Fraser Sockeye run a disappointment

The Fraser River Sockeye run once the legend of British Columbia history will not make much of an impression in 2007.

The Opinion 250 website has a report on the state of the Fraser River fishery and the word is worrisome. Climate change rather than over fishing is being blamed for a situation that may see this years returns to be the second or third worst since the 1950's and will severly curtail the livelihoods of fishermen and cannery workers along the coast.

While the Fraser run reaches a rather sad state this year, the Skeena run has been described as faring rather well with the four year cycle, with warmer water providing the Skeena fish with better growth, though there is trouble for the steelhead resource facing dwindling numbers with word out of Terrace that this season could be the worst return of Steelhead in recent memory.

Fraser Sockeye Run A Major Bust in 2007
Opinion 250 News
Monday, August 13, 2007

The Chief Biologist with the Pacific Salmon Commission, Michael Lapointe, says over harvesting of the Sockeye salmon on the Fraser River system is not the reason for their serious declines.
Lapointe says 2003 was the brood year for the four year sockeye which live in the Fraser system "We had 2 million sockeye enter the system that year which should have made for a decent return. "

The Stellako and Stewart Run are a different matter says Lapointe "We have been watching a long term decline in this sockeye fishery. Both runs in the Stewart River the early and summer run sockeye have been on a steady decline. At one time the sockeye fishery on these systems was contributing about $70 million a year to the economy."

As it now stands, Lapointe says this won't be lowest sockeye return ever to the Fraser system, "but it certainly could be the second or third lowest return of sockeye in the history of counting going back to the fifties."

And it isn't just the Sockeye.

Lapointe says, the Coho have also taken a major hit. "We are seeing a return here of about .05% out of 1,000 fish, that’s five out of a thousand that went to sea."

The demise of the fishery on the Fraser is, according to Lapointe, perhaps tied to climate change. "The Fraser River salmon fishery is located at the southern extremity of their natural occurrence and other than a few places in Washington State and the Okanagan they are located the furthest south of their limits. It is unfortunate , for example the Skeena and other systems to the north have faired very well. In some cases the warming of the ocean waters has benefited the sockeye, the warmer temperatures up north have given them more feed and they have enjoyed better growth."

The Skeena, he added, isn’t hit as hard by the four year cycle as the Fraser because there are a lot of five year fish returning and so the collapse of one year doesn’t necessarily affect them as much.

Talking about the huge decline in Steelhead, the lead biologist says that is also a concern "We have tried to implement some measures to prevent a major take of the fish during the sockeye migration, but it always is a problem and the Steelhead don’t win out." Reports from Terrace indicate that this will be one of the worst returns of Steelhead in recent memory.

Items on the Fraser River fishery from other sources:

The Abbottsford News- ‘Hope is fading’ for sockeye run, native bands worried
Vancouver Province- Sockeye collapse could have grave implications

Fraser River fishery closed

More bad news for fishermen and plant workers from DFO this summer, as low returns of early sockeye salmon have forced DFO to close the Fraser river fishery to all participants.

The Fraser panel, which regulates the fishery, has decided not to allow any commercial fisheries by Canadian or U.S. fishermen. Recreational and native food fisheries in the Lower Fraser will also be closed.

The closure is subject to an ongoing review as fish enter the Fraser system and it's unsure how long the closure will last.

The Globe and Mail featured full details on the decision on its on line site.

Fraser River salmon fishery closed
Canadian Press
August 3, 2007 at 9:46 PM EDT

VANCOUVER — Fisheries officials have closed the Fraser River salmon fishery to all fishing because of low returns of early sockeye salmon.

Fisheries and Oceans spokesman Les Jantz said Friday the Fraser panel, which regulates the fishery, has decided not to allow any commercial fisheries by Canadian or U.S. fishermen.

He said recreational and native food fisheries in the Lower Fraser will also be closed.

Mr. Jantz said a revised forecast estimates only 230,000 salmon will return to the river this year, down sharply from previous estimates of more than 600,000.

Ernie Crey, senior advisor with the Stolo Tribal Council, said the impact will be profound on native communities that harvest along the Fraser River. “Most of these communities are small, impoverished villages and they depend on the sockeye runs for most of their annual protein,” he said.

He said the DFO authorized 12 hour opening of the aboriginal fisheries for Saturday, to harvest Chinook salmon only, using large mesh nets that must be tended full-time.

Different groups would be allowed to fish Chinook during allotted times, Mr. Jantz said.

The closure is subject to an ongoing review as fish enter the Fraser system. Mr. Jantz said he was unsure how long the closure would last.

“Now we don't have the abundance to support fisheries for sockeye so once we get to that point, then we will allow them,” he said.

Mixed reaction to Fishery changes

The various stakeholders are expressing a variety of opinions over Loyola Hearn’s recently announced plans to revise the current way of doing business in the Pacific Fishery.

From declaring it as a step in the right direction to suggesting that it hold’s no real promises, the reaction has been mixed to say the least.

In fact, it seems for the most part to be very much of the same debate from years gone by, all be it with a few new twists thrown in for good measure.

The Daily News took a look at the differing points of view in their Wednesday edition.

SALMON FISHERY CHANGES A ‘STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION’
The Native Fishing Association is welcoming federal ‘reintegration’ plan
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Pages one and three

Monday’s announcement from the federal government to reintegrate British Columbia’s salmon fishery has been met with mixed reactions from stakeholders.

Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn announced the federal government’s $175 million plan to end the current climate of conflict and distrust between fishing groups, particularly First Nations and commercial salmon fleets.

“I think it’s a positive thing,” said Edwin Newman, chairman of the Native Fishing Association.

“For a long time now, the coastal Aboriginal community has been suffering, because every management program DFO puts in place is designed for somebody in the industry, and Aboriginal people have been known to be pushed out.

“And there’s a lot of poverty on our reserves, and this is a step in the right direction if we can make it work,” he said.

“What it’s designed to do is help our people move, and that’s what we’ve been pushing them to do. And even though it’s not enough, I feel it’s a step in the right direction.

But Phillip Eidsvik, spokesperson for the B. C. Fisheries Survival Coalition feels the announcement holds no real promises.

“You have to get by the rhetoric of the news release. There’s nothing in that news release that’s going to improve the management of the fishery,” he said.

“The thrust of it is to transfer some licences and quota from the public fleet to Aboriginal fishermen, and that’s fine,” said Eidsvik.

“But we’d like to see a well managed fishery that makes money for everybody regardless of their race.”

Yet there are fishermen who feel that the reintegrated fishery will be a positive step toward a more sustainable industry.

“It look hopeful, like there might be some resolution to what a lot of us saw originally as Harper’s desire to quell the worry on the part of commercial fishermen as to how many fish are being taken on the Fraser by the Native fishermen.,” said John Wright, fisherman and secretary of the Golf Trollers Association.

“Proper counting of the fish is extremely important for the resource and for fair sharing. There’s not money put into that, and everybody recognizes that. There’s not a person that lives on the river or observes Native fishing that ever thought there was any proper counting going on.”

While many people feel it is still too early to tell exactly what measures the federal government will implement, Eidsvik doesn’t see many positive implications for the fishery.

“There’s a lot of people in our industry who have been badly hurt by the management of the fishery for the last 15 or so years, and some people that ant to get out of the fishery and this is an opportunity for them,” said Eidsvik.

“I think most fishermen would be a lot happier with an effectively managed fishery that made money for people so they wouldn’t have to get out. And that’s really the key for us, and so far this does not deliver that.”

Even though Minister Hearn spoke of a single fishery in which all Canadians could fish sustainably an in harmony, Eidsvik doesn’t buy it.

“Unfortunately, it’s smoke and mirrors. This news release shows that this minister has caught on quite well to the smoke and mirrors trick the government can use.

“There’s nothing in that release that ensures Canadians can fish together. And I think the litmus test will be on the Fraser River this summer when they arrest people for not being the government’s preferred race.”

Changes coming to fisheries management on the Pacific coast

The long simmering issues of the fishery on the Pacific coast will soon find a new process in place, as the federal government begins a five year program to merge the current system of separate fisheries, manage the resource better and inject some 175 million dollars into the new streamlined system.

One of the first tasks will be to bring greater participation of First Nations groups into an integrated commercial fishery. The way that the government plans to approach that goal is through voluntary commercial licence retirements, acquiring vessels, quotas and gear in all fisheries to be redistributed to First Nations fishers.

The Pacific fishery has been a graveyard for many a federal fisheries minister over the years, and frequently has seemed to be the forgotten fishery from Ottawa. So it will be interesting to see how this plan, brought in over five years works out and if it has the desired solution to an always controversial but key part of the BC economy.

Its impact locally in Prince Rupert has always been of great importance to the economy, so there will be many watchful eyes locally on the changes and how they may affect the local industry. Local fishers, companies and shore workers have felt the brunt of many a fisheries decision in the past, the current fishery in Prince Rupert is nowhere near the glory days of the fishery, when fortunes were made and employment was full for most of the spring and summer. So Rupertites will be particularly interested in how the changes to come will affect their livelihoods.

The Daily News provided a complete overview of the expected changes to fisheries policy on the west coast, featured as their front page story in Tuesday’s paper.

FEDS SAY $175 million fisheries shake up will end conflict
Loyola Hearn says fisheries will be merged, resources better managed
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily news
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Pages one and two

British Columbia’s fisheries will be the recipient of $175 million in federal spending to create a single, environmentally and economically sustainable Pacific salmon fishery.

Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn made the announcement yesterday morning alongside B. C. Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl, saying the time has come to end years of conflict and discourse among the various fishing groups, and eliminate current distrust from all sides.

“We need to put more of the elements in place that will build a viable and sustainable fishery for all harvesters in the province, said Hearn.

“The commercial fishery needs to be managed under a common set of rules for everyone. We need to introduce greater transparency and certainty to the business of fishing in B. C. At the same time, we also have to make sure all participants, including First Nations, have a chance to succeed in an integrated commercial fisheries.”

For years, there have been protests, legal battles and other forms of conflict between the various fishermen about the separate fisheries and different rules for each. This five-year spending plan will fulfill a promise from the Conservative government to invest in sustainable fishing practices and combat the collapse of the sockeye salmon stock in the Fraser River.

The first of the three goals stated is the support of greater participation of First Nations into the integrated commercial fishery.

Hearn stated they will encourage this through voluntary commercial licence retirement, by acquiring vessels, quota and gear in all fisheries to be redistributed to First Nations fishers. They will also help provide the tools necessary for First Nations fishermen to establish successful and sustainable enterprises, by building on existing working commercial platforms.

Hearn also stated Ottawa will be working to create a fisheries management approach that will increase collaboration between all harvest and non-harvest interests.

“Part of this goal will be to establish clear harvest sharing arrangements for the commercial salmon fishery in consultation with the fishers, while also respecting existing arrangements with other interests,” said Hearn.

“We’re confident that such an approach will go a long way to improving relationships among all fishery participants.”

The third goal will be to increase accountability to better protect and conserve the invaluable resources of the West Coast, including strengthening fisheries managing, catch reporting and enforcement. Hearn also said the spending will be used toward creating a new system to trace commercially harvested fish, from the moment they are caught until they reach the dinner tables of consumers.

“The new tracking system will also help Canada’s position in the global seafood market by following the “oceans-to –plate” management I announced in April, said Hearn.

“This management approach aims to increase the value for all participants up and down the seafood chain, and it most certainly includes British Columbia’s Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal commercial fishers.”

“If we work together with conservation foremost in our minds, then we determine what we can use viably, and we catch it at the right time, and we sell it when we can get best value and we market it properly,” Hearn said. And we do it collectively, so that we get every ounce, inch, cent we can from it, then our people can benefit a lot better, and from a lot less.”

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."

Steelhead put at risk

The heat is definitely on DFO over last year’s fishery as some of the fallout from a Monday press conference begins to attract more and more media attention.

On Monday, we featured a story found in the Vancouver Sun over the findings of The Watershed Watch Salmon Society and North Coast Steelhead Alliance, they both released documents that they suggest show that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans “caved in” to political pressure to force a late season one day opening, an opening that they say put steelhead stocks at risk.

The Tyee is the latest media source to take a look at the issue with this feature piece on their website today.

The Daily News provided its interpretation of the developments stemming from Monday’s press release, with a front page story in Tuesday’s paper.

‘OPENING PUT STEELHEAD AT RISK’ CLAIM DFO’S CRITICS
Groups say one-day Skeena fishery hit stocks because of bycatch fatalities
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Pages one and three

Environmental groups and sports fishermen from upriver are alleging that Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) allowed over-fishing during last year’s commercial sockeye opening.

The groups claim that pressure from the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union and City of Prince Rupert encouraged the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to extend the commercial sockeye season to the point were it endangered steelhead runs.

“We think the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ failure to responsibly manage this fishery is endangering the long-term health of Skeena wild salmon and the economy of the entire Skeena watershed,” said Vicky Husband, who is with the Watershed Watch Salmon Society.

The groups are now calling for an independent investigation to determine what happened in 2006.

During a press conference in Vancouver on Monday, the Watershed Watch and North Coast Steelhead Alliance released documents that show Fisheries and Oceans Canada biologists were concerned about the impact of the sockeye fishery on steelhead and other bycatch.

“The real issue for me is that we said that we would fish selectively to minimize harvest impacts on non-target species and we caved under pressure,” wrote Steve Cox-Rogers, a senior biologist in a memo obtained by the group through the Freedom of Information Act.

The 2006, Skeena commercial sockeye fishery was extended by one-day after the city lead a charge to have bycatch limit for steelhead expanded so the gill-net fleet could get access to a unusually large sockeye run.

The city, MLA and MP got involved last year after it was determined that there was better-than-average steelhead escapement and the pre-season forecast of sockeye had swelled from 1.8 million to more than three million.

Based on the pre-season fisheries plan, the local fleet lost nearly half a million dollars in less than a week when Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the B. C. Ministry of Environment each claimed it was the other agency’s responsibility to decide whether the steelhead by-catch could be increased.

There were more than 130 gillnetters fishing the mouth of the Skeena last year, feeding the shore-based canneries.

However, the conservationist groups allege that the fleet had more than twice the number of days fishing than the 10-year average, up to 29 days.

They added that the Integrated Fisheries Management Plan originally called for commercial openings to end in early August.

They further showed documents that suggest the commercial fleet was not co-operative with DFO guidelines that allow for higher rates of recovery for by-catch like steelhead. This includes using revival boxes and shorter sets as well as weedlines, that sink nets lower and allow those fish that swim along the surface to pass above the nets safely.

“None of the boats we sampled had functioning blue boxes on board… in fact, all of the fishermen I spoke to expressed little desire to participate in reviving steelhead or Coho and were just throwing them back dead or alive as they hit the boat… The proportion of boats using weedlines seems to be very low to non existent this year…“ wrote Steve Cox-Rogers to David Einearson, DFO North Coast Area Chief.

Watershed Watch is an organization aimed at protecting wild salmon while the North Coast Steelhead Alliance, represents sports fishermen in Northwestern B. C.

"Caved under pressure"

That's the charge of environmentalists, who suggest that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, chose to maintain a commercial gillnet fishery on the Skeena River late last summer despite warnings that the stocks were too weak to survive a concentrated fishing program.

Using documents acquired under the federal Access to Information Act, the Watershed Watch and North Coast Steelhead Alliance groups both expressed concerns over political pressure playing too large a role in stock management on the Skeena River.

In particular, they highlighted the efforts of Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond last year as evidence of overt political pressure on the federal fisheries department.

In a press release the two groups claimed that "They had management tools to protect endangered salmon and steelhead populations and they chose not to use them."

They are charges that were denied by local DFO officials who claimed, "that decisions in 2006 were made based on stock availability not political pressure."

The resulting media attention from today's press conference should make for a long summer of 2007 for DFO, who will now be aware that there are many eyes on their work, all seemingly pulling in different directions.

The two environmental groups are calling for an independent investigation into last years fishery, to make sure that the same thing doesn't occur again this year.

The Vancouver Sun had a full report on the story on its website on Monday.

DFO didn't protect fish stock, groups claim (12:02 pm)
By Scott Simpson and Larry Pynn
Vancouver Sun
Monday, June 25, 2007

Fisheries and Oceans Canada "caved under pressure" in 2006 to maintain a commercial gillnet fishery on the Skeena River despite warnings that many of the fish caught in the nets were from populations too weak to withstand a major fishing effort, environmental groups said at a press conference this morning.

Documents obtained by the groups under the federal Access to Information Act, and circulated to the media, suggest that fisheries department biologists on the North Coast had significant concerns about their government's decision to keep a commercial sockeye fishery open in summer 2006.

Before the season began, DFO and other groups including the B.C. Ministry of Environment, agreed that the commercial fishing season for Babine River sockeye would end in early August in order to avoid interception of coho, steelhead and other non-target species.

However, the environmental groups groups say the department buckled under to intense political lobbying to keep the fishery open, rather than hold its ground and protect weaker, non-targeted species.

According to the groups, Watershed Watch and North Coast Steelhead Alliance, DFO more than doubled the number of openings last year compared to the 10-year season average.

The gillnets, if strung end to end, would form an unbroken line from Hope to Vancouver, North Coast Steelhead Alliance spokesman Greg Knox said at a press conference.

"This resulted in excessive by-catch of steelhead and weak salmon stocks and contributed to dangerously low returns to many Skeena tributaries," the groups said in a prepared statement.
One e-mail obtained under the Access to Information Act, written by North Coast biologist Steve Cox-Rogers, attributes the protracted opening to successful lobbying by Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond.

"Our mayor flew to Vancouver to get DFO to provide more fishing time and so we ended up fishing a few more days," Cox-Rogers wrote to colleague Dana Atagi on October 11, 2006.
In another, Cox-Rogers says he does not believe the department can muster any technical information to demonstrate that it met its commitments to protect steelhead, which are the basis for a multimillion dollar sports fishery encompassing several tributary rivers to the Skeena.

"The real issue for me is that we said we would fish selectively to minimize harvest impacts on non-target species and we caved under pressure," Cox-Rogers wrote to Atagi.

The documents also reveal that gillnet fishermen chose to ignore DFO's recommendations that they gently handle, revive and release the steelhead, coho and other non-targeted species they intercepted during the sockeye fishery.

Instead, Cox-Rogers reported, none of the boats were using the "revival boxes" where non-target fish are kept in order to resuscitate them before release.

"In fact, all of the fishermen I spoke to expressed little desire to participate in reviving steelhead or coho and were just throwing them back dead or alive as they hit the boat."
He also noted that compliance with a recommendation that the gillnetters use weed lines, which keep the nets at depths where steelhead usually do not swim during migration, was "very low to non-existent."

"We think these documents show DFO mangers put politics ahead of science in making critical management decisions," Watershed Watch executive director Craig Orr said in a press release."They had management tools to protect endangered salmon and steelhead populations and they chose not to use them."David Einarson, area chief of resource management for federal fisheries, denied conservation groups' accusations, arguing from Prince Rupert that decisions in 2006 were made based on stock availability not political pressure.

The commercial gillnet fleet received more fishing time because the summer sockeye run, 90 per cent of which is headed to Babine Lake, had increased to three million from an anticipated 1.7 million and because the fish were proportionately younger than expected and boats were having more trouble catching them.

He said the commercial catch reached its target of 32 per cent of the sockeye run, as it did for the steelhead catch at 24 per cent -- a figure set by user groups years ago.

The fleet would have caught more of the weaker stocks in 2006, he said, but the catch did not pose a conservation concern. Steve Cox-Rogers, a stock assessment biologist, suggested in an e-mail obtained under FOI legislation that DFO "caved under pressure" -- which Einarson described as a personal opinion not based on fact.

Crabbers less than happy with Federal Fisheries Department

The Crab fishery on the North Coast is facing at least a half of summer of idleness after a recent federal court decision.

As a result of fall out from the Larocque decision, Crab fisherman in Area A of the North coast, are not happy with recent developments from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the decisions reached regarding research into the collection of data for the fishery.

The Queen Charlotte Islands Observer reviewed the events that have brought the crab fishery to logger heads with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and could cost the crab fishermen a share of the 22 million dollars in revenues that the industry generates each year.

Federal decision hurts crabbers
Queen Charlotte Islands Obersever
June 11, 2007

North Coast crab fishermen may be out of work for half of the summer due to a recent federal court decision.

Known as the Larocque decision, the Federal Court of Appeal has ruled it illegal for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to pay for scientific research by selling any of the fishery resources collected during that research.

Since 2000 crabs have been protected during the moult, when they have soft shells and are breeding. At the time, DFO imposed fixed closure dates from March 1 to August 1, but Geoff Gould, the executive director of the Area A Crab Association, said the six-month closure was deemed too conservative.

So soft shell testing system began in 2001 and since then licensed crab vessel owners trained themselves and their crew on how to collect the data and have chartered their boats for research purposes.

After reviewing the data, a shorter closure period was allowed and an average of 67 fishing days per season were gained.

But DFO is no longer able to pay for this research by allowing crabbers to keep and sell their catch during the research period. The ruling, which was based on an action brought by a New Brunswick fisherman who objected to the Minister of Fisheries paying for services with assets that did not belong to him, but to the public, was handed down in June 2006.

Mr. Gould says the result is that Area A crab fishermen are losing 2.5 to 3 months of a fishery that generates $22-million in revenue annually.

Not only that, but the soft shell tests allow crab fishermen to start the fishery at the moment when crabs' shells are at the shiniest and hardest, bringing in a better price on the market.
Mr. Gould has been told that DFO does not have the budget to pay for the research any other way.

This spring, four Association vessels volunteered to collect data at their own expense. The data indicates a mid to late June opening may be justified.

The Association will do another test soon at a cost of $2,500 a day.

Mr. Gould says the crab fishermen pay more than their share of running the fishery and expects DFO to pick up the cost in the future. He says that the cost of the data gathering is basic science about the resource that costs about $100,000. He feels sure DFO could manage to find that amount in its $1-billion budget.

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.