Everybody has an opinion on the Fishing Derby

The Great Northern Fishing Classic find itself once again the savior of the newspaper business, it seems that not a day goes by that the north coast fishing derby doesn’t make some kind of headline somewhere in the north.

Thursday found it the topic of conversation in two separate stories in the Daily News; from the first nations to the business class the derby is proving to be the topic on everyone’s mind.

Anger at the way the derby was created and the lack of input with local stakeholders seems to be boiling up as the derby moves along towards its mid September ending. Tourism Prince Rupert’s Bruce Wishart once again finds himself the guy with the target on his back over the impression that the derby is making across the northwest.

There certainly seems to be a lack of communication between the organizers of the fishing derby and pretty well anyone else that seems to have an interest in either fishing or tourism, as the following two stories in Thursday’s Daily News show.


NATIVE FISHERMEN SAY DERBY TALKS MISSING
By Patrick Witwicki
The Daily News
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Page One

Some First Nations representatives in the Prince Rupert area are wondering why they weren’t consulted prior to the start of the fishing derby that got underway Aug. 1, and runs until Sept. 15.

They are also concerned about the future impacts on coho, the chosen fish for the top prize of $100,000.

“We weren’t happy with it,” said Gary Reece, chief councilor for Lax Kw’alaams. “We had absolutely no talks about it.”

Most of the fishing is taking place within Tsimshian territory, specifically areas three and four. Currently, Lax Kw’alaams is involved in a fisheries rights case regarding those two areas, with court dates expected to get underway in October.

“It’s the way things have been going,” said Reece. “The fishing is going on, especially in our traditional territory, and we weren’t consulted.”

The Northern Native Fishing Corporation is also wondering why this fishing derby is being allowed to take place, when their fishermen have been impacted during the past few years following concerns about conservation – especially of coho stocks.

“We’re as mall vessel-fleet (boats smaller than 35 feet),” said Mabel Mazurek, general manager of the Northern Native Fishing Corporation. “And we’ve made sacrifices. (We) were unable to fish last year too.”

“Our fishermen have put a lot of money in for coho conservation. Our fishermen depend on this for their livelihoods. They’re sort of feeling defeated.”

Even though the derby is being policed for proper procedure, Mazurek is concerned about the future impact, not just on coho stocks, but fisheries in general.

“It’s going to have long-term effects,” she said. “Future coho stocks translate into lost opportunities for our fishermen.

“Our fisheries have been done these strict measures for years, to build up these stocks, only to see this happen.”

First Nations representatives are also wondering why the strict rules that have been in place during recent years suddenly appear to be being ignored during the ongoing fishing derby.

“They have survival watches in boats, and now they have this? I’m surprised DFO (Department of Fisheries and Oceans) let it happen,” said Reece.

“We can just imagine how many coho are going to be killed. Guys are going for the biggest fish, so they let the (smaller ones) go free, but they still (can) die. We’re quite concerned with that.”

Mazurek said the entire process just isn’t fair.

“Why does one sector in the fishing community have to release the coho, while another can catch and retain it?” she said.

Even though the understanding is that this fishing derby is just a one-time event, with the hopes of rejuvenating tourism in the region after the area has been impacted from the March sinking of the Queen of the North, the First Nation’s representatives say are hopeful that in the future, all parties will be properly consulted.

“That needs to happen,” said Reece.

CHAMBER LAMENTS LACK OF TIME TO PEREPARE FOR DERBY
By Sarah Fox
The Daily News
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Pages One and Five

The Prince Rupert Chamber of Commerce is upset that it did not get to play a greater role in the lead up to the Great Northern Salmon Classic fishing derby that is bringing tourists into Prince Rupert.

Roberta Bowman, managing director of the Prince Rupert Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber was consulted for an initial report that Tourism Prince Rupert put together because of the fact that the sinking of the Queen of the North ferry did have an impact on the chamber’s business members, but that was as far as they were involved in the consultation process before the derby started.

“That’s as far as the chamber’s involvement went and I did that solely for the benefit of the membership to see if we could come up with something, but in terms of the derby, the Prince Rupert Chamber of Commerce had absolutely nothing to do with it,” said Bowman.

The lack of involvement annoys Bowman because she believes her members did not have time to advertise or merchandize before the derby started.

She said they were told it was happening and that was it, something that is a sore point with her members. She said even the Visitor’s Information Centre (a member of the chamber) in Atlin Terminal isn’t involved in the running of the Derby.

“We are selling the T-shirts for them, that’s all we are doing,” said Bowman. “We are not allowed to promote it, they don’t want us talking about it to anybody. If people come into the Visitor’s Centre, they have asked them to direct those people right through to Bruce Wishart (Executive Director of Tourism Prince Rupert) himself.”

“We’re missing out on merchandising opportunities; we’re missing out on advertising, opportunities because we had not time to prepare.

“We were told three weeks ago that we would he having a fishing derby,”

“The businesses have had no time to prepare and get their names out there and show those who are coming to town what we have to offer.

“For example, the fishermen that are going out, they’re coming to town with their wives and their children and they don’t know what they can do here, they don’t know what’s offered to them.”

According to Bowman, if the fishing derby tickets had been sold through the Visitor’s Info Centre, statistics could have been kept on how many tourists were brought into Prince Rupert and those numbers could have been added to the total numbers of people that inquire at the Visitor’s Centre every year.

This is important, Bowman states because funding for the Visitor’s Centre is based on how many people it serves and they report those numbers directly to the Ministry of Tourism for funding.

What it comes down to, Bowman says is: “I really felt that we weren’t consulted and I’m being told by Tourism Prince Rupert that the Chamber is really not a tourism issue but because we are in the summer a tourism initiated city and my businesses thrive off the tourism, then yes, it does involve me and it does involve my businesses.

***Correction*** From the Daily News, Friday August 18, 2006.
Yesterday in a story headlined: Chamber laments lack of time to prepare for derby we referred to tourism statistics being reported directly to the Ministry of Tourism. Actually, those statistics are being reported to Tourism B. C. We regret any confusion caused.