6.1 million Chum

[SalaR]

It baffles my limited comprehension as to an answer for the constant DFO screwups! Allowing a commercial opening for Chum Salmon in Johnson Straight recently that as I have been informed was very successful. 6.1 Million Chum were harvested!!?? I wonder how many Steelhead,Coho, and other species were masacred as a bycatch. More importantly,all the rivers in Region 14(from the Oyster to the Englishman) are totally closed...NO FISHING...Period until further notice. I do hope you are all reading between the lines as I vent some of my frust'... :evil:
C

[Speynut]

Its a lot easier to manage a fishery that lives in a net pen. :twisted:
We finally see some fish on the inside and DFO allows them to be wiped out in one shot, maybe they shut down the rivers so the sports wouldn't see the dismal returns, net marks, ect. and put 2 and 2 together. Wonder who's buying all that chum salmon? Won't see it on my menu.

Colin - long time lurker, first time poster

[professori]

The rivers were shut down because there was (untill this week) no water in them. Any salmon in the rivers were in grave danger of succumbing even without the added harrassment of anglers. Ocean caught salmon species are much less likely to be intermingled with other species than are those caught in rivers, so the by-catch is much less than if in freshwater. It makesw no sense to oppose fish farming and then rail against the commercial ocean fishing as well.

[SalaR]

The question of opposing fishfarming is too huge to answer in one foul sweep of words! A realist must surely consider if we are to have sport fishing then we will ultimately have to alter what we know as DFO and eliminate the commercial fishery all together????If ;and that is a mighty IF,we could possibly farm our fish without the devastating impacts to the entire eco systems ,then eliminating the commercial sector is a given or a merging. Why ,for the sane! ,would we continue to Sein net,Gill Net,Long Line, Drag and all the other stupid abombinations simply to make those few wealthy?? And wealthy they do get.
I have just returned from a meeting with a DFO representative and the theme of the meeting was Net Pens for Pink Salmon off the east coast of Van' Isle'...that is currently successful in concept. The major Question I presented was as you may guess...WHY. The answer was to bring the Pink returns back to historic levels and of course the wild Salmon policy. But we had that same argument with"DFO" back in the mid Ninetys when we experienced the COHO collapse...and we were assured there would be no "commercial fishery" considering the commercial sector put forward NO efforts. Whom do we trust??? Just talk to the large volunteer group at the Oyster River Enhancement Society.........of the 300 members in early 2000 only 1(ONE) was a commercial fisher!!
What I must say is that more than ever now, there are possibilities to change this for we "Sporties" ...even the commercial guys are ageing themselves into change...this could be a good thing!

[Speynut]

6.1 million chum, thats a lot of nutrients for our rivers that they won't get now. I'm not faulting the commercial guys for making a buck and paying their bills, it just shows the level of mis-management by DFO and their big crystal ball. Being involved in the food service industry I'm well aware of the necessity of sustainable, environmentally friendly fish farming, theres no way that ocean caught fish can even come close to supplying the amounts of seafood that is consumed.

[Fish Finder]

Not to take this topic into different direction, but salmon can thrive in fresh water. Look at the great lakes with our transplants. My question is, why can't this (fish farming) be done in in a few larger lakes set aside for this purpose? I've asked this question in the past, and it seems it would be way to expensive, compared to keeping the farms in the salt. Anyhow it just doesn't make sense to me.

Finder :wink:

[SalaR]

The simple answer to all this nonesense is "market driven" . Near Yellowpoint,south of Nanaimo there are several sites that have land based fish farms and they are doing very well. The local Grocery firm(Thrifty Foods)markets these as" Eco " raised Salmon...they do charge more for these fish but is it not worth it. Many people do not realize that some Salmon ,since Time began,(fish time that is),have lived much of their lives in Fresh Water lakes. For example,Atlantic Salmon are Native to Lake Ontario ,until the St. LAwrence Seaway was constructed there were good numbers of fish entering the lake. Also,and a good example of why pacific Salmon do not thrive well in fresh water are of course our "Kokanee" ,Stranded Sockeye!
Water movement,like air movement for we humans,is critical if farmed fish are to survive in such confined quarters. And there has been work done in lakes for fish farms.
I was just talking to an ex:commercial fisherman who now guides we sporties out of Ucluelet and he was telling me of the sheer numbers of fish being taken..His example to me was his good days for Sockeye out of "Hardy' would be 5-600 fish per day. When the Seiners came in they would take 60,000 lbs/day/boat...more than his total year.
There is no wonder we have very endangered runs of fish everywhere along our coast.
C

[Speynut]

Just an example, small restaurant say 70 seats, 100 dinners a night, this restaurant orders 150lbs of salmon a week X 52 weeks, 2750lbs a year (400 fish or so) now multiply that by the total numbers of restaurants on the island alone (1000 or so?), thats a big chunk of the fishery. These are also pretty conservative numbers as well, I worked for a major hotel chain that easily brought in 1000lbs a weeks (coho & springs). This doesn't even come close to the amounts that go offshore to Asia, how do we expect wild stocks to sustain this?
I don't support fish farming as it is now, I did't allow farmed fish in my restaurant and will continue to boycott it. But I know that things will have to change, land based farming does work and yes its expensive, but it is necessary.