by Governor | Jan 31, 2024 | Chinook, Conservation, Fish, Fishing Access, SRKW
Anglers, it’s Essential Your Attend!
… Fisheries Town Hall Meeting
… Tuesday February 27, 2024 at 7:00 p.m.
… Four Points by Sheraton Victoria Gateway Hotel
… 829 McCallum Road, Victoria, BC V9B 6W6
We are losing our opportunities to catch Chinook salmon in Southern British Columbia. Salmon anglers are growing increasingly frustrated with the defective management of our salmon fisheries. A problematic patchwork of Chinook salmon closures and frequently changing complex regulations that impede everyday Canadians from accessing abundant stocks, especially those of hatchery-origin.
It’s time to make this widely known!
Anglers are the real conservationists. Combined, we give millions of dollars annually to conserving salmon and our gumboot army of volunteers provides hundreds of thousands of hours each year to habitat restoration, enhancement and stock monitoring. We are also agreeable to doing our part in support of the recovery of Fraser River Chinook stocks of concern, but not at the death of our fishery, when viable scientifically-defensible opportunities exist. And as for Southern Resident Killer Whales, we, like every Canadian should, hold these magnificent creatures in high esteem and want them to recover from their endangered status. However, we find salmon anglers have unjustly lost the most closed to fishing area, only because expansive closures make great optics on a map for bureaucrats so desperate to show something is being done regarding the recovery plan to their Ottawa superiors. It is our opinion that the Southern BC salmon fishery has become the scapegoat for an amateurish recovery strategy.
We simply ask for fair access to abundant Chinook salmon stocks and for government to stop putting up road blocks to a rapid roll-out of marked selective Chinook fisheries. It is time to stop using unproven science and kowtowing to anti-fishing ideologues. The Chinook salmon fishery in Southern BC is very important to Canadians who love to fish and the thousands of businesses that depend on the fishery for revenue.
South Vancouver Island Anglers Coalition has organized this Town Hall Meeting, with our friends from the Public Fishery Alliance, the Fraser River Sportfishing Alliance and the Port Renfrew-based BC Recreational Fishing Association. We want the public to hear about the injustice that is happening. Politicians, both federal MPs as well as provincial MLAs, are being invited to join us and the local media are all being notified of the event. We anticipate over 200 local anglers will attend in-person to show the level of discontent with the way our fishery is being managed.
We look forward to seeing you there!
by Governor | Jan 26, 2024 | Conservation, Fish, Fishing Access, Halibut, Saltwater Fishing
Friday is here and we just found out what the IPHC Commissioners have decided regarding total halibut catch for 2024. It looks like we, Canadian sports anglers, dodged a bullet. North Pacific halibut stock is at a low and seemingly in worse shape in certain areas. The Canadian delegation’s feeling seemed somewhat glum going into this year’s IPHC 100th AGM in anticipation of seeing a sizable drop in total allowable catch for Canada, which meant the sport fishery would be looking at reduced poundage available to plan our coming season.
In 2023 the recreational allowable catch was 880,250 lbs and we overfished before closing in September to the tune of 9,631 lbs, a quantity that will be taken off our 2024 catch before we start. Canada’s portion of the total Pacific catch is 6,470,000 lbs and after calculation the recreational allowable catch will be 836,250 lbs less the 9,631 lbs of 2023 overage. It appears we have 53,631 lbs less than 2023. So it could have been much worse if the delegates lobbying for a 15% reduction had been adopted. Now you SFAB Halibut Working Group will go to work and develop a coast-wide fishing plan at the end of this month.
All-in-all yet another outstanding job done by our Canadian delegation and a big thank you to our commissioners for using their excellent negotiation skills dealing with the USA.
Now we can dream of bringing home some fresh hali for the table after a great day on the water and hopefully in a few weeks, weather permitting, that will be an option!
by Governor | Jan 25, 2024 | Conservation, Fish, Halibut, Saltwater Fishing
Today, in Anchorage, the sky is clear and sun is shinning, implying it’s a lovely day, however the temperature is a very nippy -18 degrees Celsius. Regardless of the weather, it is a remarkable day as the International Pacific Halibut Commission is holding its annual general meeting this week for the 100th time. The honourable distinction being, this is the longest running country-to-country fisheries management commission out there. That is quite a feat!
We must also acknowledge modern day technology that allows people to participate meaningfully in meetings via virtual attendance online. So here I am, your SVIAC IPHC rep in a warm room in Victoria, BC looking out my window at hummingbirds feeding, while weighing in virtually on all matters halibut. So we keep our voting status on the IPHC Conference Board and maintain our presence in the Canadian delegation. Our coalition’s board of directors felt the heavy cost of travel to Anchorage as well as hotel and meal expense (Approx. $5,000) could be better invested in rearing Chinook or advocating to save our salmon fishery, especially when we keep participating seamlessly.
Whether online or sitting in Anchorage, Alaska at the Captain Cook Hotel ballroom for this meeting, the interested parties and reps are all busy discussing, negotiating and pressuring a decision on what the annual catch limits will be in 2024. Decisions are based on the IPHC science presentation about the halibut stock health and abundance, then recommendations for fisheries will be made taking conservation into account. The process has worked well for one hundred years.
For ardent halibut anglers there is much uncertainty around the 2024 season. Due to good weather and good fishing Canadian anglers and busy angling tourism trade, our sector caught more than their allotted halibut by early September last year, forcing the season to close early. Worse still the 9,600 lbs over excess catch will be subtracted from the 2024 recreational allowable catch. For that reason, the hope and prayers are there for our delegation to secure a reasonable 2024 allowable catch for Canada, so we don\\t have our fishery decimated.
While still too early in the week to tell where we will land between the two countries regarding 2024 total catch by all sectors, there will most likely be less total allowable catch for Canada and USA for conservation reasons. Also, it appears clear that so far, the Commissioners can not reach a decision on a long-term agreement for catch between Canada and USA and seem unlikely an agreement can be reached this week. At worst, an outcome that has happened a couple of times before, is deadlock (no agreement), where the Commissioners can not reach consensus. In that case, the countries are, by the terms of reference, expected to use the prior years total allowable as a baseline.
So, by Friday morning, the sausage making will be over and the Commissioners will announce what has been decided (or not).
We all wait with bated breath!
by Governor | Apr 17, 2023 | Chinook, Fishing Access, Saltwater Fishing
THIS IS A CALL TO ACTION – FOR FAR TOO LONG SOUTHERN BC SALMON ANGLERS HAVE BEEN DENIED ACCESS TO ABUNDANT HATCHERY CHINOOK SALMON FROM APRIL UNTIL AUGUST.
Since former Fisheries Minister Wilkinson implemented a Chinook non-retention regulation in 2019 that spans from April 1 to August each year, BC’s salmon anglers have been deprived of catching and keeping any of the abundant hatchery Chinook in our waters. Even though the SFAB and DFO have designed some of the cleanest Marked Selective Fisheries proposals anywhere, Minister Murray has still not approved them. Anticipating some or all of these opportunities would start on April 1 this year, we are stunned to learn that as of today (April 17) the minister has still not made a decision and she only just received the proposals on her desk.
Well, it is now well past time that we, as concerned anglers, take our campaign to the next level. Be sure you share this to all you angling buddies and tackle shops you visit. Come see the Team from SVIAC and the PFA at the upcoming Victoria Outdoor Adventure Show April 21 – 23 at JDF Rec Centre. Keep checking back to see what further things you can do to help our cause.
Our friends at the Public Fishery Alliance and South Vancouver Island Anglers Coalition are working cooperatively to get these fisheries approved and opened up immediately. Here below is the PFA “Call to Action” notice to anglers and the letter they wrote to the minister back on April 6.
And this is the excellent PFA letter sent to Minister Murray weeks ago urgently requesting she approve these defensible fisheries …
by Governor | Feb 16, 2023 | Uncategorized
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!
