Not quite.
Evidence of meeting #31 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was decisions.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #31 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was decisions.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Paul Connors Liberal Avalon, NL
Neither do I. I lost my train of thought there.
We were talking about the introduction of new technologies, and I know there's a salmon allocation review ongoing. I don't know if you're involved. Are you involved with this?
Liberal
Paul Connors Liberal Avalon, NL
You have participated. Do you think it addresses any of your concerns? What are your thoughts on how the review is currently going?
Member, Sport Fishing Advisory Board
It's currently wrapping up, and it's definitely right at the final stages. I understand that a briefing will go to the minister on that.
I sat as a representative for the recreational fishery. It was a very challenging process. I'm not going to get into the details of it, but it was certainly very challenging to tie that in. That's one aspect of, basically, the process by which the government is going to allocate those resources, and this lays it out.
As Jesse mentioned before, the previous policy wasn't always adhered to, and the example he gave was Fraser sockeye. To tie this into technology is challenging because they're two different things. Really, the technologies around catch monitoring are going to be important. Technologies around stock assessment, those will be important. Such things as marking trailers, mass marking...there are some technologies that are being used to fin clip fish—put a fish in on one side, it comes out missing a fin on the other side. I hope this answers your question.
Liberal
Paul Connors Liberal Avalon, NL
I promised Mr. Morrissey I'd share my time with him, so I'll let him go ahead.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Thank you, Chair.
I'm always amazed by how many times my colleague in the official opposition gives me the opportunity to remind committee members of how badly the department was gutted after years of Conservative government. It's taken us 11 years to rebuild it in the important areas that are being addressed today.
Mr. Zeman, you made an interesting comment: We need more than good science, and we hear that often in a whole host of areas. What's the disconnect with science that would lead you to make that statement?
Executive Director, B.C. Wildlife Federation
Using the example of the Fraser, we had the science. The Pacific Salmon Commission said, “The fish are there. People can go fishing.” We said, “Here are places we can do it sustainably.” It took two weeks to make that happen.
Adhering to policy is very challenging. We've all had the steelhead file. We talked to the committee about that as well. We paid a post-doctoral student to go through steelhead management on our behalf because, during the SARA listing process, all kinds of interference occurred. A lot of times we don't have the science, we don't have enough monitoring, but there are times when we have it and we have the fish, but we don't get fishing.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
The science was all good, but what you wanted, exactly, was a decision.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
It was slow in getting made. Thanks for the clarification.
Mr. Brown, you made a comment in reference to the loss of predictability in managing. Could you expand on that?
Public Fishery Alliance
Yes, because one where there's a potential for openings....
I'll go back to asking, “How sound is it?” We could have an opening that would be very predictable, that DFO and science staff support. There's been catch monitoring done, where they paid guide boats to go out and determined that there weren't Fraser River stocks of concern present. There was an abundance of hatchery fish, and it was a sustainable fishery.
This is not occurring, and we've been working on it since 2019. We've been in the Vancouver area seven years, and the chinook fishery essentially closes from April 1 to September 1. We really hope, with the announcement the minister has made about increased mass marking, that opportunities for chinook salmon are going to quickly follow for Vancouver-area anglers, who have been some of the most curtailed on the coast.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Thank you.
Chair, before we go, Mr. Arnold raised a very good question about any examples of a fishery that was put in jeopardy, I believe, because of a recreational fishery. Through the Chair, could we find a way of validating or getting information on it? I would like to see it as well, if we could find the resources to give an opinion. I'm not aware of this either, but I would like a robust review and a report back.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Patrick Weiler
Thank you, Mr. Morrissey.
Maybe I'll just hand it over to the analysts.
Okay. The analysts are going to look into that, and I'll be happy to share that with the committee when we have it.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Patrick Weiler
This concludes our second panel. I want to thank our witnesses for joining us today. They came a long way to provide some testimony on this important study and for the recommendations that are going to flow from it. We really appreciate all of your input.
With that, we're going to be adjourning the meeting. Our meeting on Monday, April 20 is going to continue this study. We look forward to seeing everybody then.
Thank you.