On target OR is the target?

“Where we stand right now, we are on target”, the thoughts of Bruce Wishart as the Great Northern Salmon Classic passed the mid way point.

Wishart, the tournament organizer and executive director of Tourism Prince Rupert appeared in front of City Council on Monday night, to give a bit of a progress report on the rather controversial fishing derby. He delivered his state of the derby address providing more anecdotal evidence than any hard numbers to show that the derby has had an impact on local tourism.

Council was given the word from Wishart that the people “he has talked to” have suggested that the Derby has provided an increase of awareness of Prince Rupert and recreational fishing opportunities in the area.

The Daily News covered his appearance in its Tuesday edition with a front page story, which included some anecdotal evidence of their own, from local fuel depots and DFO officers. Two groups which suggest that there hasn’t been any great increase in boats on the recreational fishing grounds.

We fish and cut our bait with the Daily News article below.

COHO DERBY IS ‘ON TARGET’ SAYS WISHART
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Pages One and Three

Early indications from the tourism industry are showing that the Great Northern Salmon Classic has managed to draw people to the community, said Bruce Wishart, executive director of Tourism Prince Rupert.

“Where we stand right now, we are on target (for the number of derby tickets sold) and we believe the promotion is working,” said Wishart, while addressing council last night.

The derby, with a top prize of $100,000 for the largest coho caught, is an attempt to draw people from B. C. and Alberta to Prince Rupert in August and September in order to offset some of the traffic lost after the sinking of the Queen of the North.

“We haven’t had a chance to talk with too many businesses but we have started to see a bit of impact for accommodation businesses. In most cases when I talk to hoteliers they say they’ve begun to see a difference, but until they tabulate their results at the end of August they don’t know for sure,” said Wishart.

However one hotel property that has been keeping very close track told Tourism Prince Rupert that year-to-date, the group traffic they should be getting from the ferry is down42 per cent, and their fully independent travelers are down by 64 per cent year-to- date. However, since the beginning of August 2006 their fishing-related bookings are up 21 per cent.

The two principle Prince Rupert booking agents are also reporting substantial increases in 2006 for fishing charters and there is also a trickle down effect on other tours,” said Wishart.

However, on the other hand, local fuel docks have seen no noticeable increase in sales and DFO enforcement have not noticed any major increase in boats out on the recreational fishing grounds.

The Creel survey being conducted by a consultant to keep track of the derby’s impact shows about a 10 per cent increase historical recreational fishing levels, said Wishart.

“What they are noticing is a higher level on non-resident fisherman and they are not noticing a higher release rate,” he said.

The halfway point of the derby was last Monday night, and at that point the Great Northern Salmon Classic had sold 973 tickets and weighed about 750 fish.

“The leading fish for size was 18.56 pounds and the average was roughly eight to nine pounds. Our anglers are almost an even split between male and female anglers and most of the prizes so far awarded have gone to people from Northern B. C. and Alberta though there have been a number from farther afield,” said Wishart.

Their target for the Great Northern Salmon Classic was 2,500 sold and the break even point is 2,000 tickets.

“We are certainly on-line to come out of this as we anticipated. Of course, we’d love to see more but we won’t count on those,” said Wishart.

“And quite frankly there is a ripple effect from this kind of thing – everybody I talk to in northern Alberta and B. C. and even beyond is talking about recreational fishing in Prince Rupert, and if we accomplish nothing else, that is certainly something to accomplish. Whether we have made a significant difference in traffic patterns so far this summer remains to be seen but we are hopeful,” he said.

Coun. Joy Thorkelson said there have been some major discrepancies between what the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has been telling people in the commercial sector and the recreational sector and the result is driving an unnecessary wedge between the two,

“What the department said is they had no idea the derby was going to last six weeks and the prize was going to be $100,000. The concern the commercial sector expressed was that someone should have come and talked to the commercial sector (in case it was going to impact the commercial catch),” she said.

If an event like this happens again, there should be a larger community discussion, she said.

Wishart quoted from a letter he received from the recreational manager for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans saying they had reviewed the derby plans and there would be no impact from the event.

Coun. Tony Briglio said if there were any issues, they should be borne by Fisheries and Oceans and not the derby organizers.

“I simply do not buy that DFO would authorize a derby and not know the particulars of the derby. If there are issues, they ought to be born by DFO. The rest of the folks involved in this derby should be applauded,” he said.