Excellent Op Ed from Lawrence Gunther @ Blue Fish Canada:
This Week’s Feature -
By L. Gunther
Many predict British Columbia’s marine recreational salmon fishing is on the verge of collapse, while others advocate salmon fishing in general should be suspended until fish stocks rebound. However, you seldom come across media reports that reflect the local knowledge gathered by generations of B.C. recreational anglers. Personally, I’ve recorded dozens of podcasts and written many articles over the past dozen years that focus on the many issues and different advocates associated with B.C. salmon fishing and fish health, but I can honestly say that I’ve never before come as close to witnessing the closure of the province’s marine recreational salmon fishery as I have until now. It goes without saying that recreational anglers are feeling frustrated over their knowledge, recommendations and concerns being ignored.
I’ve been speaking with Gayle Gordon and Mark Roberts from the BC Recreational Fishing Association who are raising red flags over consultations with stakeholders that are exploring the option of moving away from seasonal fishery closures, and instead adopting indefinite closures until evidence is presented that indicate otherwise. The justification is the protection of southern resident killer whales. You can listen to our latest conversation on the October 17 2025 episode of The Blue Fish Radio Show.
Despite ample scientific evidence that salmon abundance is not a primary issue causing the decline of southern resident killer whale health and numbers, recreational anglers catching and keeping too many chinook salmon is still being sited as one of three primary killer whale sustainability issues. The other two being excessive ship noise and a toxic food supply. Issues such as whale watching, competition over territory with northern resident killer whales, water quality, aquaculture, invasive species, microplastics, interception of salmon by Alaska’s commercial fishing fleet, habitat loss, and warming oceans are seldom mentioned if at all.
The decline of salmon numbers has little to do with the actions of recreational anglers, as it’s obvious to anyone who knows these anglers that they are more than willing to adopt conservation measures, many of which have been conceived by anglers and have already been implemented. The decline of the whales also has little to do with anglers engaging in aggressive competition with killer whales over salmon because they don’t. Any angler who fishes for salmon on the ocean will tell you that the quality of fishing quickly turns dismal when killer whales show-up and salmon shift from feeding to fleeing. And last, no one can accuse BC’s recreational anglers of refusing to work with stakeholders to seek a solution. The reality is that no one is offering anglers a seat at the table.
For the past three years marine salmon fishing opportunities for recreational anglers have been intentionally shrunk. Many anglers believe it has more to do with a decade’s long reduction in resources essential for managing marine recreational salmon fisheries. Turns out management of the fishery isn’t the only program on the chopping block.
Watershed Watch Salmon Society and a number of other B.C. conservation groups are pushing back on cuts to the essential fish monitoring services of creekwalkers. They managed to turn things around for 2025, but not before weeks’ worth of valuable data failed to be collected and reported.
More than providing crucial information about when and how many salmon are returning to B.C.’s rivers, the data collected and reported by creekwalkers is vital to managing fisheries, assessing climate change impacts, evaluating restoration initiatives, assessing watershed health, responding to fish health emergencies, and more. So why has the number of creekwalkers hired each year also dropped over the past decade? It’s one of several questions I posed Aaron Hill, Executive Director of Watershed Watch Salmon Society, in the October 24 2025 podcast of The Blue Fish Radio Show.
If recreational salmon fishing is going to be suspended indefinitely throughout much of southern B.C. where the southern resident killer whales call home each summer and where the vast majority of recreational anglers reside and fish, then maybe counting salmon entering B.C.’s rivers to spawn is no longer necessary. But, if these proposed indefinite closures to recreational fishing are to be lifted when justified by scientific evidence, and the evidence is no longer being collected, then what hope is there for the anglers, outfitters, lodges, tackle shops, boat dealers and all the rest of B.C.’s coastal community residence and businesses?
California implemented a similar plan concerning their near-shore recreational marine fishery. A five-year temporary halt to recreational fishing was to be reviewed once proper scientific evidence was collected. Five years passed without making any changes due to insufficient science having been conducted. Another five years went by, and California state officials reported that because they did not possess the resources needed to fund the necessary science, they chose instead to allow the ban on recreational fishing to continue indefinitely.
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