Fisheries committee  Could I also add that although the pink salmon don't have economic value from a commercial fishery perspective, from a recreational fishery perspective they're a very valuable fish, because these fish are plentiful and very easy to catch. You can take any six-year-old child down to the river and he can catch pink salmon.

Fisheries committee  I would say probably not, although if indeed they have enforcement staff coming in from the Pacific region, that will help a little. And the fact that this enforcement staff is going to remain for three weeks, rather than for two weeks, will probably help a little, as well. But seeing as we have an abundance of sockeye in the pre-forecast of somewhere around 17.5 million fish, there is going to be an absolute zoo out there on the river, and the first nations are going to be doing a lot of fishing.

Fisheries committee  No. They are few and far between. As a matter of fact, I sit on the sport fish advisory main board, and one of the things I've had to deal with is criticism from my colleagues who say I am taking fisheries officers away from their region and they need them. They understand it's not me who is doing that, but it's just the idea that we're taking somebody from Campbell River where that guy is needed, because there is not enough staff in Campbell River, yet that fisheries officer is going away for three-week intervals to Chiliwack and leaving Campbell River short.

Fisheries committee  I'm not sure about that. I do know that they got a ceremonial permit to fish from May 9 to May 29, which was 20 days. That's when they got permission through this pilot project. Instead of having to apply constantly for ceremonial permits—and what that means is that if there's some kind of ceremony such as a wedding, a funeral, the first of the season fish, or whatever--they're given a permit to go and catch x number of fish for their ceremony.

Fisheries committee  That's correct, absolutely.

Fisheries committee  From my perspective, yes. In this particular 20-day period, they could catch 115 chinook. That feeds an awful lot of people at an awful lot of weddings.

Fisheries committee  It is 15 or 20 pounds.

Fisheries committee  That would be my observation.

Fisheries committee  That is probably the case. And I can cite numerous incidents when I have reported a fishery that I absolutely knew was illegal. I reported it on a Friday, reported it on a Saturday, reported it on a Sunday, and Monday morning I've gotten a call to my cell phone from a fisheries officer saying, “Oh, by the way, you left this information with ORR.

Fisheries committee  Formalin.

Fisheries committee  One of the clearer pictures that you can see is actually picture number eight. If you look at picture number eight, you can see all those little humps.

Fisheries committee  Okay. Formalin is a preservative, a liquid preservative that keeps the alevins from rotting. Yes, you're right, John. The reality is that originally there was a legal document in the local paper, which said there was going to be some sort of a bridge built. We had 30 days to respond to this bridge or whatever it was they were building.

Fisheries committee  The following day, I went again with a film crew and got hold of CBC, CTV, or one of them. We went down there, and I dug out two redds. I took the fish, the little alevins, as you can see, put them in formalin, took them to the fisheries officers, and said this was going on. The very next day when we were there again, field staff were present, and they actually happened to run into me.

Fisheries committee  Well, I can tell you that if you look at the very first picture I provided, which is the picture of the gravel truck and the excavator, we were on site there. These were my pictures, or people who were with me took them. On the day that we were there, there were two enforcement officers there from the Chilliwack local office, and I was very fortunate because there were also a number of other people there.

Fisheries committee  There are no aboriginal groups within the people I represent. I represent the sport fishery.