hooton makes some valuable points in his thread. to chalk it up as "old white guy" does it a disservice. a few sentences do have that feel but their are valid points in his arguments.
i was not going to get involved in this thread but i feel as a recreational angler i had to speak up. i have never fished in Haida but it is on my bucket list for things i would like to accomplish. i hope a few people don't ruin it for everyone.
i am getting to the end of my patients for people who make money off the resource, i dont care what sector your from. that time has come on gone. whether your commercial, recreational or first nation. the numbers just aren't their anymore and the writng is on the wall. if stocks could allow business as usual i wouldn't be saying this. i work a 9-5 job so i can go out on the weekends to enjoy whats left of the resource and take a fish home once in a while when legally permitted. i, like other recretional anglers put the least pressure on the resource yet contribute the most funds to both the economy and government coffers. what do the relic commercial gill netters contribute in the fraser besides polluting the fraser estuary. or the guides in the fraser hooking poor sturgeon over and over again with the berries from the chum does they slaughtered everyday through the fall months, or fly in lodges where the same cupcakes happens, and its not just salmon. look at the toll the commercial fishery as done to the herring stocks. take, take, take. then we respectful recreational anglers get tossed into the mix by the bad actions of a few guides or resorts that cant be good neighbours.
i am not first nation nor do i speak for them, just a few observations.
i cant really blame them for wanting to protect whats left of natural resources. they were able to use these resources since the dawn of man. then white man comes along and decimates it in less that 200 years. have first nations done things that contradict the haida fishing code, of course. have first nations done a lot of good in the recovery aspect, yes of course. their are bad actors in every sector. i do have a problem with using language like ending the practices of "catch and release" which really is not going to help the cause. to me it shows lack of respect for my eurpean or now canadian culture which they are dismissing by saying that. all its doing is putting one sector against the other which does not help fish. first nations and recreational anglers have more in common than they think. both have a connection to the fish that the general population does not. are you going to fight for something that you really dont care about, of course not. you think the average citizen as time to care about fish with all the play up cupcakes thats gone on lately. if we actually banded together we could lobby government to allocate the proper resources to actually make a difference in the recovery of this species and other species that rely on salmon, but instead will all grabble at each other till the last fish is gone. we all eat at the table or starve as individuals.
we need to look at what happened to the cod fisheries on the east coast. unfortunately i feel like we are on the same path.
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Topic: Fishing code of conduct being finalized for Haida Gwaii (Read 7158 times)