HI Dominic
I want to tell you that it is greatly disappointing that
after 40 years of DFO managing BC salmon into extinction, here we are today, with
you eliminating recreational fishing in areas of the Salish Sea/Juan de Fuca
Strait for killer whale food, when the real solution is for DFO to have been
doing freshwater habitat restoration and hatchery epigenetics work at a rate
that would have seen salmon stocks stay at the same level as in the 1960s.
What you are doing now is with almost extinction levels of
Fraser chinook, feeding almost extinct killer whales that DFO has not been
doing enough for over the decades, and finally, when it won’t save the whales,
eliminating a sport fishery, and they will likely become extinct, anyway. Note
that from the east all we hear from DFO is how 500 right whales are on
the brink. Note that 76 BC orcas are only 15.2% of your eastern right whales.
Note the attached shot of a 1960’s morning’s sport catch
from the Nahmint River, a small drainage in the Alberni Inlet. Where are the
Nahmint and dozens of other chinook runs today, DFO?
Two things are required immediately: far greater money spent
on freshwater habitat restoration, and netpens of chinook.
Freshwater Habitat Restoration
I think $100 million needs to be invested each year for the
next 10 years to catch up. If you look at what $1.5 million did to the Clay
Bank on the Cowichan River, it shows that money doesn’t go very far. I suggest
you give the money to the Pacific Salmon Foundation because it leverages money
4 to 7 times, and the public, particularly students and sport fishers do most
projects.
I spent more than a week’s time figuring out from DFO’s
patchwork of data/reports (because DFO doesn’t have a final number) that there were,
before escapement, 73 million salmon in the ocean. In perspective, this is
99.8% of all the salmon in Canada. Your eastern Atlantic salmon are a measly
.2-to .4-million, or .2%.
In my estimation, there are four major problems that have
lead to the downward spiral of wild BC salmon: lack of freshwater habitat
restoration, DFO, in-ocean fish farms and climate change. We can change every
major problem except climate change.
Netpens
I recommend an immediate establishment of a dozen netpens of
2 million chinook fry each. Use Robertson Creek and the Nitinat hatcheries for
Juan de Fuca Strait, and Cowichan – a river that has had a large turnaround in
the past few years – for Strait of Georgia. That means 24 million fry
each year for the next ten years. The point is that it has to be done quickly
to save the killer whales, and though it is 4 years to adults, if we wait, it
is those years plus 4 years to adults.
Pay attention to the issue of triploiding for netpens and
epigenetics for an increased Salmon Enhancement Program in the specific rivers.
And pay attention to the work done by the South Vancouver Island Anglers
Coalition, Sooke netpen operation using Nitinat stock, now releasing its second
crop. Funding comes from members, mostly anglers. And a seal cull would help.
Finally, after buying out Kinder Morgan, you liberals are in
deep trouble in BC, on two major issues. You need to do something major
quickly, and a recent poll shows that BC holds salmon as dear as Quebec does
French.
Thanks
DC Reid
See my plan for bringing back wild BC salmon: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/02/wild-bc-salmon-plan-contact-your-mla.html.
