SVIAC January Newsletter

We are pleased to be able to provide you access to the January 2018 newsletter for the Southern Vancouver Island Anglers Coalition (SVIAC). The newsletter provides extensive and excellent coverage on some of the important issues facing local anglers.

…there is a greater than usual need to lobby for our salmon fisheries this year. The more members we have, the stronger our voice, thus giving us greater credibility with politicians and at fisheries management decision-making tables.

Please consider supporting SVIAC by becoming a member in 2018.

ACS Meeting Minutes, January 2018

Here are the minutes of the January 3, 2018 meeting of the ACS.

ACS Meeting Minutes Dec 2017

Here are the minutes for the ACS December 6 2017 meeting.

IPHC Annual Meeting Jan 22-26 2018: Attend by Webinar

The 94th session of the International Pacific Halibut Commission’s annual meeting will be held in Portland, Oregon on January 22 – 26, 2018.

Want to attend meetings by webinar? Do so by registering here.

From the meeting notice:

The deadline for Regulatory and Catch Limit proposals, and Stakeholder comment (23 December 2017) has now passed. Further comment may be provided in Session.

All sessions are open to observers and the general public, unless the Commission specifically decides otherwise.

All sessions will be available via webinar. Webinar attendees will be able to make comments and ask questions as noted on the schedule with other meeting attendees.

On the IPHC website you may find the 2017 Canadian Recreational Fishery Halibut Catch Report. Within that report, DFO states:

Estimates of catch in months and areas not monitored by traditional programs were generated from data collected during DFO’s internet-based recreational survey (iREC). Initiated in 2012, the iREC survey collects catch and effort information from recreational licence holders on a monthly basis throughout the recreational fishing year .

This reliance by DFO on the iREC survey for monitoring catch results is of particular concern to ACS members. Any internet survey is open to abuse – false reporting – by “interested parties”, any of which may purchase a sports fishing license, and the iREC survey is no exception. The question as to whether and how survey results are validated has not been publicly addressed by DFO to our knowledge, yet policy decisions – such as halibut season closures – are being made annually using this method.