Category «Meeting Notice»

Victoria and Area SFAB Committee – Regional Issue Update from DFO

You may read this summary document from DFO concerning fish and fisheries issues being considered by and of interest to the Sport Fishing Advisory Board. If you have any questions or would like your local reps to bring something to the table at the upcoming South Coast SFAB meeting this coming weekend, please feel free to contact Tom Cole at (250) 478-1306 or by email, or Chris Bos at (778) 426-4141 or by email before this Saturday.

Mentioned in the document linked above is the Southern Resident Killer Whale fisheries management proposal from DFO. Earlier this year, in Feb and Mar, the Victoria and Area SFAB Committee held three emergency SFAB meetings (Sidney, Victoria and Sooke), where Martin Paish (SFAB Exec and IHPC SRKW Committee) and Chris Bos consulted with the local angling community so that a suitable response could be submitted to DFO from our sector relating to their proposal. The formal SFAB response was submitted before March 15th deadline and included the recommendations coming from the emergency meetings.

Regarding 2018 Chinook fishing coastwide – the department has recently sent out a document indicating they are contemplating additional Chinook management measures for BC this year. The concern DFO anticipates poor returns of number of stocks including but not limited to Skeena and Fraser Rivers. While no final decision on what measures may be taken has been made, further reductions in exploitation are being considered. For Fisheries Management Areas 18, 19 and 20 early timed Fraser stream-type Chinook are expected to be low too. It is not anticipated to have a closure of the Chinook fishery locally, but DFO might seek some additional tightening of the regs. SFAB reps will discuss this topic with DFO prior to the upcoming South Coast 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.

New Date: SVI Anglers Coalition Town Hall: Jan 17

A town hall meeting of the South Vancouver Island Anglers Coalition is scheduled, and all anglers on the lower island are invited to attend.

SVI Anglers Coalition Town Hall meeting
Date & Time January 17, 2018, 7 pm – 9 pm
Location Four Points Sheraton Hotel, 829 McCallum Road, Langford

Our fishery is at stake. This year, there were low salmon return numbers. The already endangered southern resident killer whales need chinook. The chinook fishery where we live is at a crisis point!

Please bring this meeting to the attention of all concerned. Sport fishers need to show that we are united when it comes to preserving our fishery.

We plan to post an agenda here before the event; stay tuned!

South Coast SFAB Meeting: Nanaimo, December 3

The South Coast Committee of the Sport Fishing Advisory Board (SFAB) will meet in Nanaimo at the Coast Bastion Inn on Saturday December 2nd and Sunday December 3rd, 2017. Two representatives from the Victoria and Area SFAB Committee will be attending.

Topics to be discussed will include

  • the upcoming fishing season
  • southern resident killer whales (SRKW)

The meeting is open to the public. As “observers”, public attendees will have no formal voting or speaking privileges. Approval from the meeting chair must be granted before a public attendee may address the meeting. While the meeting is free to attend, only metered street parking and a multi-storey park facility are available near the hotel.

Please direct any questions or comments you may have regarding this meeting to ACS president Tom Cole, who can be reached at 250-478-1306.

Local SFAC Meeting Nov 22, 7 pm: Orcas and fisheries on agenda

The southern resident killer whale populations are not recovering their numbers. This is being blamed on a lack of fish on which they primarily feed, especially chinook salmon. As a result, calls are being heard for closures on related fisheries.

This is an important issue. We invite you to attend the local Victoria-based Sport Fishing Advisory Committee (SFAC) meeting on Wednesday, Nov 22 at 7 pm, at the Esquimalt Anglers boat ramp, 1101 Munro St., Esquimalt, where this issue will be discussed.

 

➤