Monthly archives: June, 2021

Politics over Conservation, again

On June 23, 2021, Private Member’s Bill C-269 (Andrew Scheer) came up for second reading in the House of Commons.

Bill 269 would have prohibited the deposit of raw sewage into waterways inhabited by fish. The federal government can currently grant exceptions to entities (such as cities, municipalities, towns, ocean going vessels, industries) dumping raw sewage into our waterways.

The federal Liberal Party defeated this bill. With a very political “not invented here” spin, their vote was whipped to follow party instructions: vote no. Makes a joke out of the words they’ve written to announce the new Canada Water Agency. And those healthy oceans will just have to wait for the right political party to have a good idea.

Public Fishery Alliance Video

The Public Fishery Alliance (PFA) has produced a video that tells about a five-year self funded program – the Sooke Chinook Enhancement Initiative – to put more Chinook into Juan de Fuca Strait to increase the food supply for southern resident killer whales in the summer. Some of those fish will benefit anglers and provide the opportunity for First Nations terminal fishing, plus commercial fisheries, and feed other pods of whales and marine mammals.

We all benefit by moving from Chinook shortages to Chinook abundances. If only our federal government thought this way, too.

Feds Provide Guiding Principles for PSSI

News release here has our federal government stating they have established guiding principles for the Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative (PSSI) announced in their 2021 budget.

The PSSI is a comprehensive initiative that will build on and support the years of work and wisdom that grassroots organizations, Indigenous communities, scientists and others have already put into efforts to protect and recover Pacific salmon. In the coming months, DFO will invite key partners to the table to identify and prioritize actions to support healthy salmon – a necessary, holistic approach that has not been undertaken before.
The plan will guide investments and action in four key areas: conservation and stewardship, enhanced hatchery production, harvest transformation, and integrated management and collaboration.
news release 2020 06 08

Many words about how they plan to save the salmon. Now to reconcile this with the prior post regarding steelhead conservation. The poor steeelhead today finds itself labelled a trout, but has flip flopped between the trout and salmon families over the years. Perhaps if it joined the salmon species again, it’d get more consideration.