Pond pounces on questions of making DFO "cave in"

The outcry from environmentalists and sports fishing lobbyists isn't getting too warm a reception from Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond. The Mayor came to the defence of DFO bureaucrats on Wednesday, suggesting that "the good men and women at the DFO are being so maligned by people that are just seeking their own self-interest."

The Mayor was accused by the two groups of interference with the government department last year, when DFO allowed a one day opening late in the season to take advantage of a larger than expected run of sockeye arrived on the north coast.

City councillor and UFAWU representative Joy Thorkelson also stepped into the debate with claims that the two groups were being self serving in their criticism of DFO.

The Daily News had the full story on its front page Wednesday.

MAYOR LEAPS TO DEFENCE OF DFO IN STEELHEAD DISPUTE
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Page one

It would have been insanity for the commercial fishing industry to let a record sockeye run swim by its door without trying to get the fleet in the water, say local politicians in response to allegations they interfered in last year's fishery.

On Monday, the Watershed Alliances and the North Coast Steelhead Society accused local politicians and the United Fishermen and Allied Workers' Union of politically interfering with Fisheries and Oceans Canada's (DFO) management of the 2006 fishery by pushing for more days for the commercial gillnet fleet. And they allege that the additional sockeye fishing caused harm to the steel head stocks.

Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond, who flew down to Vancouver last summer to stand on the steps of DFO headquarters in a lobby effort, said yesterday that DFO made the right decision, given the changing data on fish as the season unfolded.

"I think it's atrocious that the good men and women at the DFO are being so maligned by people that are just seeking their own self-interest," said Pond.

"They did what was right last summer, when an unprecedented amount of sockeye showed up late in the season, after all of the species of concern had gone, they opened up some opportunities, and good on them."

Although the fishing season was only extended by one extra day of fishing, the conservationists and steelhead lobby groups claim overfishing practices occurred that may have endangered future steelhead runs.

Joy Thorkelson of the United Fishermans and Allied Workers Union-CAW says that the self-serving campaign by the commercial steelhead guides is shameful.

She said they are interested in increasing their wealth at the expense of the rest of the Skeena users.

"I hardly think the DFO could be characterized as caving-in,'" said Thorkelson. "We wished that they had caved-in. If, in fact, they had caved-in, we would have been fishing six days after [August] 24 because there was plenty of sockeye for us to catch at that time."

What the UFAWU-CAW, the city of Prince Rupert and local politicians were lobbying the provincial and federal governments to do was allow them to fish above their 24 per cent steelhead cap, in order to allow the commercial sockeye fishers the chance to take advantage of the larger than normal sockeye run.

"These are plans that are set in stone in the middle of winter based upon best available information," said Pond.

"We need to give DFO officers some tools to give them good, scientific knowledge to manage our resource. We need to back off, and let them manage.

"And quite frankly, it's not any of the steelhead lobby's business how we conduct our fishery," said Thorkelson. "The agreement with the Steelhead Society is that we fish to 24 per cent, the agreement with DFO is 24 per cent, and the agreement with the Ministry of Environment is that we fish to 24 per cent. We fish to 24 per cent."

On sockeye, the limit is 41 per cent, but they only caught 34 per cent, well below what commercial fishermen are allowed to fish.

"Most of the fishermen that I know are very careful to release steelhead and coho alive," said Thorkelson. "But until DFO increases their enforcement, there will always be bad apples in every fishery."

"There are fishing families that are interested in conserving and preserving the resource, but they also want to make a living," said Pond. "And they've been hard hit over the last number of years, so when an opportunity comes up for them to fish and not damage any of the other stocks, it's insane to me that we wouldn't encourage local fisheries managers to do what they know is best for everybody."