Seiners in Sooke

[Tips Up]

What is the story on those seiners! We were catching lots of undersize springs and everyone knows they have been around for a long time now! Their bycatch must be awefull!![xx(]

What is their target species?
If coho, are they keeping unmarked fish??

Seems ridiculous for them to be out there right now. Someone enlighten me.

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[wolf]

I seen some draggers out there graham hes been there alll summer I think it was for hake??? not sure way out in the 550 ft if it is may be the same boat mark???

wolf

 

[profisher]

Its a dragger, either hake of some kind of research.

 

[twinwinds]

Could be dogfish? I have a buddy that fishes out there sometimes. The only reason we would be seining out there now would be for a test fishery. But not likely.The bycatch for draggers is pretty bad but as for seine boats its not bad at all, as it is mandatory brailing for us.
So if there is a species in the net we don't want or not suppose to catch it goes in the live tank or more than likely let go without even touching it. I had a friend that came out with us to see what it was like and at the end of the trip he was amazed on how selective we are and actually apologized for bad mouthing us!

 

[yammy5]

Yeah I've been seining too and sure the juvenile salmon bycatch gets returned to sea.......but without any scales. They get pretty trashed. 'And sometimes the bycatch is significant.

I'd be surprised if they survive more than a week.

 

[twinwinds]

Thats not true..but if that's the case for you, you must not be drying up properly. alot of the fish that are in our net get released without even touching the web........

 

[tubber]

quote:Originally posted by profisher

Its a dragger, either hake of some kind of research.

I used to seine too and I'm thinking these boats are seine boats converted to draggers to defer bankrupcy for a few more seasons. Any pics? In the 60's and early 70's seines used to fish cohoes in area 20 into early Oct. I'll have to buy a whole box of Nog's shirts to give out if DFO has gone back to that practise. The coho stocks have yet to recover from those days(think gulf bluebacks). Seines and gillnets should target pinks, chums and sockeyes only.

 

[Governor]

New on the WCVI in the past few years is a sardine seine fishery. That might be what you have seen out there? You may remember there was some problems a couple of years back with some eager beaver seiner racing into the midst of the sport fleet at Sheringham Pt.

I am not aware of any seine directed salmon fishery in the south end of area 20 and to my knowledge the PSC sockeye test boats should have wrapped up for the year too.

The debate over handling salmon bycatch in seines is all dependant on the skipper and crew. There are many clean operators who try an minimize bycatch harm and also ones that don't give a toss. We can all read what the commercial license specifies but not all operators follow their license, especially when they do not have observers on board.

God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling - Izaak Walton

 

[Cuba Libre]

quote:The debate over handling salmon bycatch in seines is all dependant on the skipper and crew. There are many clean operators who try an minimize bycatch harm and also ones that don't give a toss. We can all read what the commercial license specifies but not all operators follow their license, especially when they do not have observers on board

What Gov ses is EXACTLY right. I worked as an observer on the Johnstone Strait sockeye, chum and pink fisheries on all three types of commercial boats. the level of compliance depended on the crew as well as the skipper. I had a seiner deck boss try to bully me into stop sorting for coho. He came up within a couple of feet of my face with his eyes bulging, and yelled that I was wasting time and preventing them from making the next set. "There are no more f$%# coho" he yelled. I yelled back at him.."YES THERE ARE .. THERE ARE TWO RIGHT THERE (behind him on the sort table)" One of the crew snickered so he did an about face and started yelling at the crew to get thier asses in gear.... But at least on seines and trollers, the chinooks and coho have is chance to survive. I cant say that for gillnets. All the observer can really do on a gillnetter is make sure the skipper pays attention to the set times ( anywhere from 1/2 hr to 1 hr ) which is supposed to allow for a live release of bycatch.( and time in the revival tank if necessary) In reality, if the set has more than 150 fish tangled up in it, any fish at the far end of the net are toast by the time the skipper gets to them. And anyone who has worked on a gillnetter knows that the way the fish are shaken out of the net, is hard as hell on them.
Only once did I go out with a gillnetter that had a hooked knife ( like a deer gutting knife) so he could cut a mesh on the net to release bycatch easier.
It IS all about the individual fishermen on how well fish do when released. And believe me that seining in the Straits is hairy with nasty wind and tides. One boat I was on ( the Qualicum Producer) tryed to make "just one more set" before the tide turned. We were pushed up on the rocks in a blink of an eye... and the skipper of that boat has MANY years experience fishing in the Straits..... lead line in the wheel and damage to the bottom that required a tow to a repair facility in Campbell River. Its only human nature to cut corners when the paycheck is at risk. With the observer program cut to ribbons by DFO, more coho and chinooks will take a beating.

20ft Alumaweld Intruder

 

[fishspoon]

One of the commerical fleets was working at the shipping lanes that I saw...very large monster heavy duty dragger with a huge metal wheel with nets. I was figuring out what did the dragger boat trying to catch? Ah...it looks like sardine, or hake fishery I assume. The other two seiner boats are just regular boats at US/Canada border waters that I saw yesterday.

 

[TheRock]

What was up with the Submarine (Nuclear?) yesterday by the boarder? It was being escorted by two big cargo ships and two big u.s marine patrol boats. Looked like it was in trouble it wasn't moving for hours and appeared to be drifting with the ebb tide yesterday morning.. kinda scary. These things we never do hear about in the news..

 

[reelfast]

the nuclear subs to crew changes and resupply just east of the dungness lighthouse. it is a standard operation taking about 2 hours in total. the sub is slowly turning a circle while the HOS boats (logistic supply ships) are moving the supplies on board. a navy boat is usually positioned at john wayne marina to shuttle crew off and on. SOP, nothing new about this. when you see the ohio class subs, you may be surprised at how large they are, about 4 times longer than the HOS boats, almost 600' with crews of 250 men. one of the crew i talked with a while ago told me the hatches can easily accomodate pallets worth of stuff. if you around dungness->protection island while this is going on, you can see the stuff headed on board, pallet at a time.

 

[juandesooka]

Here's a picture of a fishing boat in Sooke this morning. Is that a seiner? Or dragger? Or something else?

Fishing in about 120' right off the Bluffs....is that in the RCA?

 

[twinwinds]

Dragger....I used to know the previous owner of the vessel.

 

[ratherbefishing]

It is a dragger and I would beet dollars to donuts it is a hake boat. It is not a seine boat for sure.

 

[twinwinds]

Oh and by the way, weather sure looks nice out there..I was out of Sidney this morning and it was blowin its butt off!

 

[juandesooka]

Beauty day in Sooke....sunny, no wind...good fishing...

 

[Morty]

That looks like the one I saw a couple of months ago-can't remember the name but it was from Vancouver.That one was out in 600' though and definatly after hake because I scooped up a couple of buckets of bycatch...6"-24" hake-And there were thousands of them.Dont know what he would be targeting by tearing up the bottom in 120' off the bluffs though[xx(]

 

[Cuba Libre]

If its hake he is after, he will be mid-water trawling and will not be dragging the bottom.

20ft Alumaweld Intruder

 

[Tips Up]

Dropped in to the DFO office today as it is just down the road from my office. No officers in when I came by so I left my name and number and should get a call. Apparently I was the second inquire today.
Anyone notice a vessel name or take any other pictures? That is what they asked for.

Just satisfying my curiosity.

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