whognu
03-10-2018, 10:42 AM
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
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