Wow... robert G.
I guess the commercial fisherman (one of which is my father who has fished this river for 60 yrs as did his father before him when he came from japan) forgot to consider your needs as a recreational fisherman. May i just mention that these are the same men who were interned in greenwood with houses and boats seized and sold without consent only to return to Steveston and start over again... but i digress.
There are many issues that informed people need to take into consideration before spouting off nonsense and ignorance. I get dragged into this every year....
History lesson
First off, 15 yrs ago or so and previous thousands of boats fished these same adams river run (following them) all the way from winter harbour (north tip of vanc island), to johnston straits, juan de fuca straits, sabeen chanel, and the fraser. They fished for 10 months of the year with multiple 24 and 48 hour openings in the Fraser. The trolled, gillnetted and seined. They did this for decades up until about 15 yrs ago. The runs were healthy and as we see today we are having a run of the adams that hasn't been seen for a century. 15yrs ago they started buying back lisences to reduce the fleet and today it is reduced by at least half. They then made the commercial fleet choose only two areas that they could fish (something like this, i am not exactly sure) - they could no longer troll in winter harbour, then gillnet the straits, then fish the fraser - they had to choose. Now, those who choose to fish the fraser have had a total of about 4 days in the last 4 years fishing for sockeye. Not to mention the nets have been reduced in size from 200 fathoms long ( 6feet per fathom) to 100 feet per fathom.
No doubt fishing has had a huge impact on stocks, especially smaller runs to begin with. But it is interesting that decades of fishing go on fine until the last 15 - 20yrs when stocks really started declining in certain runs. Again, the Adams somehow maintained strong numbers despite fishing.
Other considerations
Fishing is not the only factor to consider. Deforestation (causing silt and warmer tributaries = destroys spawning habitat), Pollution from ...everything, especially farms (juvinille salmon spend most of their time in backeddies and such where higher concentrations of pollutants exist), ocean conditions (unkown what happens out there), and fish farm (lice).
Why is it that last year a run of 10million was expected and only 1 million showed up - there was sufficient spawners and little fishing pressure on that run. Why is it that the broughton archepeligo expecting millions of pinks was obliterated then 2yrs later come back with a vengence? How is that this run on 14 million that had the only fishing pressure of any extent 4 and 8 yrs ago all of a sudden double in size to levels never before seen for 100yrs?
Commercial Fishing on the Fraser - the real deal
Obviously the numbers in the river when they get to hope will be reduced significantly enough to make it difficult for the Flossers out there to have optimal chances of hooking up. But the first nations commercial opening (yes they get a seperate commercial opening, other than food fishing, from the rest of the commercial fleet) lasted 3 days -THEN the commercial fleet went out for 8 hrs and still the boats upriver did extremely well compared to the boats at the mouth - my point is FISH GET THROUGH!
HOW you ask. TIDES!!!! When the tide is running, netting at the mouth is very ineffective - the net lays sideways and are not deep enough (60 mesh) to catch the fish as they stick close to the bottom and the sides of the river looking for easier paths. The only time the nets are effective is during slack and back up when the fish flood in and push up river. This means optimal fishing only occurs for a few hours of each tide. For example, we have fished for hours, back when the river was loaded with boats and 200 fathom nets, catching only 5 - 20 fish per set. Then all of a sudden, as the tide slows and stops, the fish appear seamingly out of nowhere everywhere in the river. TIDES ARE THE KEY.
PURSE SEINE - unfortunately, purse seine definately hits hard. It wasn't until the late 50's that the seine boat used drums and hydrolics adding to their efficiency. instead of 2 sets a day they can make up to 10. To compare a purse seine to a gillnet would be to compare a ping pong net to a tennis net. That is why you will never see them in the mouth of the Fraser - that would obliterate the run.
TOO MANY SPAWNERS - as ibily mentioned, you can only have a certain number of spawners or the spawning beds are destroyed and numbers are reduced even more than they would be if an optimal # is allowed. I'm sure there is a farming comparison in there somewhere. Robert G. - Of course the gillnetters aren't there to help the numbers
Gillnetters - are not greedy. they are just trying to make a living fishing legally when they are allowed to, by the powers that be. They agree with management and want there to be fish for everyone.
Finally - If you want to complain, be informed, be respectful, and aim it at the right targets.
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Topic: Area E gets a 32 hour opening (Read 44303 times)