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[bkk]

No it doesn't upset me. The pink run is healthy, very healthy. I'd say that enough fish has gone through already to meet spawning targets.
And there will always be a few pinks that will make it through, providing opportunity to sporties who don't mind working hard for their fish.

The crowds will thin out and that's a good thing.

Well it should upset you Milo because there are way to many questions that have not been answered. You say that enough fish have gone through to meet spawning targets. Care to enlighten us on what those spawning targets are? How many fish should the Ashlu have? What is the target for the Cheakamus? Upper Squamish? Do they make it into the Elaho?

Not trying to hack on you but your, or mine or anyone elses observations are not scientific and a fishery should not be based on that criteria. You need defensible data, not that there are just lots of fish. That is too subjective. Some people say there are lots of sockeye in the Fraser so should we open up the fishery there?

The Squamish has no spawning assesment for pinks, no spawning goals, no escapement data and no idea what the run size is or should be. That is not good enought to base a commercial fishery on. How many did they / will they harvest? 10% of the run or 70% of the run? something between that amount?

If you can't justify the fishery with sound biological data then it should not happen. That has not happened.

The other thing that bugs me is that all of the salmon fishery is closed on the Fraser so the only other significant fishery is on the Squamish. Then you open a  commercial fishery here. No prior discussion with angling groups such as the Squamish Lillooet Sport fish advisory board. Notice comes out 1 day before the fishery begins. The last commercial fishery on Squamish pinks in Howe Sound was in 1957.

Lots of explaining to be done to justify this one.

[bigblockfox]

really 1957. wow. in the past has the run been healthy?

[bkk]

The run was strong until the mid - late sixties and then it tanked. Down to a small amount in the early 80's and then the rebuilding work began. Transplanted pinks from the Indian and local Squamish broodstock enhanced out of Tenderfoot Hatchery. Rebuilding began but was set back by large floods. Back to the Indian and rebuilding began again along with habitat restoration projects in the upper Squamish, Ashlu and Cheakamus rivers. Runs expanded and the secure habitat allowed the stocks to survive a few of the monster floods that this watershed seems to produce. Runs started to increase to significant amounts in the late 90's and have continued  growth to present size. Enhancement from the CN Rail Recovery fund along with good ocean survivals and good fry from the river and secure habitat has allowed the stock to become robust. Only one good flood away from the crash but the habitat restoration projects should help to ensure that the amounts of adult spawners do not return to the levels seen in the 80's.

[milo]

Well it should upset you Milo

If I let every political screwup upset me, I'd be on medication before you can say fish on.
Greed and deep pockets rule - it's been like that since the dawn of civilization.

All I know is, if DFO has sanctioned the opening (for whatever reason and based on whatever science), who am I to contest it?

I have no clue what the pink salmon spawning targets are. All I know is that thousands upon thousands of fish have been going upstream around the clock for the last several weeks - that should mean something to somebody. Somebody must be counting,  taking notes and making decisions. At least that is what I choose to believe.

[zabber]

Informative thread. Thanks to all participants

[ynot]

2 boats now fishing SOUTHERN RIDGE AND OCEAN ACHEVER   hoping for poor catches and they go back home.

[Bently]

2 boats now fishing SOUTHERN RIDGE AND OCEAN ACHEVER   hoping for poor catches and they go back home.

The "Ocean Achiever" is the boat in my avatar, I fished on her for 3 years back in my commercial days, doubtful they will come home empty handed as the owner is considered a "HIGHLINER" when it comes to salmon fishing, if the fish are there he'll get em, but one can always dream I guess

[ynot]

i place no blame on the skippers but DFO are baffoons to allow this fishery.

[Bently]

Baffoons ?? maybe, but what are you going to say if the returning cycle is at par or better ?? We fished sockeye for decades, then bam, all of a sudden there's 30 million fish returning, go figure eh ?? I'm pretty sure what goes on "IN" the sea is what determines how man fish come back {in most cases anyways}. If you have enough fish {too many is not always a good thing remember} past the point of being caught and are in their spawning grounds to do their thing then how can you blame the commercial fleet or DFO for lousy returns ?? Sure the FN nets get waaay to many fish for what they say they need them for {food and ceremonial purposes} but one must look at sea temps, food sources, the shape the fish are in and all the other obstacles that they face {predators in the dozens etc etc } while in their pursuit of ocean survival as well as their return to their native stream/river to spawn.

It's not easy being a salmon you know, lollol. 

[ynot]

1 boat leaving howe sound, would this mean he is full and going to unload, quitting, fishing no good, has a hot date friday night.

[Bently]

I can't see the company having a packer out there for two boats so my guess is that he is full and will offload then turn and burn back to the grounds, that's if he's got time and it's still open in that area. For all I know they have other company boats ready to go next, i imagine it's a pool fishery of some sort as well so whatever they catch will be pooled with other fishermen that don't even have to work for it, this happens quite often nowadays, especially on the herring roe fishery.

FYI, seine boats can, and do at times, fish at night when allowed, but very rarely do they {seiners} conduct fishing operations in the dark unless time is of value. In my career i only did it maybe 3 times, and rarely is it good fishing.

 The "Ocean Acheiver as well as the Southern Ridge berth in Coal harbor, one at Oceans plant and the other at MacMillan Fisheries so it's not a very long steam to get there and tie up instead of dropping the hook for the night but I'm just speculating there so.........

[ynot]

how much is full, he went to the fraser river last night and is still there at 7.30am.  still only one boat in squamish fishing the southern ridge. open another 2 days.

[Bently]

Ocean Achiever holds about 70 gross tons of herring, around 130,000 lbs of rockfish when their Dragging so if he's salmon fishing my guess is a full load would be somewhere in the 140,000 to 150,000 lb range. Salmon stack like cord wood in slush tanks and you can get more in than when your fishing rockfish etc etc. as they ice those. Fishing salmon they just take a few ton of ice then add water, kinda like your slurpy at 7=11

Maybe he's still unloading 

[rjs]

just read a paper on pinks the other day and when we have hit the  quota that our processors can handle the rest is flash frozen and sent to china for processing for the European markets

[ynot]

no boats fishing in howe sound yet today.