Sadly the limited fishery has gone right off the rails. One sector unilaterally decided they not only no longer need to appear at the round table discussions, but that their exceeded quota is actually something to be openly ignored.
Picture from one of two beach seines which resulted in the harvest of over 6,200 sockeye (putting this sector well over their assigned and signed off on numbers):
The disappointment is obvious in this FB post by a Harvest Round Table member:
"The Barkley Sound Harvest Roundtable met this afternoon for three hours. This was one of our most difficult meetings. The relationships that have taken decades to build up are feeling some strain with the stresses that the table is currently under. My intention is to just stick to the facts, so I apologize if this update seems a little sterlized or flat.
Escapement number are proceeding at a steady level, through both sets of counters, into both lakes. Escapement is not huge, but it is steady and acceptable for the run size.
The run-size has been reforcasted to 330,000 adults, with the split to Great Central likely to arrive at around 45% by the end of the run, which is a good ratio. There is some uncertainty around the age of some of the escaped fish, because the aging laboratory is off-line right now due to Covid. So the age is being estimated by body length, which is not as accurate, but it is good enough for us to use for in-season purposes.
There is some concern that with the smaller females, egg counts could be lower, so we need to keep that in mind when we are considering escapement.
There is some concern about the accuracy of the total harvest being reported. While this inaccuracy does change allocations, more importantly it could damage future years, and make it harder for us to get this run back up to a level where we can harvest an a more economically viable number.
The Area D specific allocation has not been caught, but it is the feeling of the table today that the total catch allocation has already been exceeded at the 330,000 run size.
The Area D advisors on the call today made a very difficult decision to not plan a fishery for us next week to take the rest of our allocation, even though we have fish remaining, because it is not sustainable to fish into the escapement numbers that the entire table has agreed were responsible numbers in the past.
The recreational fishery will also be phasing out their sockeye fishery and switching to target chinook, although making regulation changes for the recreational fishery is more difficult and takes more time, and more notice has to be given, due to the size and scope of the fishery and its broadly distributed participants.
The food fishery in outer Barkley proceeds at a steady pace, with the catch being spread out over multiple weeks. There is allocation remaining and this fishery will continue because it is a negotiated treaty fishery that is triggered by run-size alone, and was never negotiated to respond to escapement.
The food fishery in the Somas River has exceeded its allocation and there will be no more licensed food fisheries in the Somas River unless the run size is substantially upgraded.
The next meeting could be on Monday, if there is a substantial abundance of fish seen by the test boat, and/or large numbers of fish seen escaping through the counters. Otherwise the next meeting is next Thursday.
Any potential Area D fishery is extremely unlikely, for all the reasons you can figure out in the above paragraphs, plus the fact that if the run size gets upgraded to 350,000 then the seine fishery comes on-line, which splits the commercial fishers allocation 60:40. The result of that split coming into play at 350,000 means the Area D allocation remains fairly constant between 300,000 and 350,000, and doesn't start to grow again until the run hits 400,000 - which seems extremely unlikely at this point.
-Ryan
Arthur Nott no, its good to have the discussion in the open if possible - usually others have the same questions. So - most years each group of harvesters work hard to stay within their own allocation. Everyone has an allocation, except for the sports fleet, which has an expected catch. If the sport fleet ever got close to their expected catch, then we would consider lowering their bag limit, but since the sports fleet has gradually shrunk since the allocation tables were built, they rarely catch their expected catch these days.
The challenge with this year is that one harvester has decided to keep fishing even though they have already exceeded their allocation. This is a large scale problem, and the harvest table doesn't have the resources to deal with it - it is squarely in the hands of the DFO to deal with this problem. The harvest table is good for dealing with small conflicts, opening plans, sharing information, etc - but if one group decides not to attend the meetings or follow the allocation tables that have been negotiated, then it is really out of our hands and all we can do is react to save the fish as best as we can.
A difficult topic.
-Ryan"
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There has been no visible enforcement presence.
The buyers are still in the main parking lot at the marina, and the fishing by the over-quota sector continues unchallenged.
The latest Bulletin:
SOMASS SOCKEYE BULLETIN # 9 – 2020 Date: July 16, 2020
For more info please call the Port Alberni DFO office at 250 720 4440
Somass Sockeye Stock Assessment UpdatePre-season forecast: Somass (Great Central and Sproat) – 169,000 Henderson Lake Sockeye outlook < 15,000
Escapement to July 15: Stamp: 88,081 Sproat: 106,996 Total: 195,077
Test Fishery: Seine vessel Nita Maria testing July 12 and 13 estimated 25,000 inside 10 Mile Point and 12,500 outside.
Re-forecast July 16 - run size upgraded to 330,000
Catch Estimate: 61,673
Somass First Nations – 34,403
Maa-nulth First Nations – 6,196
Area D Gillnet – 7,042
Area B Seine - 0
Recreational – 8,334
Test Fishery – 5,698
NEXT WEEK’S FISHING PLANS:All Fishing plans are subject to change depending on weekly meetings. Remaining sockeye allocations are limiting fisheries.
First NationsHupacasath – No fisheries scheduled.
Tseshaht – No authorized fisheries.
Tsu-ma-uss - No authorized fisheries or sales.
Tsu-ma-uss - FSC Hook and Line open 7 days a week non retention of sockeye.
Maa-nulth – 7 days a week hook and line and gillnet. The harvest plan may include the contracting of designated Area D Gillnet vessels displaying Maa-nulth identification flags to harvest remaining allocations of sockeye.
CommercialArea D Gillnet – No fisheries scheduled.
Area B Seine – No fisheries scheduled.
RecreationalJuly 1st until further notice 2 sockeye per day in Area 23 including the tidal portions of the Somass River.
Tidal Portion of the Somass River is open 5 am to 10 pm daily. See FN 0617 FN 0617 Sockeye opening Area 23
Somass Park open July 1st to July 23 daily 1 sockeye per day in a portion of the freshwater section of the Somass River.
See FN 0618 FN 0618 Somass Park
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Topic: Somas Sockeye Bulletin (Read 5346 times)