What cracks me up is that people are moaning about not getting their fair share instead of realizing the whole system is broken. People are fighting over the crumbs instead of realizing that there used to be plenty for everybody. Oh, sure, everybody sees that and blames it on the respective boogie man, farm fishing, seals, global warming, logging, fishing, etc. Instead of working together to figure out solutions or other possible reasons, more effort is put into claiming more crumbs for certain groups. Those boogie men are distant and there isn't much any one person can do to change those.
Maybe each of those boogie men are the cause all together, maybe there are other things. If people were adults and thinking about the future, there would be numerous study groups set up encompassing FN, sports and commercial fishing, scientists, gov't officials, businesses, including counterparts from the states, etc. Oh, what, there was one recently? There should be multiple groups meeting. The goal shouldn't be how are we going to divvy up the crumbs left but how are we going to rebuild populations so that 10, 15, 100, 500 years from now our rivers are teeming with salmon. I applaud the efforts of some on this board of going up and counting spawners and if the numbers are down, figuring out why and fixing it. Or the effort of cleaning up the habitat because people are absolutely disgusting and refuse to treat the land with respect. I'd like to see a group set up bigger than anything previous that focuses on spawning habitat all the way up and down the Fraser. Find places that used to be packed with fish and find out why they aren't anymore. Have another that focuses on main river issues, poaching, obstacles, insufficient or too much water flow, etc. Have another that focuses on ocean obstacles, commercial fishing, seals, orcas, deep sea fishing and definitely includes Alaska and Washington voices and maybe some Asian countries on the deep sea nets. Each of these groups meet, discuss, find ways to improve things. Each comes back with a proposal of 3-5 things that can be done now to help. Then you do those things. Turn this crap around and get it going in the right direction instead of thinking about right now and what you can get.
For a protest fishery, the thought is there are plenty of fish and we want our share. Yet, I don't see how anybody can say there are plenty of fish and we just aren't getting our share. If there were plenty of fish, we wouldn't be worrying about this because everybody's share would be big enough (except for those that just can't get enough of course). Why would you hurt the very thing you are trying to save? Except this isn't about saving the salmon for future generations, this is give me what I deserve now because I am not getting enough.