sporfishing institute of bc meeting @ bass pro shops march 9 2018

[whognu]

PLEASE TAKE THIS AS MY BEST EFFORTS TO RECORD WHAT ‘ITHOUGHT I HEARD’ NOT GOSPEL
THE ORDER BELOW CAN BE CONSIDERED ‘RANDOM’ AT BEST

(thanks to iron noggin for raising awareness of this important meeting)

speakers

Marty Page (sp?) (possibly dfo, yet attending as member ofSFBC)
Ed George (bcwf)
Larry Millanberg (sp?)

DFO goal – how toimprove SRKW pod health and reverse decline

Background
-3 pods in BC; SRKW (southern residents) , NRKW, andtransients
- # 1 food source is 4/5 yr old Chinook
-all heavily studied; other 2 pods thriving and expanding
- local pod (76 total) is malnourished;skinny; caved in heads; ribs showing; low birth rate; live deaths
-in 80’s there were lots of 4/5 year Chinooks and lots ofwhales
- fun fact – only females hunt; they identify a single fishand chase it till caught! Then feed it to the lazy ass males
- fun fact 2 -- in winter they eat chum, steelhead, ling,hali (only transient whales eat seals/sealions)

- fun fact 3 -- "how do you know they eat Chinook?" - scientists have poo smelling dogs on the bow of chase (ok, research) boats that follow the pod and sniff.........really, that and the collect specimens - summer job anyone?
-DFO has identified many areas between swiftsure and fraserriver to set aside for forage and respite from all activities (fishing, whalewatching, tankers, acoustic etc)
- any and all areas of salish sea to clayoquot sound are potentially‘critical’ habitat’ - so this affect all user groups

3 main issues

1 pollution/toxins
-apex predators get most toxins
- pollution always a concern
-proximity to fish farms on outbound migration

2competition for food (Chinook)
- sporties catch 1-3% of fraser Chinook – DFO knows we arenot the problem (solely)
-first nations – unidentifiable allocations
- seals, sealions, birds
-“seals kill areported 32 million juvenile chinook annually at the mouth of the fraser river” (this appears to be the problem)
- seal pop was 10,000 in 80’s now 45,000 in salish sea and35,000 in puget sound (wolves anyone?)
- obviously need a cull
- restore baitfish (herring) to stronger levels

- habitat restoration/ hatchery improvements

- cowichan river 2009 - 500 chinook escapement -- 2017 - 30,000 chinook - improvements can be very effective

- there was a lady who spoke of major improvements in sarita/robertson creek hatcheries that were having great success (I honestly did not follow the gist of all her inputs, whether it was funding, or acceptance of better practices - not sure, yet she seemed to be doing an incredible job)


3 physical/ acoustic disturbance

-fishing activities recommended immediately (aside from somedirected closures – which are coming)
-stay away from whales -- increased buffer zone to 200m from100m (DFO wants 400m)
-no leap frogging (whale boats (and others), approx 70 operators, determinedirection pod travels and park in their way to get pictures as they go under theboat
-fishing – TURN OFF SOUNDER ASAP; pick up gear and slowly motoraway


In summary, they want your input asap as there is anotherfull meeting (not just about orcas) on march 22 and the deadline for yoursubmissions is march 15
Look at the SPIBC website make further contactand voice your suggestions

otherwise take what you get
chris

[IronNoggin]

Good Report.
From all I have heard, it appears attendance was rather good too.
I am pleased that these anglers appear to be getting over the apathy the Department actually relies on in order to herd them.

Martin is not with DFO, but is well educated on these matters, and may come across as being so.

The gal you referred to from the private hatchery is Carol Schmitt, from the Omega Hatchery on Great Central Lake.
She has some innovative ideas regarding chinook rearing, and they appear to work. Of course that scares the shit out of DFO whose efforts at Robertson Creek are less than dismal. Thus they keep trying to throttle her back. IMO that simply goes along with their lack of vision, and overall incompetence when it comes to management.

I find it interesting DFO openly admits their biologists have told them fishing closures will have but minimal effects, and in the next breath note that is what they will be running with. Easier to say they are "doing something" when they actually are not by following that route. In the Real World, we either have to take a long hard look at production (as noted many DFO hatcheries are miserable failures in that regard), habitat, seals & sea lion depredation, and the in-river FN vacuum, or we can kiss those whales goodbye. By the time The Dino wraps it's bewildered head around any of those factors, it may well be too late.

Thanks again for the report Whognu, Appreciated.

Cheers,
Nog

[charlie_horse]

Thanks for the update and it's at least good to see that they acknowledge the amount of seals out there and that they are a problem. Thanks for the bullet points and going.

[steve-r]

I attended and would concur with the report above. One of the best points made from the audience was that most sportsfishermen are likely prepared to take a step back if it helps the SRKW recover, but only if we arent the only stakeholder doing so. While DFO's proposal had specifics now for sporty's, they do at least mention other stakeholders and chinook predators in the draft report, but no specifics.
Eg, they know we need a seal cull, but they have a huge political issue about it with the "green" community.
someone said harbour seals are still on the endangered list...well thats gotta change.
the politicians are going to have to grow a pair and give the greens a hard choice, kill seals, or watch the salmon, and in turn the SRKW, disappear.
the herring commercial fishery was also discussed....more herring = more salmon...but no one belives the DFO will touch that.
Someone raised the FN net issue, but the response was that as soon as a sporty uses the word FN, indigenous, etc in the debate with a politician about fish, the argument is lost. Its clear Turdeau's reconciliation agenda has every politician and bureaucrat running scared.

They need to autopsy some of these dead orca's and see if they have PRV or HSMI, and then look directly at the ocean penned salmon farms full of diseased Atlantics.

[steve-r]

Martin is not with DFO, but is well educated on these matters, and may come across as being so.

Nog, would you happen to have Martin Paish's email contact? He invited feedback but the questions/discussion jumped all over the place and he didnt tell anyone how to submit input to him. I want to send him some feedback.
PM if need be.
Thanks.

[IronNoggin]

... I want to send him some feedback..

Feedback should properly be submitted to Ashley Dobko - Ashley.Dobko@dfo-mpo.gc.ca

Cheers,
Nog

[Ed George]

Just for some clarification here, Martin Paish is with the Sport Fishing Institute as is Owen Bird. Laurie Milligan is a member and past chair of the Lower Fraser Valley Sport Fishing Advisory Committee as well as a Pacific Salmon Commissioner and a guide that works out of Langara. As for me, I am the current chair of the LFV SFAC and considered an independent angler and do not represent the BCWF in any way.

Laurie is finalizing the response from the LFV SFAC to be in by the 15th.

As area 29-7 is within the SRKW foraging area I don't see us retaining it for Chinook retention but I would like some information about the area around the ferry terminal and coal port. Do you fish there? Do the SRKW feed there in the summer?

PM me and I will pass it along.

Don't forget the LFV SFAC meeting at the Four Points by Sheraton, 10410 - 158th Street, Surrey, on Thursday March 22nd at 7:00 PM

Thanks, Ed

[guest]

Thanks for those that went and have updated us with the particulars. Unfortunately I could not go but have and will send more to DFO. Let's hope they don't continue to manage to ZERO and ignore the true facts .......... SEALS, FN River netting, Herring fishery. But I think that their mind is already made up. Unfortunately.
Truly a sad state of affairs across the bow of all our boats.

[bottles]

Thanks for the breakdown; it's appreciated.