Thursday, August 14, 2008

Lobbying pressure

From what we can gather the commercial industry is pushing very hard for more fishing time....Same old deal of rousting the Mayor of Prince Rupert to lobby DFO in the north and in Vancouver...and continuous pressure from the Union reps.

This might be a good time to counter some of that pressure with our own support for DFO's decision to stop the fishery. If you feel DFO has made the correct precautionary approach choice in ending the commercial season in order to protect weak wild salmon stocks like Kitwanga sockeye, chum salmon, and the peak of the summer steelhead run then maybe you should let DFO know about it.

Although the auto-update on the google gadget isnt working, the 'Notify Managers' button still works...so let's put it to good use.
Something along the lines of ' while we feel your fishery management on Skeena has a long way to go towards sustainibility, we agree wholeheartedly with your decision to end the 2008 marine commercial fishery in order to protect weak wild salmon stocks such as Kitwanga sockeye, chum salmon, and the peak of the summer steelhead run. To err on the side of conservation is never a poor choice in resource management, especially fisheries. Please stay consistent with your precautionary approach and not allow any further openings.'
Changing DFO management direction is comparable to trying to stop a train or turn a supertanker...it just doesnt happen right away. We need to reward and support these little steps towards a sustainable fishery...eventhough we know the damage inflicted on steelhead this year was significant.

4 comments:

North Coast Steelhead Alliance said...

to support the end of the commercial fishery decision issue, you could send e-mails to :
Sprout, Paul: SproutPa@pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca
Einarson, David: EinarsonD@pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca
Peacock, David: PeacockD@PAC.DFO-MPO.GC.CA

This would cover the Prince Rupert managers and their boss in Vancouver.

Unknown said...

I clicked the notify managers and sent off a positive e-mail. I'm curious to know if you get any statistics on the use of the gadgets "notify" method?

Thanks,
Mike Schmidt.

Anonymous said...

What is the name and email address of the mayor, he needs to hear from us as well.

North Coast Steelhead Alliance said...

Herb Pond hpond@princerupert.ca

We doubt Mr Pond is worth wasting the effort on actually...