Are Poachers getting the run of the coast?

The Daily News tells the story of how DFO staffing levels and reductions in funding, are reducing enforcement on the waters of the North Coast.

Using the BC Wildlife Foundation as their source material, the paper explains how this summer may have seen numerous incidents of poaching in local waters due to the inability of Fisheries to staff the local DFO offices to workable levels.

Poachers get run of the coast claims BCWF
By James Vassallo
The Daily News
Wednesday, January 03, 2007


Cutbacks to Fisheries enforcement staff and funding have created a ‘poachers paradise’ on the North Coast and throughout British Columbia, according to the B.C. Wildlife Federation (BCWF).
Local resident Ken Franzen, BCWF Tidal Water Fisheries Committee co-chair, reports that at least three cases of abalone poaching were uncovered by understaffed DFO enforcement officers in and around Prince Rupert in the spring of 2006 but that was nothing compared to the amount of illegal fishing activity actually taking place.

“These offences represent only the tip of the iceberg and are particularly objectionable as northern Abalone are listed under the Species at Risk Act,” he said. “(But) the problem doesn’t end with abalone. Increasing numbers of (Food-Social-Ceremonial) fish being dumped into the legal commercial fishery, increasing non-compliance in the selective fishery component of the commercial fishery, and increasing non-compliance in the Chinook sport fishery all demonstrate the need for increased enforcement year-round on the North Coast.”

Franzen fears poaching for abalone and many other species might have become rampant later in the summer when North Coast enforcement officers were re-deployed to the Fraser River in order to boost enforcement capability there, leaving the northern coast of B.C. with virtually no enforcement presence.

He notes that, at the peak of the North Coast fisheries this past summer there was only one enforcement officer available.

“Enforcement problems and poaching may be as bad, if not worse, on the Skeena as they are on the Fraser,” he said. “The only difference is that DFO regional headquarters is in Vancouver and both senior Pacific Region staff and the Ottawa bureaucrats are focused on the Fraser.”

There are also reports that enforcement problems are not isolated to the North Coast. At a recent public meeting of the Sport fishing Advisory Board, information presented showed that more than 55 officer-weeks were re-deployed from other South Coast areas to the Fraser River, shutting down the enforcement branches in a number of small communities.

“This report from DFO indicated that enforcement offices at Powell River, Pender Harbour and Gold River were closed for some three weeks last summer,” said Ed George, co-chair to the Federations Tidal Water Fisheries Committee. Enforcement staff from the Interior were also reassigned to the Lower Fraser River.

“This protection was taken from the critical spawning areas of the Fraser during the main migration period,” said Jon Pew, chair of the BCWF Inland Fisheries committee. “Moreover, problems created by these reassignments were exacerbated by vacancies that have remained unfilled for years.”

The organization is demanding the proposed judicial inquiry into missing salmon in the Fraser be expanded to look at issues throughout the region.

“DFO also has an obligation to provide sufficient funding so that these dedicated men and women can do their job effectively,” said Wilf Pfleiderer, BCWF president.

“The recent decimation of the Habitat Protection Branch and Stock Assessment Branch added to the lack of enforcement capability is why our federation is calling for expansion of the proposed Fraser River Judicial Inquiry to cover the entire Pacific Region and also the burgeoning bureaucracy in Ottawa,” said Pfleiderer.

The B.C. Wildlife Federation has more than 30,000 members and is this province’s oldest and largest conservation organization representing resident anglers and hunters.