 3 fisheries everybody gets a shot.

That is the way it should be gamechanger.. but it is not always so.
example
Alberni sockeye: at the start of what is mostly eveyones sportfishing season july 03 DFO unleashed sienEs and gill nets upon the canal in full force and took out + 100 000 fish in less than a week. There was NOT A FISH left for a sporty to catch.

The commies AND native commies have taken DOUBLE + their allocation of alberni chinook. If I took more than my allowed 2 chinook I would be in court and be charged.. How come it does not happen the other way?

 

[gamechanger]

Well sockeye is a different story because commercial gets priority access, rec doesn't. Alberni is a special case for sure because of the value of the fishery to the community but guys have to understand that priority to those fish goes to the commercial guys before the rec guys. The commercial guys took a whack of fish out of the inlet for sure but they didn't even get their allocation, they could have caught more and the sporties could have too, but those fish screamed up the river with almost perfect conditions for a long time in the early part of the year. The end of the run was abrubt, it wasn't because the commies caught them all, mother nature eluded us on that one, 800k plus went up that river (biggest escapement ever) and the sporties caught what...<80k?

The natives and the gillnetters caught twice their allocation because there are a lot of fish in there right now. The rec fishery is at full limits and has been doing great. Just because the rec fleet has priority access doesn't mean you can jack up the retention of chinooks for everybody when there are lots of them around. Bag and possession limits are set coast wide and are the same for most areas on the coast and don't change in-season. We get our full share, and those guys get opportunites if they are available, once escapement and FSC needs are met and the sporties are at full limits.

Hopefully more will come bacause fishing before you get your escapement is always guesswork, but thats the way all of our fisheries are...we catch the fish before we get our spawners and we try to catch as many as we can as they come down the coast, while still leaving enough for escapement.