The fact that they built the burgeoning Great Lakes salmon fishery from nothing while the West Coast salmon fishery was imploding is proof that you CAN have a viable fishery if there is the political will to dedicate the resources to do so.While the west coast needs were ignored and the Chinook population plummeted the Great Lakes were booming.The so called ‘wild salmon’( do nothing)initiative is proof that nature DOES need a helping hand as the Americans proved when they embarked on a concerted effort to put more fish in the system.
Thirty years ago the lower 48 west coast salmon fishery was in about the same situation as we face today- dwindling stocks resulting in the demise of their recreational salmon fishery.The difererance was the Americans put the money into hatcheries and stream enhancement-and it paid off.The Canadians openly said they were ‘going a diferent route’- supposedly ‘wild salmon’....the results are in,last years collection of tissue sample study confirmed what many of us suspected, theJusn de Fuca recreational salmon fishery was almost all Washington state hatchery fish...without that we would have already been going home empty handed.
The only question is,is this enough to convince the Federal DFO to admit they totally blew it and are going to put the needed resources into hatcheries and stream enhancement to bring our once world renowned salmon fishery back ,or are we just going to study it into oblivion,just like they did to the east coast cod fishery?As it stands,we have already lost our commercial troll fishery and healthy lifestyles it once supported ,and now the recreational fishery has virtually gone as we are in practical terms reduced to August and September after which most of the fish have gone through.You can’t sustain a recreational fishing industry on two months a year
Its an election year, if we hope to have ANYTHING ,we HAVE to make this an issue.To quote Trudeau ’its what Canadians want’
Last edited by ratherbefishin; 04-18-2019 at 06:34 AM.
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