Archive for March, 2009
Monthly Update
Saturday, March 21st, 2009
“Monthly updates” are not always necessarily updated on a monthly basis, because being fishermen, we are out fishing sometimes!!! Or maybe fixing the boat or getting ready for Christmas, or just trying to have a life! However issues threatening the existence of the small boat fleet, and even the fish themselves continue to grind away, so for the month of February our first initiative is a letter that will appear as Petition Letter 3, and call for action to protect wild salmon and their migration routes from farmfish parasites, as well as calling for moving fish farms to closed containment immediately. This letter is a follow up to Alexandra Morton’s presentation on fish farm threats to wild salmon that took place before a full house crowd of 600 at the Qualicum Beach Civic Center Jan. 30. Seeing that crowd made me optimistic that this is one battle where the tide is turning. We are starting to win this one, and we owe Alexandra big time for her unceasing efforts.
In addition the fleet continues to come under fire from intrest groups such as Skeena Steelhead Alliance. To respond to their drive to remove you from the water, see letter 1.
Jan.27/11 This post is of intrest to most small boat fishermen, though not directly salmon related. It concerns a recreational lobby effort driven as usual by the lodge and charter operators who want to change the 88% commercial and 12% sport halibut sharing deal. Anyone who thinks getting a quota based on a dfo scheme is an air-tight deal, better pay attention to this one!
Petition 1
Saturday, March 21st, 2009
Petition to Protect Wild Salmon written by Alexandra Morton
Gordon Campbell, Premier of British Columbia
Wild salmon are the backbone of the BC Coast. On February 9, 2009
BC Supreme Court ruled that salmon farms are a fishery and a federal responsibility.
The science is in. The feedlot fishery is damaging wild salmon stocks worldwide
(Ford and Myers 2008). Fraser sockeye and all southcoast BC salmon and
steelhead are now at risk as a result of the Provincial policy of allowing the
feedlot fishery to use Canada’s most valuable wild salmon habitat .
We the undersigned demand that Fisheries and Oceans Canada
apply the Fisheries Act to this industry and immediately:
− Place observers during feedlot salmon harvest to assess unlawful by-catch;
− Examine feedlot salmon as they are cleaned for presence of wild fish in their
digestive tract;
− Licence vessels transporting aquaculture salmon like all other commercial
fishing vessels;
− As per Pacific Fishery Regulation “Prohibited Fishing
Methods” ban grow lights on fish feedlots to end wild prey species
attraction into the pens;
- Remove the marine feedlot industry from wild salmon migration routes.
The landmark BC Supreme Court decision states, “The inclusion of fisheries in s.
91(12) of the Constitution Act, 1867 was a recognition that fisheries, as a national
resource, require uniformity of the legislation”.
We insist that the Fisheries Act be applied to the salmon feedlot fishery immediately.
Standing by,
Friday, March 20th, 2009
Site purpose: Give fishermen and fishing industry supporters a tool to lobby government and inform the public. Our intention is to address some of the issues affecting the industry, specifically the small boat sector, by providing a series of form letters. Participants will be able to add their own comments, name and address to these letters, and send them to an address list of government agencies, MPs and MLAs by clicking a button. Letters will be changed and updated to reflect the issues concerning the Fishing Fleet.
The fishing industry, specifically the small-boat component, is made up of small independent operators. Like small farmers, ranchers, contractors or truckers, these family businesses don’t have much influence on government policy. This industry, the life blood of the coast for more than 100 years, has been a soft target for groups trying to conserve salmon. Those who should have been our closes allies in fighting the endless habitat protection battles often found it easier to turn and lobby to chop another piece out of the fishing fleet. Two thirds of the boats are gone.
In Alaska, with stricter habitat protection and no farmed salmon, the fishing fleet is thriving.
It’s time to realize that removing the fishing fleet destroys the Canadian public’s link to this pristine wild food source. What is the value of a river full of salmon to a public that can’t access them? Most can only rarely vacation on the coast to watch bears eating spawning salmon. Fewer still can afford a stay at an expensive sports fishing lodge. If we deny the public access to salmon for food, what is their incentive to conserve fish? How do we resist the push to dam the rivers?
View award winning British Columbia West Coast paintings:
http://www.peggyburkosky.com/