Volunteer Net Pen rearing Pink Salmon Smolts and WHY?

[SalaR]

It seems that what goes around always comes around! At recent meetings with DFO ,Private interests, and FFSBC(a first) there is afoot once again plans to enhance the SaltWater beach fisheries along the East Side of Vancouver Island and I would suppose this will spread to other sectors along our populated coastlines. The Idea is fabulous in context and is actually simple. Net Pen rearing of Pink Salmon smolts in easy to manitain sites for periods of about 30 days only. These smolts will quadruple in size to about a Gram and their open ocean survival will radiate these same figures. My alarm bells are going off..is this not what we did after the Coho Callapse in the mid-Nineties??? Where were the commercial intersts then and where are they now? Were we not promised there would be no Commercial targeting of Coho ? And where were the off work Commercial fishers when all this volunteer work was being done?
If we, as volunteers help to re-populate coastal Rivers with historic runs of Pink Salmon, what we really need to know is the whole story ! Will DFO and Commercial interests once again rip us off?

[Cannon]

I have thought about this subject about four years ago as they net pen Pinks close by the Discovery pier in Cambell River and it is a great fishery from the dock.
In Washington, state fisheries hold back on the Coho smolts (not sure as to how long) as this tends to "resident" a certain % of the fish which provides an excellent fishery in Puget Sound.
I started a topic on this on the Washington Flyfishing forum about four days ago. Go to the discussion forum and click on the Salt sub-section and then click "Puget Sound Resident Coho".
I've wanted to inquire about net penning salmon down here in Victoria for quite some time as our beach fishery is pretty much exclusive to SRC.
SaLaR is there any contacts to inquire about this? DFO,provincial fisheries,hatcheries,and/or stream enhancement societies?

[SalaR]

8) Good to have a reply to this very important subject...several years ago there was a small movement afoot to do some net pen rearing of Pink Salmon in the Victoria area > that thrust seemed to get rolled over in the push to enhance GoldStream for other species including of all things Steelhead,Cutties and of course Chum(chum won out). Now all you mainlanders pay attention to this..there is going to be a world class fishery on the east coast of the Island again and we need to make sure that there are as many fly fishers involved as possible. The salt water beach fishery is truely spectacular and can be enjoyed by the entire family!
If there is any common ground in all this it comes in the realization that the greater the abundance of decaying fish in our streams and along the shorelines the healthier the entire eco-system becomes. certain agencies and groups are prepared to do the leg work and maintain these pens..usually willing volunteer groups like the Nile Creek Enhancement Society ,Oyster River Salmonid Enhancement Society, the Fanny Bay Salmonid Enhancement Society to name a few. A good contact to get the accurate info' would be from Mr. Frank Dalziel.. At Malasapina College in Nanaimo"dalzielf@mala.bc.ca"...he works close with DFO ,FFSBC,and the volunteer groups along the East Coast of the Island. DC Reid also did a bit of leg work on this in the Victoria area...and if you need any other info please contact me
C

[Cannon]

I know the Haig-Brown fly fishing club along with DFO did some testing on the waters of Jordan River to see if it was capable to sustain a pop. of Pinks. What I remember was there was some trace of a chemical found in the water. I have followed up on that and waiting hear back with the info.
I didn't hear about the effort to place net pens for Pinks in the Victoria area.What happened there?
Esquimalt Anglers fishing club does net pen Springs in Esquimalt Harbour. These fish do return to the harbour as I know of people who worked down at the dry dock and found Chinook in the dry dock after water was drained.
I E-mailed them a year ago in regards to thier net pens but I got no response. I guess I wasn't a member of the "club". I will try again.
P.T.

[patches]

fish farming and net pen fish are the same thing in my eyes . a fish with out a river is a fish without a river and it will end up some were it probably should not. ...let me explain. here were i live the salmon society does not think about wild stocks before they go ahead and start throwing salmon in net pens all over in front of our beaches and stalking fish well above the natural barrier . a fish that is reared in a troff and then put in a pen and released out in the ocean will have a higher rate of straying up other systems than a fish that is born in a stream and realizes the value of its soundings .and then exits and spends time feeding and living in its estuary before heading to sea.that is a wild and naturally selected salmon .....the way they are supposed to be. the only reason that we are having a crash of fishery's on our coast line is D.F.O has miss managed our fishery for 30 years or more and we continue to destroy the habitat .don't get me wrong......im into salmon enhancement but it needs to be done responsibly and some times that means harder work and more people . im a strong believer in fry programs because of the problems that can arise from rearing fish out in pens .if D.F.O can give fish farmers over 70 million then they can put the care taker back on every salmon stream on the coast . i do believe that raising smolts in a pen to be our children's future returns ....should be the very last resort in our waters .....................can you explain more about the program like how long do they spend in the pens and were are they before the pens ...iv never herd of a pink program in pens. they do it with springs here and i believe it may have a grater impact with a species of smaller runs and more fragile gen pools like steelhead or the last of a coho or spring run .they can be devastated if 20%of the run are strays. ..... any way not to but heads , only to inspire stimulating debate.

[SalaR]

Actually the Net Pen issue is one of good and not negative...here on this part of the Island we have over the past few years been developeing the net pen concept to reality...Malasapina College has a big involvement in this research...basically what I know of this method is that the Pink Salmon fry once hatched normally will head directly for the ocean once out of the gravel.,where they are prime food for all...because of the weakened conditions of the Ocean Realm,these fry are even more prone to disaster,so,what the program does is capture these very tiny fry a centimetere or so long and place them in net pens near the river mouths where for a minimal amount of care these same tiny fish are minimally cared for and fed,realistically to increase their size for a better chance of survival. The tests have shown an astounding survival rate on returns...something to the affect of quadrupled...simply because they are better prepared to cope with their 2 years at sea...these same fish then return to the area of the net pens until they are ready to mate and then find their local streams..Nile Creek does not have a net pen yet,the Campbell River,Nanaimo and several others are doing that this year...basically for a sport fishery and of course to stabalize a fertiliation base for he streams that continually get the short end of the stick
C