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[BwiBwi]

Why?

I'm glad you asked...

Thompson steelhead migrate up the river at the same time as the chum, peaking around October 17th - the problem is, there were none caught in the test fishery during the migration peak, and for the first time in history, Provincial biologists are concerned there will not be enough fish coming back to re-propogate the run...

Thompson steelhead are bycatch in these chum openings.

Cheers,
Nicole

Aren't FN and commercial fishery required to release bycatch?

[Iris]

Good work Morty. Thanks for posting information on these "permanent" openings. I think that many are surprised by the extent of it. These 'openings', plus fish farms, should just about decimate the stocks. We have lost the Thompson this year, perhaps forever, what's next?
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Oh, Tyee1on, bycatch..that is the 'incidental' catch of a species caught under the pretense of 'only' targeting a different species, like steelhead and coho during the chum fisheries.
Anyone who has observed the chum fishery can attest this is significant.

[tyee1on]

thx Iris i watched then net last week they killed what ever was in the net we got in a boat and pulled up to then and told then to put the coho back they said  f---k off

[Iris]

Aren't FN and commercial fishery required to release bycatch?
Good question.

Anybody know if they are required to release the live ones?

[Iris]

Unfortunately, I have witnessed the same practices many, many times (got a similar response as well).

[Nicole]

As far as I know, the FN do not release any steelhead... They have no revival tanks either, and are currently not required to by any law.

The commies must release, but there are a percentage of steelhead that will die with every set... Multiply that by 150 boats and what you get could be disaterous.

Here's an example from last year, October 27th, for those who missed it:

http://www.watershed-watch.org/news/item.html?nid=157



As an aside, if anyone would like to act as an on board monitor, please let me know for next year, there was an opportunity for today, but the notice came too late. Next year I will be on board one of those boats.

Cheers,
Nicole

[BwiBwi]

Any official record on no. of bycatch during opening? Both FN and commercial?

[kingpin]

even the loss of one thompson fish is too great imo....

[Fish Assassin]

what is a  bycatch ?

Anything that is not the targetted species.

[Nicole]

You wont even see the roe here... it all mostly goes out to other countries that pay big bucks for it. Like Russia ... that’s why there is a market for roe it’s not like bc has a huge demand for it.

Care to guess where this roe comes from?

http://www.berrysbait.com/freshwater.aspx

Please note: Effective October the 7th the bait ban lifts on the Fraser River .  We will begin selling boraxed Chum roe on Friday October the 3rd, please try and pre-order to ensure that you get some bait.

Feel free to correct this... No offense to Barry's Bait, this link was highlighted from another site... Most tackle shops sell fresh roe.

Cheers,
Nicole

[Morty]

Do you all really NOT care about being able to fish in the future.  I don't mean 10 or 15 years - I mean NEXT year, and the next.  Every year for the past 5 the returns are getting lower and lower.  Any other year at this time if you approached the water's edge there would be Chum scattering in every direction.  I haven't seen that happen once this year and I'm on the river at least once every week. 
Sockeye counts so low there were hardly any fishing opportunities.
Chinook counts so low that there were size restrictions and the Chilliwack Hatchery had to move the boundary down just to get the minimum number of brood stock.
Coho so few and far between that there's few limits taken on ANY river in the Fraser catch basin.
It's a REALLY BAD sign when there's hardly any Chum.

How few fish do there need to be before we take some action???