BCWF- Response to Skeena Closure

[REMINGTON JIM]

Federal Fisheries SUCKS ! They should ALL go *@#$ themselves ! RJ

[The Hermit]

June 27, 2017

The Honourable Dominic LeBlanc
Minister’s Office
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
200 Kent St. Station 15N500
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A OE6

RE: Skeena Fishery

Dear Minister;

I understand that DFO has closed the entire Skeena River Watershed to recreational salmon fishing from June 15 to July 14, 2017. Prior to June 23, the stated rational for the closure provided by DFO staff was due to low abundance of sockeye and resulting increased First Nations needs. However, according to media reports, DFO has actually closed the recreational fishery because according to some genius there is not enough room for First Nations and residents to share the river leading to potential conflict. First Nations and non-First Nations have always been able to share the Skeena River fisheries. The last minute change in the narrative has damaged the Department’s credibility along with that of the Liberal Government!

I call on the Government of Canada to commit to a round table process to deal with any perceived conflict between fisheries on the Skeena River, now and in future. Stakeholders should be working together to reduce crowding, plan access and minimize potential confrontation and to foster stewardship and support common interests in the fishery. An example of this process can be found with the Fraser River Peacekeepers, who were honoured for their contribution to cooperative recreational fishing experiences, receiving the National Recreational Fisheries Award for 2017 from your ministry.

In the broader context I have this to offer the Trudeau Government - "Transparency my sweet behind!!" Your Government’s guiding principles of transparency, openness, and honesty was not followed by DFO leading up to the July 15 decision to close recreational salmon fishing on the Skeena Mainstem. Arbitrarily cutting out the river anglers from the fishery is an unfair, regressive, and discriminatory practice.

It is very upsetting to conservation minded British Columbians that DFO has not had the vision to manage the fishery so that sufficient salmon abundance is reserved for the in-river recreational fishery. With knee jerk policy decisions and after-the-fact management you run the risk of creating the same disaster here as what your predecessors enabled with the east coast cod fishery decades ago. I thought surely an east coaster in your role as Minister would have a much better perspective than the continued ass kissing smothered on the commercial interests!

It is clear that interceptions by Alaska and British Columbian commercial, and to a lesser extent, ocean based recreational fisheries come well ahead of British Columbians that fish the river. The annual and ongoing practice over decades of allowing fish to be caught in the ocean before a true estimate of abundance can be had is reckless and further undermines the science of salmon management. Doing so requires way too much guess work!

You personally can and must do a better job of managing the fisheries on the Skeena and the west coast for all users. It is not acceptable to remove the rights of resident fishers arbitrarily and without notice. Residents deserve a process that is accountable to them, which is not the case with the Skeena River closures.



Yours in Conservation,

XXX



CC: Elizabeth May
Justin Trudeau

[David]

I sent an email response to the email blast BCWF federation sent to my personal email account, but in case you missed it... you need to fix your dates in your form letter:


leading up to the July 15 decision to close recreational salmon fishing on the Skeena Mainstem. Arbitrarily cutting out the river anglers from the fishery is an unfair, regressive, and discriminatory practice.

It's a JUNE 15 decision to close

Oops...

Just noticed this was posted by Hermit and not BCWF - in any case if you're going to use this form letter, fix the dates.

[The Hermit]

Oops - ah well they will get the point and ignore it anyway.