SFAB chair Martin Paish:
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Good afternoon SFAB members.
The SFAB SRKW committee has been meeting regularly with DFO representatives to work towards the SFAB providing recommendations on achieving a balance between ongoing protection to SRKW’s, and enabling the maintenance and rebuilding of angling activity that we know is so very important to the small coastal communities who depend on it. These proposals reflect the new science available regarding foraging behaviour in some areas and the availability of accurate, current information in others to produce a suite of recommendations that offer protection in key foraging zones whose locations are supported by current data, and encourage further research to be considered in areas with limited or old information. The objective behind this approach is to ensure that measures considered are actually beneficial to SRKW, and reflect the responsibility of DFO to consider the balance between recovery objectives, the changing migration and foraging patterns of SRKW, the current health and body condition of SRKW’s, new information relating to the availability of prey in JdF, and the dependence of coastal communities on the socioeconomic benefits associated with sustainable and reliable access to retention salmon fisheries.
To that end, the SRKW committee is currently actively engaged in developing proposals for DFO to consider as feedback from the SFAB. This will be done in the form of meetings with local SFAC’s and DFO marine mammal experts over the next couple of weeks. While we encourage all anglers to participate in the survey, if you wish to be better informed of the proposals being put forward by the SFAB we request that you allow us to complete our work, and we will provide a summary that will be useful in that regard. Your indication of support for the SFAB proposals in the appropriate questions or space to provide comments in the survey will be really helpful in our efforts as well.
We note that the survey closes March 2nd, and will provide information well before that.
Thanks for you support of the efforts of the SFAB SRKW team, and please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions.
Regards,
Martin Paish
Chair, SFAB
THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA WOULD LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU!Today an online survey was launched to help gather feedback on the proposed management measure options for 2022 to continue to support the recovery of Southern Resident Killer Whales.
Since 2019, the Government of Canada has been implementing a suite of measures to protect and further support the recovery of Southern Resident Killer Whales. These measures have been in place annually to address key threats to the recovery of this population, including reduced quantity and access to their prey, and increased noise and disturbance in their habitat.
Your valued feedback will help us refine the proposed management measures and help us understand potential implications of the options being considered. As such, we invite you to review the proposed management measure options for 2022, and submit your comments to help inform this years approach. The public survey is available on the Fisheries and Oceans Canada website until March 2, 2022. Please use this links below access the survey.
Survey:https://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/consultation/fm-gp/srkw-eprs/2022-srkw-survey-sondage-ers-eng.htmlComment:https://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/consultation/fm-gp/srkw-eprs/2022-srkw-management-gestion-ers-eng.html