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Author Topic: commercial boats out on the fraser today  (Read 10867 times)

StillAqua

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Re: commercial boats out on the fraser today
« Reply #15 on: May 14, 2013, 05:18:24 AM »

If you have the answers then why not post them for all to see.
I would really like to know more about there demise and what in river event has caused there decline as im sure others would as well.
Maybe the stocks are in much better shape than I think they are and we should all be out there fishing for them once again.

If you're seriously interested in the state of various fish in BC, check out DFO's Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat reports. They are rigorous peer-reviewed evaluations by groups of scientists of all the data available for a given fish population using a variety of fish assessment techniques (so they are fairly technical). The one for eulachon is here:
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/csas-sccs/Publications/ResDocs-DocRech/2012/2012_098-eng.html

Apparently, eulachons don't produce a lot of offspring so they can't sustain much fishing pressure and take a long time to rebuild. Their conclusions about Fraser River eulachon are that:
The analysis suggested that the decline in population abundance could be explained most parsimoniously by the sequential historical impacts of directed in-river catch (prior to 1970), bycatch in the shrimp trawl fishery (1990 to 2000), and several consecutive years of anomalously low productivity (2002-2007 brood years). The model indicates that, under conditions of average historical productivity and current levels of bycatch mortality from shrimp trawling effort but no directed exploitation, the Fraser River population should rebuild to 33-49 percent (range for the three cohorts) of the unfished abundance over a period of 16-18 years.

As Rod said, the native river fishery is strictly traditional and insignificant compared to the shrimp trawl fishery. If you really want to save eulachon, don't eat trawled shrimp from BC waters. There's nothing we can do about changing ocean conditions but it doesn't hurt to try and defend their in-river spawning habitats.
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firstlight

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Re: commercial boats out on the fraser today
« Reply #16 on: May 14, 2013, 10:55:56 AM »

That is very interesting and pretty much what I thought was happening to them but I didn't realise it was so close to home.
Dam,i like Shrimp.

Thanks for posting it in laymans terms as I find the scientific reports and info. a little long winded and mind boggling.
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troutbreath

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Re: commercial boats out on the fraser today
« Reply #17 on: May 14, 2013, 03:17:29 PM »

I wonder if the Spot Prawn guys are hauling them in? Make a interesting newspaper story if they were.
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another SLICE of dirty fish perhaps?

StillAqua

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Re: commercial boats out on the fraser today
« Reply #18 on: May 15, 2013, 03:16:55 PM »

I wonder if the Spot Prawn guys are hauling them in? Make a interesting newspaper story if they were.

Spot prawns are a trap fishery....very sustainable with little bycatch...eat all you want...or can afford  ;)
It's the BC pink and sidestripe shrimp you want to avoid.
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troutbreath

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Re: commercial boats out on the fraser today
« Reply #19 on: May 15, 2013, 05:25:20 PM »

Thanks good to know StillAqua. I don't eat shrimp.
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another SLICE of dirty fish perhaps?