Here are two groups you certainly don’t want to invite to the same salmon barbeque any time soon!
The disappointing steelhead run so far this summer, has two fishing groups of the North coast busy blaming each other and targeting DFO for a share of the animosity as well. In what seems to be about as predictable as the tide tables these days, the sport fishery industry and the gill net fleet have taken to pointing fingers at each other, as well as taking the odd angry broadside at the government as well.
The Daily News featured the latest dust up to come ashore from the waters as a front page story in Thursday’s paper.
SIDES BLAME EACH OTHER AS STEELHEAD RUN DISAPPOINTS
Sport fishermen claim commercial counterparts are damaging stocks
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Pages one and five
Fisheries and Oceans Canada needs to implement conservation measures to protect steelhead returns in the Skeena River, say Northwest angling guides and conservationists.
Recent reports suggest the early steelhead returns to date are 15 per cent lower than average levels, the worst return of the prized sport fish to date.
“DFO has been allowing the commercial fishery to hammer Skeena steelhead for years with little regard for the up-river businesses that bring millions of dollars per year into our economy,’ said Keith Douglas, spokesperson for the Northern B. C. Steelhead Guides Association.
“It is time for DFO to use a more precautionary approach to managing the commercial fishery.”
Sport fishers on the Skeena have been upset for some time about the practices of the commercial sockeye fleets, who end up with steelhead as part of their by-catch each season.
But the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union feels this year’s low steelhead return has little to do with the commercial fleet.
“So far, there have only been three fishing days for gillnetters on the Skeena,” said Joy Thorkelson, northern representative of the UFAWU-CAW. “We have caught less than three per cent of the steelhead run. Steelhead guides and their wealthy foreign clients will kill many more steelhead than that in their eight month, day-in-day-out, catch and release fishery.
Yet all agree that low numbers for both fisheries is a serious problem.
“The delayed commercial season coupled with a weak steelhead run is the perfect storm,” said Brad Zeerip, chair of the Skeena Angling Guides Association. “A disaster for steelhead and weak salmon populations.”
Groups like the North Coast Steelhead Alliance feel that DFO caved in to pressure from local politicians last year and allowed what they saw as overfishing, and that this summer will be no different.
“What we’ve seen so far this year suggests DFO has no plans to correct the mismanagement we saw last year, and indeed seems bent on killing off these weaker runs altogether,” said Greg Knox of the North Coast Steelhead Alliance. “They’re knowingly and irresponsibly jeopardizing genetically unique populations of steelhead and salmon.”
DFO recognizes the seriousness of the issue, but doesn’t feel the low return numbers are a result of their management.
“The steelhead index is very low, and we’re concerned about it,” said David Einarson, DFO North Coast area director. “We’ve been in close liaison with provincial counterparts in the Smithers office, and it appears the steelhead return is poor this year. Our management plan is based on harvest of sockeye, and we don’t feel we’ve harvested any significant extent the steelhead return this year.”
Einarson said as an example of that, the commercial fishery has only fished three days in Area 4 this year for sockeye, as compared to 10 days of fishing by this date last year.
“So, it’s not that we’ve caught them, it’s just that the run is very low,” said Einarson. “And any further action we take in Area 4 will be very careful to minimize the impact on steelhead.”
“Steelhead guides are not conservationists, they are well-off businessmen. This unwarranted attack on gillnetters is solely to increase their own profits,” said Thorkelson. “The Northern B. C. Steelhead Guides Association and the North Coast Steelhead Alliance need to stop being so greedy and live with the unpredictability of the stocks the same as the rest of us.”
The disappointing steelhead run so far this summer, has two fishing groups of the North coast busy blaming each other and targeting DFO for a share of the animosity as well. In what seems to be about as predictable as the tide tables these days, the sport fishery industry and the gill net fleet have taken to pointing fingers at each other, as well as taking the odd angry broadside at the government as well.
The Daily News featured the latest dust up to come ashore from the waters as a front page story in Thursday’s paper.
SIDES BLAME EACH OTHER AS STEELHEAD RUN DISAPPOINTS
Sport fishermen claim commercial counterparts are damaging stocks
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Pages one and five
Fisheries and Oceans Canada needs to implement conservation measures to protect steelhead returns in the Skeena River, say Northwest angling guides and conservationists.
Recent reports suggest the early steelhead returns to date are 15 per cent lower than average levels, the worst return of the prized sport fish to date.
“DFO has been allowing the commercial fishery to hammer Skeena steelhead for years with little regard for the up-river businesses that bring millions of dollars per year into our economy,’ said Keith Douglas, spokesperson for the Northern B. C. Steelhead Guides Association.
“It is time for DFO to use a more precautionary approach to managing the commercial fishery.”
Sport fishers on the Skeena have been upset for some time about the practices of the commercial sockeye fleets, who end up with steelhead as part of their by-catch each season.
But the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union feels this year’s low steelhead return has little to do with the commercial fleet.
“So far, there have only been three fishing days for gillnetters on the Skeena,” said Joy Thorkelson, northern representative of the UFAWU-CAW. “We have caught less than three per cent of the steelhead run. Steelhead guides and their wealthy foreign clients will kill many more steelhead than that in their eight month, day-in-day-out, catch and release fishery.
Yet all agree that low numbers for both fisheries is a serious problem.
“The delayed commercial season coupled with a weak steelhead run is the perfect storm,” said Brad Zeerip, chair of the Skeena Angling Guides Association. “A disaster for steelhead and weak salmon populations.”
Groups like the North Coast Steelhead Alliance feel that DFO caved in to pressure from local politicians last year and allowed what they saw as overfishing, and that this summer will be no different.
“What we’ve seen so far this year suggests DFO has no plans to correct the mismanagement we saw last year, and indeed seems bent on killing off these weaker runs altogether,” said Greg Knox of the North Coast Steelhead Alliance. “They’re knowingly and irresponsibly jeopardizing genetically unique populations of steelhead and salmon.”
DFO recognizes the seriousness of the issue, but doesn’t feel the low return numbers are a result of their management.
“The steelhead index is very low, and we’re concerned about it,” said David Einarson, DFO North Coast area director. “We’ve been in close liaison with provincial counterparts in the Smithers office, and it appears the steelhead return is poor this year. Our management plan is based on harvest of sockeye, and we don’t feel we’ve harvested any significant extent the steelhead return this year.”
Einarson said as an example of that, the commercial fishery has only fished three days in Area 4 this year for sockeye, as compared to 10 days of fishing by this date last year.
“So, it’s not that we’ve caught them, it’s just that the run is very low,” said Einarson. “And any further action we take in Area 4 will be very careful to minimize the impact on steelhead.”
“Steelhead guides are not conservationists, they are well-off businessmen. This unwarranted attack on gillnetters is solely to increase their own profits,” said Thorkelson. “The Northern B. C. Steelhead Guides Association and the North Coast Steelhead Alliance need to stop being so greedy and live with the unpredictability of the stocks the same as the rest of us.”
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