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[silver ghost]

I was just wondering if anyone knew what they did with the fish caught in test fisheries and how they were caught? Are they seine or gillnetted? are they released after?

[funfisher]

I believe a good amount of them go to Bruces market. Can anyone confirm this?

[alwaysfishn]

They are gill netted and most are sold to Bruce's market

[silver ghost]

That's terrible! So the steelhead they catch as part of the "test fishery" are fricken sold? Wow DFO, that's bullspit!!! What's the point of this then if the fish are killed after? I think it should be a seine that it brailled in The water

[StillAqua]

That's terrible! So the steelhead they catch as part of the "test fishery" are fricken sold? Wow DFO, that's bullspit!!! What's the point of this then if the fish are killed after? I think it should be a seine that it brailled in The water

If you're talking about the Albion Chinook Test Fishery, you can look up how many steelhead they catch each year in the reports.
http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fraserriver/commercial/commercialalbionchnk_e.htm.
It's typically a lot less than a dozen fish but 2011 has about 11 so far. That's good news I think......it means the abundances are up.

[silver ghost]

Yes ut it's kind of a catch 22...

If they gillnet the steelhead they find out how many there are, but end up killing a whole bunch.

If they don't gillnet, they would save them, but then we wouldn't know how many are returning

:@

[top fuel]

where is bruces market

[Easywater]

Maple Ridge near the old Albion ferry dock.

[jon5hill]

I coordinated sampling for this test fishery. Test fish are sold to PSC staff, anyone who approaches Don at the boat, and the remainder to Bruce's market (this is at the Whonnock test fishing site). This test fishery is not operated by the DFO. It's run by the Pacific Salmon Commission. We stopped test fishing at Whonnock on Sep 30th. Also, virtually every fish caught in the test fisheries are alive when they get in the boat. Gillnetting is considered a "terminal" fishery, as it's usage often kills fish over an extended period of time. However, due to the short duration of the drifts conducted at Whonnock and Cottonwood test fishing sites, the fish are almost always alive when caught. Any Steelhead and Coho caught as bycatch are recorded and let go, most of them swimming away energetically.

Hope this clears up any concerns.

Jon

[lovetofish]

I coordinated sampling for this test fishery. Test fish are sold to PSC staff, anyone who approaches Don at the boat, and the remainder to Bruce's market (this is at the Whonnock test fishing site). This test fishery is not operated by the DFO. It's run by the Pacific Salmon Commission. We stopped test fishing at Whonnock on Sep 30th. Also, virtually every fish caught in the test fisheries are alive when they get in the boat. Gillnetting is considered a "terminal" fishery, as it's usage often kills fish over an extended period of time. However, due to the short duration of the drifts conducted at Whonnock and Cottonwood test fishing sites, the fish are almost always alive when caught. Any Steelhead and Coho caught as bycatch are recorded and let go, most of them swimming away energetically.

Hope this clears up any concerns.

Jon

Thanks for this information Jon.
 I had always hoped that the coho and steelhead were able to be released unharmed. Does this apply at the Albion test fishery as well?

[silver ghost]

I coordinated sampling for this test fishery. Test fish are sold to PSC staff, anyone who approaches Don at the boat, and the remainder to Bruce's market (this is at the Whonnock test fishing site). This test fishery is not operated by the DFO. It's run by the Pacific Salmon Commission. We stopped test fishing at Whonnock on Sep 30th. Also, virtually every fish caught in the test fisheries are alive when they get in the boat. Gillnetting is considered a "terminal" fishery, as it's usage often kills fish over an extended period of time. However, due to the short duration of the drifts conducted at Whonnock and Cottonwood test fishing sites, the fish are almost always alive when caught. Any Steelhead and Coho caught as bycatch are recorded and let go, most of them swimming away energetically.

Hope this clears up any concerns.

Jon

Oh thank you Jon.

When I thought of test fishery / took in much of the speculation, I assumed it was run by DFO to 'test' what fish were coming into the fraser. So i'm assuming that the PSC has a special licence to harvest fish at the test fishery and only keeps what is allowed at that time?

Also, you didn't mention what method is used in the test fishery... Is it in fact gillnetting? Because i'm sure it's not always easy to get the fish out of the gillnet in time....Or is it a purse seine which is 'brailled' in the water to screen out the interior coho and steelhead?

So is the point of test fishing just to see the abundance of a given species and determine quotas or openings/closures?

I'm really happy those fish are released unharmed, I was worried they were 'sacrificed' for the purposes of number crunching

[silver ghost]

Thanks for this information Jon.
 I had always hoped that the coho and steelhead were able to be released unharmed. Does this apply at the Albion test fishery as well?

I'm curious too...

Also, do you know if other test fishing operations [ones that operate year-round, if at all] are required to release species of concern as well?

And what about when there is no commercial opening [like say, chinook], do they still do a 'test fish' for chinook?

[Easywater]

Most of the west coast test fisheries end around the middle of September then don't start up again until July.

I think that most of the test fisheries focus on sockeye and chinook as those are the most valuable product.
There is always a commercial opening even if there is no recreational opening (and there's always a rec chinook opening)

The PSC will always run the test fishery to get a year over year view of the stocks.

There are 2 basic types of test fisheries (well, commercial net fishing in general): seine and gillnet.

Seine (otherwise known as "purse seine") - where a small boat runs the end of a deep net around in a big circle around what they hope is a large group of fish.
The net "ring" is closed off at the water level then the bottom of the "purse" is sealed as well.
This creates a net "bucket" hopefully full of fish.

Then, I believe the net is hoisted onto the boat and the fish are run through a trough where the fish can be sorted.
The by-catch can then be returned to the ocean relatively unharmed.

Gillnets are run in a straight line across where the fish are running and their head gets caught in the openings and they can't back out because of their gills.
If the fish are left in the water for a long time (like some night nets we've seen), the fish are dead by the time they are recovered.

If you look at the PSC test fisheries, you will see something like "25 coho caught & released".

The Albion test fishery uses a gillnet designed to catch mostly chinook but their set is very quick - 5 to 10 minutes so I could see the survival rate being good.

[jon5hill]

Oh thank you Jon.

When I thought of test fishery / took in much of the speculation, I assumed it was run by DFO to 'test' what fish were coming into the fraser. So i'm assuming that the PSC has a special licence to harvest fish at the test fishery and only keeps what is allowed at that time?

Also, you didn't mention what method is used in the test fishery... Is it in fact gillnetting? Because i'm sure it's not always easy to get the fish out of the gillnet in time....Or is it a purse seine which is 'brailled' in the water to screen out the interior coho and steelhead?

So is the point of test fishing just to see the abundance of a given species and determine quotas or openings/closures?

I'm really happy those fish are released unharmed, I was worried they were 'sacrificed' for the purposes of number crunching

The PSC has a special license to harvest fish from the test fishery and part of the sales of the fish go to pay for the hours of the test fishers involved. We sample fish from these sites using a variable mesh gill net, the fish are then processed by removing a scale, clipping adipose tissue flesh for DNA work, measuring and weighing them. Due to our need for information, these fish need to remain on the boat in totes and analyzed by one or two techicians, and in the process these fish are killed. Chinook, sockeye, and pinks are all retained and sampled for genetic stock identification and enumeration (use of this data in conjunction with models helps to determine run abundance estimates). This information is presented at the FRP meetings and commissioners from both US and Canada determine fishery openings in the fraser river panel area in season. Usually the longest delay on information is about 3 days, so this method is effective at allowing a reasonable commercial TAC and achieving escapement targets.

[Oilcruzer]

Nice.  Who establishes pricing?  Are fish bled?

Any interesting or surprising items?  Good news?  Concerns?