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!
Watch here for updates!
Draw will be made on June 1, 2024.
Get your memberships here!
New Donation Challenge! In the early days of the Sooke Chinook Enhancement Initiative, some of the whale watching community in Victoria were the first to step up with financial support from their conservation funds. One local prominent fishing charter was a bit embarrassed that his business wasn’t collecting a similar fee for salmon enhancement, given his business directly benefits from this important project. Since then, Rollie Rose from Sooke Salmon Charters, who also serves on the Board of Directors of SVIAC, collects $5 from each of his charter trips (as low as $1.25 per person on a 4 person trip) specifically to support the Sooke Chinook Enhancement Initiative. Rollie carries a laminated explanation of the project on his boat, and is happy to explain the value of this project to curious customers (in the short breaks between hookups, which are few and far between on his trips). This contribution results in hundreds of dollars in donations each year. Rollie challenges other fishing charter guides around Southern Island to do the same with their guests for the project, and other charters up and down the coast to do likewise to support other similar projects in their area. If not on a trip-by-trip basis, an annual donation to such projects is another great option. As heart, Rollie is a fisherman first and foremost, so he poses the same challenge to all fishermen and women of all ages, to support the fishery for generations to come.
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:
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!
At the end of September, response letters from DFO (Fisheries Minister Jordan and Pacific RDG Rebecca Reid) have emerged that, in our opinion, are a clear indication of just how little our current federal government in Ottawa feel about the Public Salmon Fishery in British Columbia. The Sport Fishing Advisory Board and SVIAC both received responses, as we are sure other groups from the West Coast angling community did too.
Firstly, it is astonishing to us that a SVIAC letter written in good faith and sent the Fisheries Minister on March 12, requesting urgent action by the federal government, would get a reply on September 28. That is an insulting 200-day or 6 month delay in sending a response. With the amount of support staff in the minister’s office and regardless of the Corona Virus, any Canadian individual writing to the federal government should receive a reply sooner on any matter, let alone one addressing an urgent matter from a stakeholder organization.
The full SVIAC March 12, 2020 letter and DFO Minister Jordan’s September 28, 2020 reply, 2020 are available at the following links:
SVIAC Letter to Minister Bernadette Jordan – Mar 12th, 2020
DFO Minister Bernadette Jordan’s reply – Sept 28th, 2020
Regarding Marked Selective Fisheries (MSF) for salmon, the topic raised in the letters from the SFAB and SVIAC, our government is not giving us an outright no, but it certainly isn’t an enthusiastic yes let’s do it immediately either! The term “slow walking” seems more apt under the circumstance. (Dictionary: to slow walk is to perform a task slowly on purpose so as to drag out the time taken, usually in order to delay what the subject believes will occur next). The opportunity to retain abundant USA-origin hatchery fin-clipped Chinook this past March and April, when there were NO stocks of concern present, was lost unnecessarily, depriving the public of viable fishing opportunities. And the survival of the Public Chinook Fishery around South Vancouver Island is clearly in danger of collapse with the current policies being implemented by Ottawa. Selective Marked Fishery is a viable solution and needs implementing immediately. Even Premier John Horgan has made valiant efforts to inspire the Federal Liberal Government to take action by advocating for the recovery of wild salmon, supporting our public salmon fisheries and promoting salmon enhancement for the benefit of all British Columbians. Yet some how, as government often does, Ottawa has managed to turn a positive opportunity into a drawn out bureaucratic exercise of pure frustration for the very Canadians they serve.
The Minister’s response letter is a classic example. As usual, you can hear the sad violin music playing in your head as you read the explanations why (with tongue in cheek) –
– we must conserve these stocks of concern in the ocean and be cautious about mixed stock Marked Selective Fisheries as they impact the weaker stocks (even though all wild fish must be released in the Public Fishery and, at the same time, DFO allow directed gill net fisheries for these very same stocks of concern on the Fraser River. And let’s not forget that DFO can not seem to keep ahead of the rampant unlawful net fishing poachers who, by many accounts, kill thousands upon thousands of Chinook annually to be sold off for illegal profit).
– We can’t compromise our antiquated stock assessment system for some new, cutting edge technology (there seems to be a cadre of DFOers who are clinging to their Coded Wire Tagging with an irrational zealous intolerance for change)
– DFO haven’t got two brass farthings spare to pay for all the extra costs (HA! you have to laugh when DFO play the “no money” violin music as government happily shovels billions and billions of taxpayers money off the back of the truck to their pet woke causes de jour).
– Flooding the ocean with millions and millions of hatchery fish will starve the last few remaining wild salmon and interaction between hatchery and wild fish is too risky and just bad …
– we must study MSF for at least another decade (even though DFO have released hundreds of millions of hatchery salmon for more than forty years, its now the time to study the inaction – phew, gimme a break!!)
The cynicism and sarcasm of the author around this article are clear. We, the angling community of South Vancouver Island, have heard all this guff before, a thousand times. In truth, it is time someone had the stones to stand up and say the truth out loud. DFO have completely dropped the ball with Fraser Stream-Type Chinook stocks of concern. It is clear and historically proven that increasing fishing restrictions alone as a quasi recovery plan, which is essentially the departments sole strategy for the past 15 years with Fraser Chinook, is a loser’s game. Yet, Minister after Minister sees it as a cheap solution to address a problem. The analogy is giving the patient an aspirin for their headache as their leg drops off due to Gangrene. If the patient was taken to hospital and given proper treatment right out of the gate, they wouldn’t need their leg amputated now! Simply put, it kicks the can down the road.
The overwhelming majority of the angling community care deeply about our wild Pacific salmon resource and we wholly recognize it may take decades for Fraser River Chinook that are in real trouble to actually recover, if ever at all. We understand the federal government is following a prime minister-ordered mandate to reconcile with the Indigenous people of Canada and that the health and protection of the environment is top of list too. Yet, our important Public salmon fishery is in jeopardy of collapse and stands on the brink of the cliff. Ottawa doesn’t have to wreak havoc and hardship on thousands of honest hard-working Canadians while hell-bent on achieving their other objectives. We, the angling community, are all Canadians too and we just want fair treatment.
We don’t want to kill wild fish that are threatened or endangered, but please, please keep our fishery alive, all be it on life support while the Fraser Chinook recovery is implemented. The Salmon Enhancement Program needs Minister Jordan to order all hatchery Coho and Chinook produced in Canada to be identifiably marked (adipose fin-clipped). Let the Public salmon fishery keep the marked hatchery Chinook, which are raised for fisheries, when their abundance is high and any harm to struggling wild salmon in that area is infinitesimal. And equally, let the Public fishery catch and keep Chinook in areas and at times where abundant stocks are present and wild stocks of concern are historically not present or very rare. It’s just that simple!
Below is the content of the letter sent to the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard seeking her intervention in allowing South Vancouver Island Anglers to retain a hatchery marked Chinook in April and May 2020 …
Attn: The Honourable Bernadette Jordan March 12, 2020
Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard
House of Commons,
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6
Dear Minister Jordan,
Allow me to congratulate you on your appointment to the position as Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard. The purpose of this correspondence is to bring your attention to this year’s proposed Fraser River Chinook management measures. We urgently need your help to save the Public Salmon Fishery from unnecessary harm.
Until a decade ago, Juan de Fuca Strait, the Lower Georgia Strait and Haro Strait were renowned for their excellent year-round saltwater salmon fisheries. These fisheries around South Vancouver Island are now heavily restricted and the region’s angling business community is struggling to remain viable. Using fishing restrictions as a primary recovery strategy for declining Fraser Chinook stocks of concern since 2008 has proved fruitless. This is especially troubling as the department, under their declining annual budgets, opted to close salmon hatcheries on the Fraser River and has done little to restore key areas of deficient habitat. From an 11.5% exploitation rate (ER) of Fraser stream-type Chinook prior to 2008 to under 3%, the Public Salmon Fishery around South Vancouver Island has undeniably borne the brunt of all cut backs.
Recreational fishing is socially significant and an important part of the way of life of thousands upon thousands of Canadians in British Columbia. Bringing a salmon home for the family table is integral to a successful experience in this fishery. Moreover, this wholesome past time pumps many millions of dollars each year into numerous small angling service businesses, including lodges, guides, charters, marinas, tackle stores, bait suppliers and fishing gear manufacturers. Many of these companies are the backbone of our small South Island coastal communities. Additionally, Southern British Columbia now has indigenous community members and bands who rely on the Public Salmon Fishery for their income.In 2019, your predecessor, responding to the low returns of Fraser Stream-Type Chinook stocks of concern and the Big Bar slide on the Fraser River implemented an emergency fishing plan.
The regulations placed the Public Salmon Fishery in Southern British Columbia under a catch-and-release approach from April 16th to July 14th or July 31st dependent on area. This decision, in our opinion, was a mistake and unfairly restricted the Public’s fishery, because anglers were not allowed the opportunity to access abundant hatchery-origin Chinook without impacting stocks of concern. We believe, when placed under catch-and-release, our unique British Columbia ocean-based Public Salmon Fishery is unable to survive. Canadians, who fish for salmon on the ocean, seek to retain a fish for the table.
Our neighbours to the south in Washington State, annually produce approximately 75,000,000 adipose fin-clipped Chinook salmon through their federal, state and indigenous run hatcheries. Wild USA Chinook are endangered and the State produces marked (fin-clipped) hatchery raised Chinook expressly to support and sustain fisheries. These fish, which are plentiful in the Canadian waters around South Vancouver Island, provide excellent selective Chinook harvesting opportunities for Canadians during most of the year. The benefits of this selective fishing are that anglers will release ALL wild fish and retain only hatchery fish, which they can identify because hatchery fish have had their adipose fin removed. These USA origin hatchery Chinook are in South Vancouver Island waters between October and June and under the Pacific Salmon Treaty Canadians are legally allowed to access these fish.
During the salmon fishery planning in 2019, the Sport Fishing Advisory Board (SFAB) representatives urged your department’s fisheries managers to permit salmon retention fishing opportunities. They recommended fisheries that drastically reduced any exploitation of the wild stocks of concern to below the DFO ER targets, while maintaining viable options for the Canadian public; sadly, that well-reasoned advice went unheeded. In 2019, the opportunity to catch and keep abundant hatchery-origin Chinook was squandered.
In the DFO letter to First Nations and DFO Advisory Groups (from DFO Pacific Region Salmon Management Team – March 2nd, 2020) regarding Fraser River Chinook Conservation Measures, it states “the Department plans to implement management measures that were announced for the 2019 season, beginning April 1st, 2020.” This is a roll over without change from last year. It goes on to state “Interim measures beginning April 1st, 2020, will be in place until a decision is made surrounding future measures.” Additionally, “… potential adjustments to 2019 management measures or alternative approaches should be considered for the period June 1, 2020 to May 31, 2021.” Our interpretation of this indicates that the period April 1 to May 31th in 2020, has no potential for change and we could be locked in to catch and release for spring 2021 as well.
There are specific areas of Southern British Columbia that at certain times your department’s own historical data indicates there is zero presence of Fraser Chinook stocks of concern. Why would hatchery-origin Chinook harvest opportunities not be permitted there? Your department’s fisheries managers must do all that they can to maintain sustainable salmon fisheries for the public, to preserve socio-economic benefits for Canadians, while dealing with conservation and constitutionally protected fisheries.
April 1st, 2020 is rapidly approaching. The opportunity to craft salmon fisheries that benefit from abundant USA origin hatchery-marked Chinook around South Vancouver Island is still possible. However, unless your fisheries managers act immediately, we believe another year of viable fishing opportunity will be lost. I am confident the Sport Fishing Advisory Board representatives will, without delay, share their expertise with your department’s fisheries managers to identify areas of Southern British Columbia where retention fisheries make sense and meet conservation objectives.
On behalf of our Board of Directors, the membership of our coalition and the South Vancouver Island angling community, I respectfully appeal to you to act expeditiously. We urge you to direct your staff to make every possible effort to sustain and foster our unique Public Salmon Fishery. And, wherever possible, support scientifically defensible opportunities where they exist without impacting the stocks of concern. Thank you in advance for considering our request.
Yours in conservation,
Christopher Bos
President
South Vancouver Island Anglers Coalition is a non-profit angling advocacy group, based in Victoria British Columbia, that represents 750 fee-paying members and the interests of the South Vancouver Island angling community in all matters of marine and freshwater fisheries. We advocate for healthy abundant marine ecosystems and the use of strategic enhancement for the benefit of all Canadians.
NOTE: Letter sent by Regular Mail to the addressee and copied by Electronic Mail to:
Ken MacDonald – MP – Chair, Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans
Mel Arnold – MP – Vice Chair, Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans
Marilene Gill – MP – Vice Chair, Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans
The Honourable Ed Fast – MP – Member, Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans
Terry Beech – MP – Member, Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans
Jaime Battiste – MP – Member, Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans
Richard Bragdon – MP – Member, Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans
Blaine Calkins – MP – Member, Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans
Gord Johns – MP – Member, Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans
Serge Cormier – MP – Member, Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans
Ken Hardie – MP – Member, Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans
Robert J. Morrissey – MP – Member, Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans
Randall Garrison – MP Esquimalt – Saanich-Sooke
Laurel Collins – MP Victoria
Elizabeth May – MP Saanich – Gulf Islands
Alistair MacGregor – MP Cowichan – Malahat-Langford
Paul Manly – MP – Nanaimo – Ladysmith
Rachel Blaney – MP – North Island – Powell River
John Horgan – Premier of British Columbia
Rebecca Reid – DFO – Regional Director General (Pacific Region)
Martin Paish – Chair – Sport Fishing Advisory Board