Draconian Fisheries Closures

[ratherbefishin]

Most of the FN people I know woud give you the shirt off their back ,do something for them and you have a friend for life. But ignorance comes in all colours and speaks all languages
Several years ago I was fishing on the breakwater alongside some FN young fellows and they hooked and landed nice ling cod. Someone on the upper level told him it was ‘out of season’ and he told them he was FN and could legally keep it but would release it because it was spawning.Not all FN are out to exploit the resource just because than can.But it doesn’t take many to give them all a bad name

[835]

RBF,
Your kid, i am glad he is thinking like that. This might be out of my place to say but. He does have herritage. Something different than us.. well you say your part FN so maybe you got this covered! Lol.. as much as i say stuff about fn... they have a connection we dont.. your kid neds to hunt.. its in him.. not all of us judge people like that..

Sure i have spoke alot of race here.. but people are people ... everyone can be good or bad..

[ratherbefishin]

What some FN don’t realize( or care) is by exploiting the resource beyong sustainability they are actually harming themselves by their short sighted actions.They give ALL of them a bad name.Don’t know,but I suggest they learned their lessons well from the white guys....muscle your way in,grab all you can get and to H with everybody else.The very fact industry has clear cut the forests, damed the rivers , polluted the streams and foreshore to the point harvesting natural food is either gone or inedible is not a record anybody should be proud of.But,what’s done is done, if there is to be any future to hunt,fish, live and eat as naturally as we can,we ALL have to sit down together and come up with workable,viable solutions that preserve the resource for future generations but that involves mutual trust and a common goal. It could work,it should work, but I’m not sure it can work....and it will never work unless we’re all sitting at the same table
prejudice and missunderstanding florish as long as people remain entrenched in their own small minded thinking.

Several years ago we were moose hunting way up past Ft St James,camped at a FS campground, next to a FN hunting camp.I took my younger FN son ( who does hunt) and introduced myself,asking permission for my boy to hunt on their traditional territory( I’m teaching my son his FN protocols ) We were warmly recieved,offered the use of their boats and cabin ,invited in for a meal ,given some local input and offered help if we got a moose.( other people have told me of similar experiences with FN) My hunting partner is a surgeon ,noticed a very pregnant woman ,babies and some kids running around and told them they were a long way from the hospital and if they had a medical emergency,he was in the camp right next door.When we left,they told us if we were coming back,to let them know .Thats how it can work,and how it should work...Why doesn’t work that way?

[ElectricDyck]

Suggesting one race learned its evil ways from another is not true. We're all capable of great evil. Plenty of examples of the Haida rowing across to the mainland and raping and pillaging and taking slaves of other Indians..Ray Mears has a great series of canadian fur trading time history, one story is of either Rae or Thompson, can't remember but he outfitted a group of indians who were to be his guides to go explore a mineral source they spoke of...they wanted rifles and were given them...when they got there they came upon another tribe on the opposite bank of the river and the guides unleashed their new technology on women and children of another tribe..there were no minerals.

[MB_Boy]

Whales as people, interesting concept.
Might be supportable if their rights Trumped Fn .
The transients could ease our overburdened cabinet by holding meetings in the pool, when it came to all in favour time the transients could eat who ever pissed them off!

Floating ballot boxes to follow.

[IronNoggin]

What some FN don’t realize( or care) is by exploiting the resource beyong sustainability they are actually harming themselves by their short sighted actions.

While I agree with that assessment, I do not agree with your suggestion of where that abuse came from. There are abusers in every camp. Always have been, always will be. I do strongly hope that some among the FN abuser camp get a grip and come to the realization you penned here.

Why doesn’t work that way?

Let's take the current Topic Point of this thread into consideration.
The Fraser FN's BLACKMAILED DFO into the draconian cuts we see imposed upon non-FN's (commercial and recreational fishers). The threat behind the blackmail was that those FN's issuing the edict would fish the endangered Fraser Chinook runs right into extinction were everyone else not pulled off the water. Runs they themselves, by their own actions, brought to the point they are today.

Now, understand that many of those non-FN's negatively impacted had any historic significant catches of the stocks in question, and DFO well knew that. But, they fell to the blackmail agenda, and closed the others off willy-nilly, regardless of decades of scientific proof their impact was less than negligible.

Thus, in effect, the FN's made DFO remove everyone else from the fisheries based on spite. And the carrot was that they would slow down their efforts in extirpating those runs. In other words, you take out everyone else, and we will do what is right and necessary for our own stocks which we have fished dangerously close to extinction.

I have lived, worked with and alongside Inuit and FN's most of my life.
And there is common ground shared by many.
However when GREED and SPITE take over either side, bad things follow.
This is VERY much the case we are witnessing today in our fisheries.
And was well avoidable had the FN's actually come to the table with good intents.
They did not.

So as to the "why it doesn't work that way" query, in this particular case the FN's have to look no further than their own mirrors to answer that.

Sadly,
Nog

[ratherbefishin]

I was referring to individuals getting along,all societies include all manner of human ills. Nobody was exempt and my comment about the FN learning their lessons well was somewhat tongue in cheek and it can be argued they didn’t exploit the resource to the same degree Europeans did,it was that they lacked the technology and equipment.But all this is semantics, where do we go from here? Carry on status quo until the last salmon has gone?


Remember the eastern cod fishery where some of the commercial guys were quite happy to keep on fishing until the last cod was gone and I believe the same was true of the turbot

oh,speaking of the sooke volunteers releasing smolts,is done on their own nickle with no help from the government ( they ‘study’ it) and to add insult to injury,once the smolts are released,they have to run the gauntlet of the seals waiting for them....and nobody can do a darn thing about it,the seals are protected...

[guest]

IMHO
First Nations should be able to hunt and fish for their own food .
Using traditional methods or at least regulated. Not nets across rivers exterminating rivers of fish for the future No Black Market BS.

Be Accountable and policed like everyone else.

As said by many there are abusers of all races........no matter who you are. These abusers should face and suffer the same consequences when out side the Law. Of which the Law should be the same cor every one.

This comes down to ACCOUNTABILITY.......of which in many cases the over netting the over harvest the ZERO CONSEQUENCES for your actions.......with no accountability there can not be SUSTAINABILTY period.

Stop the insanity! Or there will be no future for our Wild Salmon period. Pathetic its come to this. Shame on Governments past and present........shame on courts past and present. They have created this Shite Storm .....good luck fixing it.

Until its 1 Law for All racism will continue. Abuse of our forests rivers and oceans will continue.
Please will a Government grow some balls for a change and make us ALL EQUAL. Stop the Racism the Governments have created.

I feel for those loosing their pay checks, jobs, boats, homes etc.
Im lucky and only lost what was held dear to my soul. Part of me.

Sold my boat this week . Eff it! Why keep paying more to this effed up Liberal Gong Show.
No more!

[Edward Teach]

First Nations should be able to hunt and fish for their own food .
Using traditional methods or at least regulated. Not nets across rivers exterminating rivers of fish for the future No Black Market BS.

I agree.
Fish with White man's gear, or White man's boat, or White man's motor?
Fish according to White man's rules...the same rules for EVERYBODY.

Want to make yourself a wooden spear or a net out of cedar bark and fish with that? Knock yourself out.

[ratherbefishin]

There had been a lot of allegations about illegal FN net fishing ( which the DFO denied at a recent meeting in Victoria )and sales along the highway.What needs to be done,and should be done is documenting any illegal activity,and posting it here as well as forwarding it to DFO,your local MP ,and the Conservative MP.Call the local TV station and get it in the media .Then we have something to work with.