Spawning Chinook running the gauntlet

what is the point of all the conservation measures taken to preserve Chinook salmon when seals and sea lions take up station at the river mouth and pick off the returning Chinook salmon? Neither seals or sea lions are endangered,in fact their numbers are burgeoning whereas the Chinook are struggling to get enough to spawn,yet political correctness stops the obvious solution,shoot the sealions and seals that are stationed at the river mouth and let the Chinook get up the river unmolested.Why are the authorities so scared of offending the armchair animal rights people that they are prepared to put the Chinook in jeoprody?....anybody fishing Sooke knows the Chinook are greatly reduced,both in size and numbers,yet fisheries in Ottawa seemed to be totally out of touch with reality and seem to be more concerned about protestors than obvious solutions...

That would be too effective and low cost instead they will capture a handful sterilize, collar, release, and study the results for the next 10years

Its the BC way

It's all the recreational fisher that are to blame for everything wrong with the oceans. I gather this because it is always those of us recreational fishers that get the reduction in quotas, and closed seasons.(tongue in cheek of course) It makes me mad when the simple, logical solutions, like the ones mentioned above are ignored. If only politicians were logical.

The mid August run of Chinook was virtually non existent and those that did show were much smaller, a ‘big one’ was in the mid 20’s and by the time the restrictions on coho were taken off this fall,the coho had already gone though.Too soon to call yet, but winter springs,once the mainstay of the off season fishery aren’t showing up.
People who pay $300 plus to a guide for a chance to catch a salmon are not going to come back after a couple of trips getting skunked.The sports fishery is in serious trouble but all Ottawa does is put on more restrictions to save the whales but does nothing to increase the chances of returning Chinook to make it through to the spawning beds by reducing the seals and seal lions....just heard the other day that people are at the end of the spit yelling at boaters to ‘slow down’ to avoid scaring the seal lions that have taken up station to get the few Chinook salmon returning to the Sooke river..we can’t fish inside the line across the harbour to allow the Chinook to pass though,but seems all that is doing is to protect them for the sealions

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Originally Posted by ratherbefishin

what is the point of all the conservation measures taken to preserve Chinook salmon when seals and sea lions take up station at the river mouth and pick off the returning Chinook salmon? Neither seals or sea lions are endangered,in fact their numbers are burgeoning whereas the Chinook are struggling to get enough to spawn,yet political correctness stops the obvious solution,shoot the sealions and seals that are stationed at the river mouth and let the Chinook get up the river unmolested....

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Some of us are working on The Solution. :wink:
If you're on Facebook, they could of course use a little support...

http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showth...nniped-Society

Cheers,
Nog

I know the sports fishmen have been putting in Chinook smolts into Sooke harbour,but fisheries seems to be penalizing the sports fishery,while ignoring their input.From the number of empty spaces in the marina,it looks to me like the lack of salmon is already being felt ,and I wonder how the guides are going to do.When people pay $300 to $500 to go fishing,no guarantees, but they like to think there is a chance at getting a fish..seems Ottawa doesn’t mind pocketing the money from licences but doesn’t put much back,and rather than getting more fish in the system,all they are doing is cutting us back

California sea lions killed to protect migrating fish

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https://media.breitbart.com/media/20...ct-640x427.jpg13 Jan 2019Los Angeles (AFP) – Authorities in the western US state of Oregon have euthanized four sea lions in the last month as part of a program to protect salmon runs and steelhead trout that are at risk of going extinct.
A spokesman for the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife told AFP the lethal removals of the California sea lions began in mid-December and would continue through May.

Rick Swart said the killings were necessary to save migrating steelhead that have been ravaged by the sea lions in recent years as they swim upstream from the ocean to spawn.

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“Our scientists believe that if these sea lions aren’t removed, that run of steelhead could go extinct anytime,” Swart said.
He said salmon were also threatened by the sea mammals, whose population has exploded since the Marine Mammal Protection Act was passed in 1972.
“What’s going on here is we have a run of wild native Oregon steelhead and they are moving right now from the ocean upstream to spawn,” Rick Swart said. “And when they get to Willamette Falls in Oregon, in downtown Portland, they come up against the waterfall and a dam and it takes them a while to get across that.”
He said that as the fish gather in a big school while preparing to go over the waterfall and dam, the sea lions swim in and feast on the trout.
“Two years ago, the sea lions destroyed 25 percent of that wild steelhead run,” Swart added. “They killed about 512 fish and that represented about one fourth of all the fish that we had left.”
He said the state was authorized to kill up to 93 sea lions a year but he expected that no more than 40 would be removed this year.
Authorities in the past have used various non-lethal techniques, including loud noise or rubber buckshot, but the animals have adapted and learned how to avoid the threat.

Back in 1987 the gillnetters had a good system of ridding the mouth of the Skeena river of seals and sea lions. 270 cal.

I've seen seals all the way up by Flood which was odd but I guess they're just following the gravy train.