Fisheries committee  Thank you for the opportunity to present. I'd like to discuss the future of Pacific salmon using my experience with interior Fraser steelhead, in particular the Thompson and Chilcotin fish. The history is that the fishery went from a catch-and-kill fishery to a catch-and-releas

Fisheries committee  Thank you for the opportunity to present. I would like to discuss the future of Pacific salmon, using my experience with interior Fraser steelhead, in particular the Thompson and Chilcotin fish. The history for angling was a catch-and-kill fishery, then a catch and release, and

Fisheries committee  There are two processes. There's the recovery potential assessment, the RPA, which is a peer-reviewed science document that basically points to the causes and potential solutions. Then that's followed up with a science advisory report, which is really a layperson's interpretation

Fisheries committee  Yes, they are, both legally and illegally. The challenge with a net is that if a fish is the right size, it's going to get caught in that net, and there's a very high likelihood that even if it falls out of the net or somebody puts it back in the river, it's going to end up dead,

Fisheries committee  It's really interesting that you bring that up, because in the first year of the salmon restoration and innovation fund, there were actually applications from first nations to transition to more selective methods, and those applications were turned down. There is definitely an

Fisheries committee  Yes, the issue of selective fisheries on the Fraser is a huge one. What Dr. Walters is saying is completely accurate. Beach seining involves 30%-60% mortality. The way it looks, these fish die afterwards. Pound traps look like the way of the future. Again, DFO in that case is a

Fisheries committee  Briefly, as I mentioned around natural resource management, the three things are funding, science and social support. I'm going to really focus in on the science piece because there is an internal conflict within DFO in terms of who is the decision-maker and who makes decisions.

Fisheries committee  Yes, absolutely. The biggest ones that everybody is talking about and we're trying to get promoted are things called “pound traps”. Essentially, the fish swim in; you can almost lift up a net and then pick out the fish that you're allowed to keep, and the rest end up in the river

Fisheries committee  I would say, cut the scientists loose. Give them a role and have them set objectives for fish populations. The big failure in all this is that we don't have objectives for fish populations. What we saw with chum is that when we do, DFO still opens fisheries when we don't meet th

Fisheries committee  There were applications to the B.C. salmon restoration and innovation fund the first year, and that was to transition. It's not a number, but I think it offers first nations in particular an alternative. The discussions that we've had with first nations is that we, cumulatively,

Fisheries committee  It's definitely one part. It has to be done, but you take a triaged approach and you pick out.... I wouldn't do just one thing at a time. I would do multiple things and really get at it. It's part of the solution, but there's going to be no silver bullet for this problem.

Fisheries committee  If I had to give a grade, it would be an F.

Fisheries committee  Yes, absolutely. When we talk in the wildlife world provincially, if I want to know something about endangered mountain caribou, grizzly bears or anything, I can pick up the phone, send an email, or get a hold of someone and they will send me what they have. When we call the dep

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's good to hear the words from Fin today. Thank you for the opportunity to be a witness from the traditional territory of the Syilx first nations. I'm the director of fish and wildlife restoration with the B.C. Wildlife Federation. The B.C. Wildlife Fed

Fisheries committee  That's a great question, Mr. Mazier. Mr. Haskell actually referenced this as well. Last summer we had the worst sockeye return in the Fraser River's history. We had 293,000 fish show up. We normally have 10 million. That's a 97% decline. It was so bad that the scientists in DFO