Jeremy Maynard is a fishing guide who lives in Campbell River. He publishes a blog regularly on his website, The Ardent Angler. A recent post titled SRKW and their prey is a great primer on the southern resident killer whale population recovery issue, and the impact it may have on your ability to fish for chinook salmon. A few minutes of reading will bring you up to speed on the history, current state and possible outcomes of this situation. We hope that you’ll become motivated to join us on Wednesday, Nov 22 at 7 pm at the Esquimalt Anglers ramp for a meeting of the local Sport Fishing Advisory Committee.
In case you think this is an issue for someone else to act upon, here’s a bit of what Jeremy has to say (our highlighting):
Recently the federal government hosted a two and a half day symposium in Vancouver to bring together those interested in the SRKW population and with ideas on their recovery. It should be noted that no individuals or organizations from the recreational fishery were invited to participate despite our fishery’s obvious interest in the outcomes. Fortunately several members of the SFAB were able to attend and they came away troubled by the proceedings – the overwhelming feeling by environmental NGO’s, which were well represented, is that chinook fishing in much of southern BC should be ended, period. And in that opinion they likely came away encouraged for this is what Minister Dominic Leblanc had to say. After speaking to his governments legal responsibility under SARA and the moral responsibility on behalf of all Canadians to restore this population he stated “I as minister and my government are prepared to make the tough decisions necessary, including around allocations and fisheries management issues in order to ensure SRKW are able to find sufficient prey for their recovery and to ensure their long term health.” Get the picture now?