It all started over a decade ago. In 2012, Chris Bos, Christopher Miller and Terry Anderson sat down in a local coffee shop and jointly conceived a plan to challenge DFO on their worsening Chinook salmon fishing restrictions around the South Island.
They developed a plan to create a nonprofit society, comprised mostly of local anglers impacted by the increased fishing restrictions, that would advocate for recreational anglers to minimize impacts on our salmon fishery.
In July 2012, the South Vancouver Island Anglers Coalition Society (SVIAC) was created. In the face of DFO seeking to close the Chinook fishery in the Spring and early Summer, the society fought to maintain their fishery and held government to account for their fisheries management. To broaden the society’s scope and pre-emptively address potential low Chinook stocks locally, Chris Bos sought approval from then DFO Regional Director General Sue Farlinger to launch the Sooke Chinook Enhancement Initiative.
Having successfully navigated through the DFO bureaucracy, SVIAC’s efforts were rewarded, and they finally received their first delivery of 200,000 healthy Chinook smolts from the Nitinat Hatchery in April 2017.
Since then, over the last 8 years, SVIAC has successfully transplanted over 4.8 million healthy Chinook salmon smolts into the Sooke Basin, with a notable increase in Chinook returns to the Sooke River. This would not have been possible without the dedication and persistence of those founding members.
Alas, as proclaimed by Greek Philosopher Heraclitus, “The Only Constant in Life is Change.”
Our President and founding member, Chris Bos, has announced his plan to step down as President on December 31st, 2024.
The SVIAC Board of Directors would like to recognize and thank Chris for his efforts in support of salmon conservation and fishing advocacy over the past 12 years. Without his perseverance and tenacity, our saltwater salmon fishery may have been worse today, and we may not have been able to have such a successful Sooke Chinook Salmon Enhancement project over the past 8 years.
More Uncertainty About the Public Chinook Fishery for 2025
With anglers reporting superb catches of Chinook salmon in the spring and summer this year, the second year of significant abundance being reported, one wonders what is going on at the DFO. Recent signaling from fisheries management is causing concern that our precious Chinook fishery in 2025 may be further restricted.
There are two notable areas of concern:
First, plans for more regular marked selective Chinook fisheries has hit another big bump in the road. With a DFO mandate described in the Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative, implementing mass marking of hatchery origin Chinook in Canada and a corresponding public sport fishery of marked fish seemed to be the new way forward. It seems, however, that there has been vigorous push back from those who are against it, both within the department and outside too. Since 2019, the move to fully adopting marked selective Chinook fishing has been progressing at horrendously slow, and glacial speed. Bureaucracy on top of slow walking appears to have led to this abysmal roll out. For the past two years, a few minor selective Chinook opportunities have been implemented as “pilot projects”. But many more viable opportunities have been recommended through approved motions at the SFAB process, but their approval to proceed has been refused. Yet the wait goes on for real progress.
The latest news from DFO was the response to their consultations on the proposed mass marking and marked selective fishing plans. The haters shouted their displeasure loudly about the plan to DFO and like a deer in the headlights, the department hit the brakes, and hard! The move to implementing any new mark selective fisheries in 2025 seems most unlikely, according to the sources we have. Stepping back and re-evaluating seems to be the new plan. And as if bureaucracy wasn’t already throttling the life out of fishery, we now have the development of a South Coast Marked Selective Fishery Project Action Plan. One can only wonder how long that will take to “develop” and get approved. As we were advised at the October 22nd Victoria SFAB meeting, those looking for new or greater selective Chinook fisheries in 2025 shouldn’t get their hopes up.
The second issue, and it is worrisome by itself, is the signal from the department that they intend to discuss the potential of increasing restrictions in 2025 related to Summer 5-2 Fraser Chinook. We have known for two decades that certain stream-type Fraser Chinook stocks have been facing some significant challenges. Yet recent returns of the stream-type Fraser Chinook stocks of concern have been stable and increasing in many cases. The public salmon fishery in the marine waters around Sidney, Victoria and Sooke has paid a very heavy price over the years by being restricted and/or shut off from opportunity to retain the abundant marked (fin-clipped) U.S. hatchery fish in our waters. This hardship anglers have endured all in the name of conservation.
The new challenge is the Summer 5-2 Fraser Chinook pass by Juan de Fuca and Haro Straits later than other migrating stocks, meaning, if the department acts, they could be seeking further measures that would now eat into our already-restricted August Chinook fishery. While nothing has been put on the table by DFO yet, they clearly alluded to the fact they are contemplating further restrictions. For our local waters, implementing more restrictions would be catastrophic! Our spring and summer fishery has been decimated by ever increasing restrictions from March through August over the past 15 years. In August, the singularly best time of year for Chinook fishing in the marine waters, we are already down to the retention of one Chinook per day under 80cms. There is not much room left to take more Chinook retention opportunity away without destroying the fishery altogether.
There are more salmon planning and advisory meetings with the department coming up over the next few months, which will shed more light on the department’s intentions. So, our sector’s local representatives, from both inside and outside the SFAB process, need to stay on top of these two issues as described above, as the future of our Chinook fishery is in further jeopardy.
Triumphant Return of the Alpine Juan de Fuca Fishing Tournament!
It was a fantastic weekend in early September for the return of the long celebrated, and clearly missed, 2024 Alpine Juan de Fuca Fishing Tournament. Anchored by our two Major sponsors – The Alpine Group and GFL Environmental, the event returned in a big way. With a $20,000 first place prize, and a total prize board featuring more than $45K for the top ten fish, there was a buzz in the fishing community and word spread quickly.
The Tournament organizing committee had envisioned a successful restart and planned the event for up to 300 participants. A fun Tournament Registration event, hosted at the Langford Legion #91, kicked off the fundraising Tournament. Dinner and beverage specials provided by the Legion were supplemented with lots of raffle prizes and a big 50/50 draw, Tournament T-shirts and friendly banter.
As the Tournament Registration event was the last opportunity to purchase Tournament tickets, the organizers were prepared to sell a few more tickets prior to the 9:00PM cutoff. By the end of the night, ticket sales had exceeded over 500, greatly exceeding the committee’s expectations.
As the sun came up on a beautiful fishing day, it didn’t take long for the action to start at the Tournament Weigh Station hosted at Pedder Bay Resort and Marina. Minutes after the Weighmaster opened the Station, the first Chinook of the day was hanging on the scale at 22.05 lb. Two more Chinook quickly followed, and while there were some lulls in the arrivals, by 11am there was a steady stream of fish being weighed in.
All day long, the Tournament’s volunteer weigh-in, cleaning, and recording team got into a groove and managed to process the 56 fish submitted in a timely fashion. Even when the final push came at the 3:00PM Tournament cutoff, the line was deep but the team processed them quickly. A crowd gathered around the Weigh Station and across the scenic outcrop overlooking Pedder Bay, with growing anticipation for the final outcome.
When all was said and done, a beautiful 22.25lb Chinook weighed in by Danny Wick narrowly took the first place prize of $20,000. Finishing in second place, by only 1 tenth of a pound, and winning $7000, was Mary Roschat. In 3rd place, at 22.05 lb was one of our Sponsors – Jeremy Petzing from The Local. In total, 56 fish were weighed in the Tournament (and lots more caught, but not necessarily weighed once their fishers saw the leaderboard!).
The Tournament organizers would like to sincerely thank all of the fishermen who donated their catch to the Sooke Food Bank. After fileting and bagging the fish, we were able to provide the Sooke community with over 70 large bags of fresh salmon filets. And with recent news that the Sooke Food Bank was closing due to lack of donations, SVIAC donated the proceeds of the Registration Night 50/50 draw to the Sooke Food Bank – $1575, to support their important work in the community.
The Tournament Organizing committee and sponsors overall were thrilled with the outcome of this year’s Tournament. While the Tournament was well received by the participants, there were certainly some takeaways for improvements in the future, with lots of good things learned from this experience. A huge THANKS to the volunteers for all their efforts, and we hope more members and friends will step forward to make next years’ event even better!
Most importantly, this Fishing Tournament is a major fundraiser event for the South Vancouver Island Anglers Coalition. Thanks to the Sponsors, Participants and Volunteers, over $50,000 was raised in this year’s Tournament.
The funds raised will go to support SVIAC’s Chinook Enhancement Initiative in the Sooke Basin, which has released almost 5 million Chinook smolts into the Salish Sea over the last 8 years. Specifically, the funds will be used towards replacing the aging net pens and structural repair work to the enclosures used to host the smolts. SVIAC has also started planning and engaging other communities to expand this initiative to other locations on Southern Vancouver Island.
Finally, in addition to our Major Sponsors – The Alpine Group and GFL Environmental – SVIAC would like to formally recognize and thank the many great local community businesses who supported and sponsored the 2024 Alpine Juan de Fuca Fishing Tournament!
Action Car and Truck Accessories ATP Bait and Tackle Cap-It Victoria Chateau Victoria Hotel and Suites Finest At Sea Four Points Sheraton Victoria Gateway Island Outfitters Keycorp Maxxam Insurance Mill Bay Marine Group / AdventureCo Pedder Bay Resort and Marina Peetz Canada
Peninsula Co-op Pewarchuk CPA Scotty Fishing Shockwave SpringTide Whale Watching Temptech Mechanical Ltd. The Local Pub Trotac Marine Victoria Coal and Heating Victoria Tug and Barge Williams Scrap Metal Zapco Welding and Fabricating
Save the Date: September 7, 2025 for next year’s Alpine Juan de Fuca Fishing Tournament
Now this is exciting – We have a tremendous membership prize to announce! Many THANKS to INA Marine for their generous donation of a new Yamaha 9.9 high thrust long shaft kicker in support of SVIAC’s 2024 Membership Drive.
All 2024 SVIAC memberships purchased by May 31, 2024 will be eligible for a draw for the Yamaha kicker and other donated merchandise from our sponsors!
SVIAC is pleased to announce the return of its popular Membership Loyalty Benefits Program for 2024! We cannot do what we do without the support of our cherished local businesses and of course, our members! So get your membership today (Click HERE!) and visit the following local retailers (links provided for most in the name below!) to take advantage of these great offers!
Fire Safe Fire Extinguishers– 10% OFF fire safety equipment.
Cap-It Victoria – discount on purchases – 2374 Millstream Road, #106, Victoria, BC V9B 3R3
