Fisheries committee  Thank you.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, everybody.

Fisheries committee  Personally, I believe it's difficult to reduce some of the bycatch, as nets aren't selective. They're a lot like “whatever comes in may not go out”. I can't really speak to the bycatch or the commercial fishery side. We've done a lot of research on the first nations fishery, and really support the way the subsistence fishing goes, but I'm sorry, I honestly can't speak much to the commercial side.

Fisheries committee  I'm sorry, but I can't speak to the B.C. situation. However, I have heard of the salmon cannon, and I have done a little research personally on some alternative solutions. I can't speak to or make recommendations on the hydro dam currently. I think that would be better left to the experts.

Fisheries committee  Personally, I don't typically buy fish at the grocery store, but when I walk by, my understanding is that you'll see wild Atlantic salmon or wild Pacific salmon. I have not seen it specifically say whether they're farmed or not farmed or how they were caught. In the Yukon, we have a real benefit of being so close to Alaska.

Fisheries committee  Yes. As I mentioned, from the education perspective, being able to fish and actually take your child out and sit on the side of a riverbank, whether it's for fly-fishing or traditional baitcasting fishing or, from the first nations perspective, netting fish, is something that's really hard to replace.

Fisheries committee  My understanding is that the waters have changed over time. The changing water temperatures can affect the travel of the fish. Again, it's not my area of expertise; we're just going by what we've read and seen through various studies. The change in water temperatures could be making the fish look at different spawning areas.

Fisheries committee  Again, I can't offer scientific recommendations, but from the recommendations of us with boots on the ground, we are very much willing to work with all of our partners along the Yukon River to try to remove any of the obstacles. Fish passage is one of the large ones that I've been reading about lately.

Fisheries committee  I can do that, yes.

Fisheries committee  Mr. Chair, in the Yukon Fish and Game Association's history, we have always been out front as much as we can be in education. In the time that we can't fish today, we would still like to look at tomorrow. On the education side of that, the Fish and Game Association plays a vital role in that it can continue to educate and work with all of the partners across the entire country to improve, whether it's rounding up volunteers to do physical work or getting educational pieces like chinook salmon life cycles to work into the schools and into general conversations with members or the public.

Fisheries committee  Mr. Chair, again, it's not my area of expertise, but we have partners we can rely on to gather some of this information. We understand, from some of the recent reports that have been put in for the new water licence, that the fish coming to the ocean are just as important as the fish returning from the ocean.

Fisheries committee  Mr. Chair, the Yukon Fish and Game Association has partnered with Yukon Energy and the hatchery for as long as I can remember. I'm sure it predates my time. From my understanding, the Wolf Creek release has not shown, through tagged fish, the same return that we have seen in the Michie Creek area, where the spawning fish return in a lot more abundance.

Fisheries committee  The Fish and Game Association hasn't been involved in as many of the projects. We do have our annual fry release at Wolf Creek, as I mentioned. In the past, we had programs like Friends of McIntyre Creek, where we would go and clean up the creek. That will be coming back. Since 2020, we have had some real difficulties in the way that we operate.

Fisheries committee  I can definitely do that. I will meet with our past executive director, who is a retiree from DFO, and our current executive director, who unfortunately couldn't be here today.

Fisheries committee  I would add that the Fish and Game Association has the ability to work with all user groups in the Yukon. We would love to be a part of the restoration of the salmon so we can all look back and say that we did our best to try and bring these salmon back. Hopefully, it will be a good news story in the end.