Not everybody is going fishing!

The organziers of The Great Northern Salmon Classic are finding that not everyobdy thinks their six week fishing extravaganza is a great thing.

Despite the inclusion of that shiny yellow truck parked in front of the Atlin Terminal, it seems that not everybody is taking the bait!

From the Terrace Standard is this critique of the project and a call for it to be closed down. That's an unlikely thing at this late date, but none the less the fishing expedition is becoming a rather controversial bit of tourist enhancement for the entire northwest.

Derby daze
By ROB BROWN
Terrace Standard
Aug 02 2006

Rin: Just heard today that Prince Rupert is having a coho derby starting August 1 until Sept. 15. Largest coho gets $100,000. Second place is $42,000. This should draw some interest.

Fly20: Wow! That’s huge!!!!!!! Where is the money coming from?

Rin: From BC tourism. With no coast ferry service, people want to get things happening up north again.

Fly20: Far better shot than the 6/49. What a great trip this would be!

Sam Salmon: Is it for a fish caught in Salt or Fresh or both? Much more interesting in the former, less so in the latter. The Kasiks has lots of large Coho – my biggest was 16# head off. (yes I gaffed it) :P.

Steelheadfreak: ROAD TRIP!!!!!! :D Got the boat set up with new riggers! Electrics with duel rod holders plus a third rail mount rod holder. TRIPLE STACKERS BABY!...........lets go, I’m feeling lucky! ;)

And so goes the feverish chatter on one of the many sport fishing weblogs after the announcement of the “Great Northern Salmon Classic.”

Great Northern Salmon Classic – that’s a hoot. When used as noun, a classic is creation of artistic excellence. Even by the most generous reckoning, this event isn’t. It’s a blood-soaked fish bonking derby fully equipped with all the hoopla, bull wool, bad ethics and braggadocio such events inspire.

The derby will be the largest of its kind to be held on the North Coast and, as its promoters are at pains to assert, it’s non invitational, which means anyone and everyone can participate.
Soon after the Queen of the North sank, Prince Rupert businessmen convened a series of so-called stakeholder sessions to discuss how to make up for the lost revenues attending a drop in ferry traffic. The derby idea grew from the ferment created in those meetings.

The arithmetic was simple. There are about 80 full-time charter operators, each capable of taking four fishers onboard, which means over the six long weeks the derby will run, there will be 15,000 anglers bobbing atop the waves.

Factor in the sports fishers from Prince Rupert to Prince George and the considerable contingent that is sure to be lured out of Alberta by the promise of all those big cash prizes and you’ll have in excess of 30,000 souls, according to the best guesstimate of Prince Rupert’s tourism director.

The derby promoters cleverly designed their fishing contest to ensure participation from the whole family. Hence there is five grand for the largest coho caught by an underage angler and a weekly $500 payout for the largest pink caught by a kid. The female angler who boats the largest coho is in for ten large.

With a $500 prize for the largest specimen each week, Chinook don’t escape the chop either. And to further encourage participation, the derby hosts have mystery weight prizes of $100 a day as well as getaway packages for the largest coho killed weekly.

What an extravaganza! Thirty thousand people, consuming food and goods and caving in coho skulls in hopes of winning a Dodge Dakota or one of the many other prizes, all paid for with 160,000 taxpayer dollars taken from the $450,000 provided to the Northern Tourism Region by the Ministry of Tourism, Sport and the Arts.

Coho had no voice at those stakeholder meetings, apparently. If they had, the derby promoters would know that the latest DFO projections show that this year’s return is the second poorest on record.

The stakeholders have poor memories. Only a few years ago commercial and sport fisheries were subjected to widespread closures to conserve the collapsing coho stocks. Commercial fishers are using holding tanks and taking special pains to conserve coho to this day.
The operative word for DFO managers when it comes to coho is rebuilding. In short, the coho stocks are anything but robust.

At four fish per day per person, the limits on coho in salt water are far too generous to begin with. To increase the pressure on those same stocks by luring fishers with prizes, then encouraging them to increase their odds of winning some cash by killing their limits is irresponsible.

What Tourism Prince Rupert and the downtown businessmen of that town are doing is using funds provided by our PR-oriented bread and circuses government to place a bounty on salmon generally and coho specifically for short term economic gain that will cause long term environmental pain.

The DFO should do right by the fish and close Chatham Sound to coho fishing for the month of August.