Skeena Fisheries Blog

News release on Alaskan fisheries and MSC

2012-01-11T11:08:00.000-08:00

Interesting news release here regarding the MSC Certification of Alaskan fisheries.

We know southeastern Alaskan fisheries are responsible for intercepting large numbers of BC bound salmon and steelhead every year. This is good work by these groups in questioning the blanket Certification of their fisheries as sustainable by MSC without even doing any follow-up work.

Seems to be more proof that the whole fishery 'certification' process is just a consumer marketing ploy rather than a process to achieve truly sustainable fisheries.

Canadian Conservationists Challenge “Unsustainable” Alaskan Salmon Fisheries

Posted by Trish Hall on January 11, 2012

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwire – Jan. 11, 2012) - Three British Columbian conservation groups are taking aim at Alaskan salmon fisheries that are damaging BC fish stocks and violating conditions of the Marine Stewardship Council’s eco-certification.
Raincoast Conservation Foundation, SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, and Watershed Watch Salmon Society today said they would challenge the current recertification of these fisheries by the MSC – the world’s foremost eco-certification label for sustainable fisheries. The groups cite interception of Canadian-bound salmon and steelhead from at-risk populations as a key concern, along with “reckless” ocean-ranching practices – a form of fish farming not practiced in BC.
Eleven years ago, BC marine conservationists objected strongly to Alaskan salmon fisheries being given blanket eco-certification by the MSC.
“It was highly irresponsible,” said Aaron Hill, a biologist with Watershed Watch. “We were told that it would be okay because the fishery would have to meet several conditions for improvement in order to retain the certification, but now a recent surveillance audit by the MSC concedes that as many as 19 conditions of the certification have not yet been met. The Alaskans have had a over a decade to get their act together.”
“Some Alaskan fisheries, like Bristol Bay, are among the best-managed salmon fisheries in the world,” said Greg Knox, Executive Director of the SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, “But Alaskan fishery managers are not being nearly cautious enough with their harvest of Canadian wild salmon populations, including sockeye and chum from the Nass and Skeena Rivers in northwest BC, and Vancouver Island chinook salmon.”
The conservation concerns were announced prior to Pacific Salmon Treaty meetings between Canada and the United States this week in Portland, Oregon. The Treaty is meant to ensure that neither country over-fishes the other’s salmon stocks, but the conservation groups claim the Canadian federal government is not doing enough to protect at-risk salmon stocks from being overfished as they migrate through Alaskan waters to their natal streams in BC and the Yukon.
The groups also say Ottawa is turning a blind eye to Alaskan ocean-ranching operations that every year flood the North Pacific ocean with billions of farm-raised salmon which compete with wild Canadian salmon for limited food supplies.
“Consumers should reasonably expect the MSC to enforce their own eco-certification, and Canadians should expect their government to protect their salmon from foreign over-harvest,” stated Mr. Hill. “We hope that some public attention to this problem will prod our government, and the MSC will step up and help us push for some much-needed reforms in Alaskan fisheries management.”

Contact Information

Watershed Watch Salmon Society
Aaron Hill
1-250-818-0054
hillfish@telus.net
SkeenaWild Conservation Trust
Greg Knox
1-250-615-1990
gregk@skeenawild.org
Raincoast Conservation Foundation
Chris Genovali
1-250-655-1229 ext. 225
chris@raincoast.org

Editorial on Fraser Salmon and DFO

2012-01-03T15:53:00.000-08:00

Here is an example synopsis of the current situation down on the Fraser system regarding sockeye salmon management and DFO by Dr craig Orr of Watershed watch.

Just substitute Skeena for Fraser and all the same criticism applies. Again, the call...actually the public DEMAND for the federal government to reform DFO is loud and clear.

Salmongate....? DFO caught in a mess

2011-12-17T09:42:00.000-08:00

Check out The Salmon Guy blog for interesting posts on the information coming out of the Cohen Commission right now. It is becoming more apparent DFO was not completely truthful in dealing with this salmon virus issue.

Also a story on the Globe & Mail about DFO intimidating scientists.

For anyone with experience dealing DFO on Skeena issue this wont come as any surprise at all. DFO is the ultimate example of: "...were not lying...were just not telling you the whole truth..."

And after reading Bob Hooton's Skeena Steelhead book, we could have our own SteelheadGate. As Hooton presents numerous examples of DFO blatant disregard for steelhead.

Editorial on DFO by the Courier-Islander

2011-12-16T16:33:00.000-08:00

Interesting editorial from the Courier-Islander regarding DFO:http://www.canada.com/shores+malfeasance/5869518/story.html
We tend to agree with the writer, this is a good time to shake up DFO completely. This line is classic: The ministry has become nothing but a laughing stock, a stand up comedian on the world stage of fisheries management.

The shores of malfeasance

Editorial, Courier-Islander

Published: Friday, December 16, 2011

One would wonder how the Department of Fisheries and Oceans could hand out layoff notices to 200 scientists at such a critical time. But, then again, it only seems natural. Natural in that DFO has long since been changed from a protector and nurturer of things oceanic, to a simply oligarchic political poison.
It has been run by the few at the top who know more about boot licking than fisheries. The chosen few have made decisions not on common sense, but on puerile and punitive whims. The ministry has become nothing but a laughing stock, a stand up comedian on the world stage of fisheries management.
One of the most vital commissions in the history of west coast fisheries is going to be wrapping up soon and thereafter produce a report that won't say everything is fine. Everyone knows it will be harsh, it will point fingers and, hopefully, give some direction to solve this sorry saga. And a DFO with 200 fewer scientists won't be able to handle it. Maybe, this will be DFO's escape clause.

Cutting 200 jobs for fisheries scientists is an easy thing to do if you live in Ottawa. Managing it properly isn't.
We need to follow the state of Alaska and take back decisions on our fisheries, the jobs it creates, the natural wealth it hands us and the better world it makes.
Alaskans don't listen to Washington when it comes to cleaning their fish. So why should we listen to Ottawa, a bureaucracy that is only interested in cutting out the heart and letting the carcass rot on the shores of malfeasance.
© Campbell River Courier-Islander 2011

Tyee Gadget

2011-12-15T15:27:00.000-08:00

Here's the new version of the Tyee Gadget, courtesy of Northern Rivers Conservation Trust.
As of Sept.09, 2011; Index @ 131.69

Last year to this date: 220.20

To Date Averages:
All Years: 99.13
2000's: 133.48
1990's: 99.23
1980's: 117.96

Atlantic Salmon Article of interest

2011-11-24T07:36:00.000-08:00

Excellent article by Orri Vigfusson of the North Atlantic Salmon Fund outlinging the need to manage fish stocks for abundance not basic minimum spawning requirements. Obviously something we need to continue pushing here in BC as commercial industry and DFO always try to defer to the bare minimums required for any stock.

Northern Ireland forced to change salmon policy

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Orri 23/06/2010 11:48:00

A Milestone for the Foyle; Entering a New Era where salmon abundance is the target, not minimum levels
On 14th June 2010 The Loughs Agency, Foyle Carlingford and Irish Lights Commission, announced that due to a collapse in the salmon stock of the River Finn, all netting in the greater Foyle river system area would be stopped for a minimum of four years to promote stock recovery. Angling would be permitted, but only on a catch and release basis, as a result of a previously agreed protocol requested by anglers to help guard against poaching and pollution, and agreed by The Loughs Agency.

This represents a milestone in the development of salmon fisheries policy in the North West of Ireland; the Foyle system is a cross-border river system administered on a joint basis by two sovereign Governments, The Republic of Ireland, and The United Kingdom.

This change in policy has come about to protect stocks, but also because a failure to act by the Loughs Agency would have rendered The Republic of Ireland and The United Kingdom liable to infraction proceedings from the EU for breach of the Habitats Directive.

The history of salmon policy in the North of Ireland is not an advertisement for good Government. It has been characterised in the early years by a bureaucratic neglect to the extent that when NASF asked the responsible senior Civil Servant to outline Government policy on salmon, he was unable to do so, simply because no policy existed.

In the face of falling stocks, through pressure from anglers led by NASF and others, Government in time were forced to set out their policy on salmon - which amounted to neglect of duty. Instead of looking at the problem, Government simply allowed mixed stock interceptory netting to continue largely unhindered.

It is an interesting commentary on salmon policy in the North of Ireland that Governments always end up doing what NASF and anglers tell them they must do, but there is a lethal time lag while they do what they can to hide the fact that their previous policies were in error. Saving face, it seems, is more important than saving the salmon.

When NASF told Governments in the early 1990s that we needed to stop netting and conserve the freshwater habitats, we were literally laughed at; we were told in fact that the Foyle salmon netting effort may need to be increased, “to make sure we don’t allow too many salmon to reach the spawning grounds”. This is typical of the wilful refusal to look to the future that NASF has faced down through the years.

Time and again when NASF submitted plans to reduce or buy out netting, we were told it was not necessary, Government had everything in hand; all would be well, the bureaucrats knew much more about salmon than mere anglers in NASF. In fact, all was not well, and it now turns out that the anglers and NASF were right all along.

The collapse in the salmon stock of the River Finn must now mark a complete break from the misguided policies of the past as promoted by the Loughs Agency and supported by the two sovereign Governments, The Republic of Ireland, and The United Kingdom.

The Lough Agency has used models based upon minimum spawning escapement levels instead of listening to the NASF call for a return to abundance and the creation of a stronger population base through greater numbers. We at NASF criticize the narrow focus on egg deposition targets because rivers need far more spawning fish than are necessary to satisfy meagre theoretical minimum levels.

The practice of calculating backwards from juvenile habitat surveys to an estimation of required egg deposits is insufficient on its own, because it ignores the salmon's need for the diversity and protection against threats that abundant numbers provide. It also takes no account of the normal but highly variable occurrence of lethal weather, pollution, and other events that inflict high egg and fry mortality. There is good reason why salmon populations are prodigious when it comes to spawning. The fish deposit large numbers of eggs because so few of their ova survive and every season is different in terms of the unpredictability of weather, damaging events, and water levels.

It is not reasonable ignore these diverse factors and assume that a one-fits-all scenario can be safely constructed on a computer which does not recognise what mother nature has been very successfully doing for the last ten thousand years. Given the current abysmally low number of adult salmon in many rivers, the only rational strategy is to maximize egg deposition from the current runs and to work simultaneously to re-establish the environmental qualities of the rivers.

In the Loughs Agency area, this milestone presents an opportunity which must not be squandered.

We are running out of time to save the salmon, we can no longer afford the lethal time lag while Government Agencies try to save face. We need a complete break from a sterile dependence solely on minimum Conservation Limit targets; while these may form a useful contribution to a management regime, we must no longer rely on the concept of minimum numbers as targets for spawning.

We must firstly negotiate with the remaining netsmen to bring a permanent end to all netting in the entire Foyle area, with suitable safeguards on angling exploitation. Then we must embark on a long term programme of habitat conservation, protection, and enhancement, to maximise freshwater productivity. We must strive to achieve the NASF objective of abundance of salmon in our rivers, and to aim to achieve this every year. Only by doing this can we protect our salmon runs for the future.

Orri Vigfusson. NASF

DFO is willing to buyout licenses...just on the wrong coast

2011-11-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

Yet another article on east coast lobster license buyouts. This is relevant because DFO on the west coast has steadfastedly refused to buyout the non-selective, aging, uneconomic gillnet fleet.

The article here describes DFO paying $18 million to retire some lobster licenses. Why the discrepancy on different coasts?
The gillnetters on the north coast of BC have 650 or so licenses with the marktet price of a license being advertised at around $60,000. Probably most license holders would accept less just to get some dollars out of a mostly useless investment.
So 650 x 60k= $39 million. Small price to pay to ensure truly sustainable fishery management on our coast.

DFO Minister quote

2011-11-20T10:43:00.000-08:00

In this St John's newspaper article, DFO Minister keith Ashfield is quoted as saying the 'fishery is probably broken'. He is referring to the east coast fishery but the basic approach seems to be the same on our west coast.
And if he thinks making 20-30 thousand dollars is unacceptable to young people how about west coast fishers, especially gillnetters, who make 1/4 of that...?? We wonder what Minister Ashfield thinks is acceptable to the Canadian public when commercial fishermen contribute so little to the economy yet inflict such onerous impacts on fish stocks in addition to bycatch impacts on much more valuable fish such as steelhead.
The budget cuts Ashfield hinted at wont make DFO more efficient in our opinion. Only a major restructuring or even a completely new organisation will change the negative feelings towards this dysfunctional bureaucracy.

The Weekend Telegram, St John's, NFLD
It’s not just Newfoundland and Labrador’s fishery that needs fixing, according to federal Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield.

Speaking to The Telegram Friday afternoon, Ashfield conceded the fishing industry is “probably broken” and major steps need to be taken if a younger generation of harvesters is going to get into the business.

“It’s not only in Newfoundland and Labrador, the fishery in general could be considered broken, to some degree,” Ashfield said.

“We’re worried about that and we’re not going to have new people come into the fishery unless they can make a living at it. People aren’t happy to make $20,000-$30,000, especially the younger people.”

But while Ashfield acknowledged the government may need to do more to restructure the fishery, he gave no indication that Ottawa is prepared to put up money to do so.

Instead, he said, the answer lies in making the Department of Fisheries and Oceans as efficient as possible.

“There’s things that we can do, when we look at the layers of rules and regulations and all of the red tape that are tied to the fisheries department that have just grown year after year after year,” Ashfield said. “It doesn’t make for a good business model, and it makes it very difficult for people to earn a sustainable living.”

Liberal MP Gerry Byrne questioned what exactly that would mean.

“What red tape is he talking about? Is he talking about less enforcement officers? Is he talking about the red tape of those pesky scientists? Is he talking about the red tape of consultation on fisheries management plans? Or is he talking about the red tape of the fleet-separation policy and not allowing processors to also be the harvesters of fish?” Byrne said.

Ashfield’s notion of making DFO “more efficient” left a bad taste in NDP MP Ryan Cleary’s mouth, too.

“That’s the code word for cuts,” he said.

Cleary has been sounding the alarm about impending cuts to DFO’s science program, as the federal Conservative government tries to bring the budget deficit back into balance.

“The guts have been cut out of science going back not just with this Conservative government, going right back to 1995 under the Paul Martin regime,” Cleary said. “I don’t see any move by the federal Conservative government to put more emphasis back on science.”

But in his interview with The Telegram, Ashfield said science is part of the department’s core mandate, and it remains a priority.

“Absolutely. Science is very much important, now more so than ever,” Ashfield said. “The science around fisheries is pretty interesting, to say the least.

“But if we don’t use a science-based approach, we won’t have a fishery.”

New salmon plant in Terrace

2011-10-18T10:14:00.000-07:00

Interesting article here on a new salmon processing plant in Terrace using only sustainably caught fish.
Good work by Patagonia, Skeena Wild, and the business people involved.

New book on Skeena Steelhead

2011-09-21T20:11:00.000-07:00

Here is an announcement of a new book on the history and management of Skeena Steelhead by Robert S Hooton.
This should be an interesting read.

Lake Babine sockeye fishery

2011-09-17T16:25:00.000-07:00

Is this the start of the demise of the gillnet??? If a greater percentage of the sockeye catch can occur up at Babine it would sure limit damage to our steelhead and other depressed species and stocks.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/lake-babine-natives-celebrate-revived-sockeye-fishery/article2166433/

Tyee Graphs to Sept.09,2011

2011-09-09T13:37:00.001-07:00

FLNRO Steelhead Update To Sept.09,2011

2011-09-09T13:26:00.000-07:00

The Tyee Test Index to the September 8th is 130, 60% of last year’s index to the same date and above the all years’ average (average all years since 1956 = 101; range: 33 (1957) to 246 (1998)).

The Upper Sustut River Enumeration Weir was installed and began fishing on July 31^st. Four hundred and twenty-three steelhead have been captured to date, greater than average and 89% of last year’s census to the same date (average all years since 1994 = 309; range: 61 (1999) to 708 (2004)).

As of August 24th, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans estimate the Skeena sockeye aggregate escapement past Tyee to be 1.48 million.

Commercial fishing activity in the Skeena River approach waters is complete for this season.. Commercial fishing activity to date can be found in the attached: Commercial Openings 2011.

Please contact me with questions/comments.

All the best.

Mark Beere

Senior Fisheries Biologist

Fish and Wildlife Branch

BC Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations

3726 Alfred Ave.

Bag 5000

Smithers, BC

V0J 2N0

250.847.7297 (phone)

250.847.7728 (facsimile)

mark.beere@gov.bc.ca

News story on Kwinageese river blockage

2011-09-07T12:55:00.000-07:00

Interesting story on a natural blockage on the Kwinageese river, a tributary of the Nass.

Joint News Release

2011-09-07T09:22:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to announce our participation in a joint news release with the Steelhead Society of BC and the BC Federation of Fly Fishers.
In the release the groups are critical of DFO for poor management with regard to steelhead bycatch and discards in the commercial fisheries of BC.
Here is a link from the BCFFF page:

Nass Update to Sept.06,2011

2011-09-07T08:29:00.001-07:00

Here is the link to the latest Nass Update courtesy of Nisga'a Fisheries.

Tyee Steelhead to Sept.06,2011

2011-09-06T12:44:00.001-07:00

Tyee Steelhead to Sept.02,2011

2011-09-02T16:39:00.001-07:00

Latest Fishing Report from Oscar's to September 1st

2011-09-01T10:05:00.000-07:00

Steve Hidber with a nice steelie caught recently.
Latest Fishing Report from Oscar's

Enjoy your long weekend! Go fishing!
Fishing report for September 1st.

Bulkley River

The entire Bulkley is in good shape. The water level is still fairly high for this time of year however. Let's hope for a drier fall. Pinks and Coho are being caught in the Bulkley. Use jigs, spinners or spoons for Coho. Blue, green and silver are the top colours. Colorado blades are also working. Fishing for Coho seems to be best in the lower parts of the Bulkley. Fish for them early in the morning for best success. A few Steelheads caught this week as well. Some on dry flies.... Way to go Lane....

Kispiox River

The Kispiox is high. It should come down unless we get hit with more of the wet stuff... Coho are in... Steelhead should not be far off...

Skeena River

The Skeena River is in good shape but still on the high side. Steelhead fishing is good on the lower Skeena.

Morice River

The Morice is in very good shape. Steelhead being caught in the lower parts of the river.

Babine River

The Sockeye fishery on the Babine River is now closed (no more retention). The water is still fairly high. Steelhead season is fast approaching on the Babine.

Babine Lake

Babine Lake is still producing lots of fish. The limit has been increased to 4 fish on the lake. Please see notice in the news and events section of our website! (osv

If you are going to the ocean please read the halibut notice on our news and events section!

NOTE:

Don’t forget that it is September 1st, and on most rivers you will now need your classified waters stamp and regardless if you are targeting them or not; your steelhead stamp.

Check your regulations book to be sure you have the correct licence!

A beautiful steelhead caught on the Babine River using a dry line. Nice job Steve!

1214 Main Street
Box 550
Smithers BC
V0J 2N0
Phone:(250)847-2136
Fax:(250)847-3679
www.oscarssports.com
info@oscarssports.com