Hi Chris, thanks for this post.
I am sure the Directors of The Fraser Valley Salmon Society (FVSS) had the best intentions when they decided to donate $1000 to Alexandra Morton’s Adopt –a-Fry program. I believe however that money could have been spent more effectively.
The FVSS is based out of Chilliwack, home of the Vedder-Chilliwack River. Anyone who has been reading FWR or fishing/walking the river, knows it is under tremendous angler pressure. Many of these anglers are new to the sport and often use and employ methods that are unethical, unlawful, and totally disrespectful to the fish – mainly because they don’t know better.
Education (river signage, newspapers, local television, sporting goods stores, etc) of these new anglers to proper angling techniques/fish identification, along with adequate enforcement is, in my opinion, the only way to combat this eyesore to the angling community. The FVSS had an opportunity to take a proactive leadership role in this education campaign; the $1000, with a bit of lobbying/challenges to other so called fish friendly organizations to match , could have increased this amount. Such a move might have even put some heat to DFO’s seemingly ineffective and apathetic Recreational Fisheries division.
I saw another example of the need for education this morning while observing the daily snag fest at the Vedder bridge. I noticed a fellow cleaning a good sized bright fish, a female as he kept the roe. He packed up and walked by me where I saw he had killed a wild coho. I asked him if he knew what he had killed – he said jack spring. Despite my efforts to explain the difference, he would not listen and told me to FO. The sad thing was there about 40 other anglers there and I’m not sure if any of them knew it was coho, let alone a wild coho.