"Damn near extinction:" Interior steelhead run expected to be very small

[IronNoggin]

... Its pretty obvious that when these lower Fraser FN bands and politicians say they care about recovering our salmon and steelhead populations that they're being entirely disingenuous and deceitful...

You are entirely correct.

Consider this into that picture, and perhaps the notion you present might take hold in an even larger audience:

https://notices.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fns-sa...=251775&ID=all

That "official opening" is nothing but a free-for-all rape & pillage fishery in the guise of "reconciliation".
Complete and utter BS.

Nog

[IronNoggin]

Frankly, FN bycatch is a small percentage of the problem.
It's a problem by not as much as commercial fisheries in the ocean.

... I would bet my money that more get caught in salmon nets in the ocean.

Your blind ignorance is showing through once again.
The bycatch of steelhead (sturgeon, etc etc) in FN fisheries is the main causal agent in dumping IFS into the the extinction bucket.
Period.

While there are indeed concerns relating to the overfishing by foreign fleets, they are not the main factor in the case of IFS by a long shot.

Siding with Watson and his wacked out cronies is not a solution.

Nog

[tubby]

Nog is 100% correct.

[Ride Red]

[QUOTE=adriaticum;2291045]Frankly, FN bycatch is a small percentage of the problem.

You’ve obviously never spent any time on the Fraser. I started fishing it in the ‘80s and always stop to see what the indians have on the beach, boats or in totes. Sure there target species at the peak of the run outweighs the bycatch, but there is still a representative percentage of other fish in the mix. This nonselective catch cannot be returned to the water as they’re already deceased and many times are tossed aside for the birds to peck at. It’s disgusting to see steelhead left to rot and no one cares one bit because there’s no monetary value. Get in a boat and see for yourself.

[adriaticum]

[QUOTE=Ride Red;2291189]

Frankly, FN bycatch is a small percentage of the problem.

You’ve obviously never spent any time on the Fraser. I started fishing it in the ‘80s and always stop to see what the indians have on the beach, boats or in totes. Sure there target species at the peak of the run outweighs the bycatch, but there is still a representative percentage of other fish in the mix. This nonselective catch cannot be returned to the water as they’re already deceased and many times are tossed aside for the birds to peck at. It’s disgusting to see steelhead left to rot and no one cares one bit because there’s no monetary value. Get in a boat and see for yourself.

I didn't say it wasn't a problem, I said is a smaller problem than ocean over fishing.
Salmon and steelhead distribution in the ocean is generally the same and I think you, and most people, underestimate the impact a long gillnet has on the steelhead.
Like I said, I don't have any empirical evidence of this, but reading about the Alaskan salmon fishery I am convinced that it's many times worse than it seems and it will crash salmon stocks unless something is done soon.
Alaskan salmon fishery is a shit show.

[IronNoggin]

"The time has come people. We either go to the wall here and now or we fold our tent and abandon any notion that our elected governments understand the word conservation. Everyone has to be held accountable, regardless of ethnic origin and the politics of the moment. The only immediately available option to deal with the IFS crisis today and the Skeena situation almost certain to follow is to eliminate gill nets. If SARA is the only avenue to make that happen then governments must be forced to make that call. None of the other fluff we’re promised will happen is ever going to produce a detectable additional steelhead in less than 5-10 years, even if all the stops were pulled immediately. IFS do not have the luxury of time. Besides, what sense does it make to spend millions in attempts to sustain populations whose potential spawners will swim into gill nets before they ever see gravel?"

http://steelheadvoices.com/?p=2731

[IronNoggin]

Episode 32: A Beginner’s Guide to Extinction - A Look at BC’s Steelhead Crisis

https://www.thecutbanksconversations...64-7zlct-xshar

[IronNoggin]

You Can’t Make This Up

Staring us in the face we have the most obvious and critical conservation issue in recorded history facing Interior Fraser Steelhead (IFS). The predictability of that scenario has been as reliable as any that has ever been made for a salmon or steelhead return on the coast of British Columbia. Think Nass, Skeena and Dean for openers. Then throw in the Columbia to the south of us. The pattern was consistent throughout. It that wasn’t evidence enough of what would follow for IFS, I can’t imagine what doubters could point to that might offer the most remote possibility otherwise. And what are the people us lowly taxpayers front the cost of managing fisheries doing to address the unprecedented and undeniable conservation crisis?

On October 22 the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) issued an update on the status of the Fraser chum salmon returns. That would be the stock/species that has become the single biggest problem for IFS in recent years because those (heavily enhanced) chums’ return timing overlaps IFS, especially the Thompson component, completely.

Let’s think about this for a moment. The chum return is so poor that it won’t support any fishing, including economic opportunity fishing by First Nations. Two sentences later, though, we see that blank cheque of food, social and ceremonial fishing is good to go for 10% of the worst run in a decade and one predicted to reach only 60% of its escapement goal BEFORE that additional 10% is removed. If you’re a chum salmon or one of the last remaining IFS co-migrants, what difference does it make for the label on the net that kills you? Ah, but DFO has its IFMP prescriptions to fall back on that are supposed to be the salvation for IFS. That would be those now three year old, carbon copied measures like a rolling window closure for 27 days (exactly one third of the run timing period for IFS) and all those totally ineffective tweaks of gill net use that have been loudly criticized by the First Nations most responsible for the fishing that can’t possibly be anything but a further nail in the IFS coffin. The steelhead escapement estimates of the past three years stand as irrefutable evidence in that respect.

What does it take for all the players to recognize a conservation crisis? The situation facing IFS is not some silly allocation debate, it’s conservation in the extreme. Independent of interest group, everyone says they believe in conservation. DFO’s own policy (not law) they’ve trumpeted for a couple of decades now says conservation first, FSC fisheries second and all the rest a distant third. A new federal Minister of Fisheries will be announced on October 28. We need to inundate that person with demands to walk his agency’s talk.

http://steelheadvoices.com/?p=2740#more-2740

[S.W.A.T.]

Cutbanks did a good conversion on this. Not all questions have simple answers. Very complicated situation and not one single person is to blame but none is one single group free of the blame. Perhaps if everyone could agree and come to terms with the fact there is a issue then Perhaps we could start having the conversation about how to solve the problem.

[Bugle M In]

Well, this whole issue might be complex.
But, when steelhead run up rivers at the same time Chum do, then "one solution" is very simple....no nets in river!!
Yes, there might be plenty more things to look at as to causes etc.
But short term, this should be implemented.
Period.