STOP ADDITIONAL SRKW SALMON FISHING CLOSURES
WE STRONGLY REQUEST YOU TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION WITH A GOAL OF STOPPING GOVERNMENT UNNECESSARILY TAKING AWAY MORE OF YOUR SALMON FISHING
Yes, they are back with another round of proposals to take away more fishing opportunities from average tax-paying Canadian salmon anglers. When will it end? For 2023, DFO and Transport Canada’s joint Southern Resident Killer Whale (SRKW) recovery team are proposing more changes to the already major salmon fishing restrictions in the Salish Sea. More specifically, the team has proposed additional closed to salmon fishing areas seaward from the entrance to Nitnat Lake, plus off Port Renfrew and Active Pass as well as a big swath off the mouth of the Fraser River. These are all stacked on top of what is already in place. The increase of restrictions and fishing closures have now become an annual process of reducing our access to the salmon resource, leaving the angling community watching our once vibrant year-round salmon fishery in the Salish Sea slowly disappear. This has to stop!
The government’s SRKW recovery process is causing great anxiety throughout the angling community. It inflicts unnecessary economic hardship on many small angling-focused businesses in addition to small coastal communities that rely on access to the salmon resource. Hopelessly not knowing what is coming next, except for sure it’s more bad news, seems to be the norm now. It kills trade and kills tourism. In addition, it is dreadfully hard to plan and manage any small business with a debacle like this hanging over one’s head year-in-and-year-out.
Ferries, tankers, cruise ships and bulk carriers make the most noise in the Salish Sea, yet it is the anglers’ vessels that are being managed off the water. Recent SRKW population changes and new pod matriarchs have resulted in altered feeding locations and timing, as SRKW seek large migrating Chinook, making the closing of the old feeding grounds to salmon fishing disputable. Interim Sanctuary Zones don’t appear to be working as new studies show the SRKW spend hardly any time inside them and only pass through infrequently. Dynamic Avoidance Rules for all boaters are by far the best solution, not fishing closures and certainly not ISZs.
And the biggest apparent blunder of all is having closed areas stopping the public fishing for salmon. Why, because the SRKW population grew from mid-1970s to the mid-1990s from 72 to 99 animals and all that time with 280% more salmon fishing effort in the Salish Sea back then, compared to today. There was an abundance of Chinook back then too.
The public salmon fishery is unnecessarily losing fishing opportunities and Canadians are worse off for it. In our opinion, this massively-expensive (millions of dollars per year) unproven SRKW recovery strategy is implemented based upon incomplete data and driven by a government desperately wanting the optics on a map of their efforts thus far to look far reaching and impressive. Will this strategy work? We’ll all know sooner or later, but likely when it is too late.
We believe DFO MUST focus attention on rebuilding failing runs of wild Chinook salmon and mark the hatchery fish to allow selective marked fisheries for Canadians, so the wild fish can recover while the fisheries stay viable. As anglers, we need to get this message out there far and wide, let DFO know your thoughts. The entire angling community needs to speak up and question this whole process.
IMPORTANT – It is time for you to take action! There are several different ways to voice your opinion or provide comment on the SRKW recovery issue, including:
- Fill out the DFO survey. An SRKW proposed 2023 changes survey, which seems somewhat biased in nature to SVIAC, is open for the public for comment. We strongly recommend you go to https://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/consultation/fm-gp/srkw-eprs/2023-srkw-survey-sondage-ers-eng.html and fill in this survey. The deadline for submissions is February 19th, 2023, so don’t wait, do it now.
- Write an email letter to DFO.SRKW-ERS.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca with your feelings about the proposed closures and any other thoughts you have about DFO and Transport Canada’s management of SRKW recovery and the impacts it has on ordinary Canadians. The deadline for submissions is February 19th, 2023
- Write a consciousness-raising letter (personal or business) expressing your opinions on SRKW recovery measures and the effects it has on you and/or your business to the Fisheries Minister in Ottawa min@dfo-mpo.gc.ca and copy your local MP and the Standing Committee on Fisheries. No deadline but don’t wait too long.
It is worth noting that a growing number of people are questioning whether or not this SRKW recovery program, essentially a huge public exploitation experiment in the Salish Sea, will actually work. Is there even a measure of what a successful recovery looks like? Is it 90, 100 or even 200 whales? Don’t misunderstand the sentiments expressed in this article, we, at SVIAC, ALL want SRKW to recover and be healthy in the future. But please let’s not destroy the historically important public salmon fishery in the Salish Sea.
Sadly, as we see it, the focus appears to be on optics for political gain and not addressing the hard issues. Targeting average tax-paying Canadians who love to fish, closing their fishery, ruining small businesses and inflicting hardship on small coastal communities is not a solution. There is a right and a wrong way of going about this. We need our voice heard, before we are forced down the wrong way too far.
Immediate action is required to provide comment to DFO on proposed 2023 salmon fishing closures. You need to act now!