Last summer's mid season closure was indeed because Fisheries and Oceans Canada decided too many people were fishing unselectively, but most of this was pressured by First Nations who were not permitted to harvest sockeye salmon at the time. The rationale was that if First Nations could not fish for sockeye salmon due to conservation concerns, recreational fishermen could also not have an impact on them even if they were by-caught and released. My colleagues and I at the Sport Fishing Advisory Committee repeatedly urged people to only bar fish, but in the end the recreational fishing community was once again not organized enough and got played around and kept off the river during the peak of the season. Meanwhile, First Nations fishers were granted their chinook salmon openings, with sockeye salmon being by-caught and harvested in the net anyway.
I and few others spent pretty much the entire last August in email communication trying to get the fishery reopened. One question posed was that at what percentage of non-selective fishing practice do we decide that it is unacceptable? Just about everyone downstream from Agassiz last year (this year too) has been practicing bar fishing and having a great time doing so. Few locations known for bottom bouncing continue to see bottom bouncers above Agassiz, should location-specific closures not be considered rather than punishing the entire community where majority of the participants are willing to cooperate? The other issue I pointed out was the inaccuracy when it came to observation of angling methods. DFO uses fly-by method to count rods and determine the percentage of angling method out of all the participants. Somehow, they'd decided that during the first weekend of opening last August, 87% of the participants in the Tidal Fraser River were fishing unselectively. If you've fished the tidal portion of the Fraser River regularly like me, you'll know what I think about that number... The % was based on 15 anglers they counted, two were observed bar fishing, while the other 13 were apparently bottom bouncing. Four categories of fishing methods were being counted - bottom bouncing, bar fishing, fly fishing and trolling. What about spincasting, which is probably the most commonly used method in the Tidal Fraser River?
1A - Port Mann to Mission
1 - Mission to Agassiz
2 - Agassiz to HopeSo you ask, if bottom bouncing poses a threat to the conservation effort on sockeye salmon, why is a regulation which prohibits it during sockeye closure not implemented? Guess what we've been trying to do in the past two years? Going into the last four or five sport fishing advisory committee meetings since 2014, representatives in the Fraser Valley who speak on behalf of you, had worked extremely hard to come up with such regulations so the river can remain open for fishing. Everyone agrees that we'd rather have some fishing opportunities with some limitations, than no fishing opportunities at all. Just about all of us (with the exception of one organization that is too stubborn to look out for your interest) put aside all the differences and worked hard together to present these options to Fisheries and Oceans Canada so the proposal can be put forward to the South Coast Sport Fishing Advisory Board Where it'd work with DFO to make this a reality, so we do not experience a closure like last year. Twice it has been pushed, twice it has been declined. There isn't a will, other than those who are directly involved in this fishery, to restrict terminal tackle so recreational fishermen can have a more consistent Fraser River salmon opening. Stop wasting your time asking for it. If you think it can be changed, become an vocal representative and show up at these meetings. The attendance at these SFAC meetings are truly pathetic. The Upper Fraser SFAC meeting, which oversees probably the busiest fishing activities in this province, has maybe 6 sport fishing representatives showing up every time. All of them (excluding myself), are 50+. Where are all the young 18 to 35 yo who are so vocally angry about these closures on the internet? At times there are maybe 15 people at the meeting, twice as many DFO staffs as the sport reps. IMO anyone who isn't involved and actively fishes in the Fraser Valley is partially blamed for these closures. You think going down to the river and "educating" those who are legally fishing by calling them f**king snaggers is going to make a difference? Keep it up, we'll see what difference it has done in ten years from now.
This is just one of many inconsistencies that I have seen in the past ten+ years since I started being involved at these meetings. I am regularly pointing out the outdated regulations on DFO's website which show fisheries closed when they are in fact open. Wrong daily quotas listed and only corrected AFTER the fishery is done. Last year, after the Fraser reopened for chinook salmon, I repeatedly wanted clarification on whether no fishing or no retention (catch and release permitted) applied to pink and chum salmon. The answer I got was:
"Yes, and to be clear, the key message is that we want fishers to direct their effort on chinook. Further to this, pink and chum are not open to retention at this time so why would fishers be targeting them?"Apparently some staffs fail to understand that C&R is what keeps many of our recreational fisheries open in this province.
Two seasons ago, the proposal of night time fishing ban for the Fraser River was brought up at the table to combat night time sturgeon poaching. None of us were in favour of it as it takes eyes and ears off the river, and eliminating those who enjoy fishing at night during the summer, for any species. We'd asked for more consultation time. A few months later, the province decided to add the night time fishing ban for the non-tidal portion of the Fraser River in the new regulation synopsis. While at the spring SFAC meeting, we were still discussing whether it should be closed or not because all of the poaching happens in the Tidal Fraser. I pulled out the new synopsis, and to everyone's surprise, it already showed that it is now closed. Since the province couldn't close the tidal portion as it is under federal jurisdiction, they closed the non-tidal so DFO can follow and make the closure consistent by closing the tidal.
This was followed by this year's night time closure for the Tidal Fraser added by DFO.
Four years ago, we talked about the proposed sockeye salmon communal fishery in Chilliwack River for Chilliwack First Nations. The proposed methods were dip netting and seine netting, to reduce impact and prevent potential conflicts between user groups. That year hardly any fish were caught due to challenges of using these methods in a new fishery. This year, without being notified, gill nets can now be used in this fishery because the other methods are just not effective enough.
And don't blame all of this on the natives either. The amount of hate on First Nations being displayed whenever you don't get to fish can make me puke. First Nations know their rights to harvest and are very organized to make sure their rights are recognized. Good for them. The lack of participation and dysfunctional organization within the sport fishing community when it comes to lobbying what we want is a complete joke. Instead of proactively fighting for the loss of these opportunities, we rather complain about what others are doing, publicly shame someone who unknowingly makes a mistake, rant about how crowded our own fisheries have become and bicker about the smallest things that makes no difference in the big picture.
Which fishery are you willing to give up next?
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Topic: Non Selective Fishing. (Read 15754 times)