Tag «DFO»

A Knowledge Gap in DFO Science

While DFO cultivates the image of making science based decisions for management and protection of salmon stocks with regard to their Wild Salmon Policy, the reality is their lack of funding has eroded the knowledge base to support these decisions.

The Narwhal has published an insightful article that looks at the decline in the numbers and use of creekwalkers by the DFO.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada has been hiring creekwalkers to count salmon returning to natal streams along the Pacific coast since 1940. These creekwalkers provide essential information about populations, which is used to inform fisheries management decisions, including how many salmon can be caught for commercial or recreational purposes.

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In 1949, there were 150 creekwalkers monitoring the north coast; by the late 1970s there were 40 and now there are just two, according to research by the organization. Pacific Wild has also found that only 215 of 2,500 spawning streams on the central and north coast are being counted. That’s about a 70 per cent decrease since the 1980s, when around 1,500 of those streams were monitored. 

excerpt from The Narwhal article

Is there a solution? Of course there is. But it would require funding – turns out even creekwalkers need to eat – and a course change to base fisheries decisions on empirical data and not political expedients.

Open Letter from PFA to the Minister of Fisheries

This open letter to Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan went out Feb. 16th in a wide distribution to media across Canada. It has been written by the Public Fishery Alliance. Please read it and also open the link which contains background information.

The SFAB Chinook proposal, which this letter supports, is a lengthy read. However the four maps on the single page provide a graphic illustration of what has happened to Georgia and Juan de Fuca Straits in terms of the opportunity to retain Chinook between April and September since 2018.

The PFA strongly recommends your department allow anglers to keep Chinook as described. Failure to do so reinforces the common view that science-based fisheries management and your mandate letter from Prime Minister Trudeau are not guiding your actions. Canadians deserve to know how your department operates and where it stands with respect to their interests, especially as a general election seems close at hand.

excerpt from PFA letter to Minister of Fisheries

2020 Southern BC Post Season Review

On Dec 16, 2020, there was a review by DFO of 2020 with respect to all things Pacific salmon related. The presentations used at this review are provided here. Recordings of the presentations are to be available soon; we’ll link them in if possble when that happens.

Salmon Allocaton Policy review: Terms of Reference

As directed in April 2018 by the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, following the B.C. Supreme Court Ahousaht decision, DFO is soon to undertake a review of the Pacific Salmon Allocation Policy. To guide this process, a draft Terms of Reference (ToR) for the participants has been developed.

Every fisherperson in BC – recreational, First Nation, and/or commercial – should have an interest in getting these ToR correct.

To that end, SFAC members are invited by the SFAB to read and review the ToR, as well as the SFAB’s own notes and comments on the ToR; and then provide, in writing, any additional comments, concerns and most importantly suggestions for improvement you may have to your local chair. All before Dec 31st, 2020!

Local SFAC Meeting: Nov 3, 7 pm

The local SFAC meeting is planned for Nov. 3 at 7 pm. This link will allow you to join the MS Teams virtual meeting at that time. This document may help you join the meeting successfully.

The local SFAC chair was provided much information in advance of this meeting by South Coast SFAC chairs Mike Kelly and Erika Watkins. Some of this information is shared here.

This document is DFO’s “Regional recreational Updates – Fall 2020”. This document provides a lot of information and updates on a variety of species management issues and policy initiatives that DFO currently has underway in a regional context. It is intended as an information document. Note that the first 6 items in the document highlight issues that will be included in SFAB consultation during the upocoming cycle.

This document is the “SFAB Regional Priorities and Requests for Consideration 2020\2021”. This is a list of priority issues that the SFAB species specific working group chairs and the SFAB executive have identified as regional priorities for the upcoming consultation cycle. Please note that these regional priorities may not capture priorities at your local committee level, and it is anticipated  that both motions and action items that offer advice to address both regional and local issues may flow from your local meetings.

The SFAB motions tracking spreadsheet may help you understand the status of SFAB motions that have already been submitted to DFO as advice. This may help you understand how advice provided  by either your committee or the Regional and Main Board has been considered by DFO and what the outcome of that consideration has been. It also will assist in identifying outstanding items that require clarification.

Pat Ahern of the SFI has provided a slide deck to explain the status of the SFAB modernization process.

Under normal circumstances, in 2020/2021, elections would be held to either reconfirm the mandate of existing local, regional and Main Board chairs; or to replace them through a fair, transparent, anonymous and democratic process. Elections are being deferred until such time as they may occur in face to face meetings.

DFO: no to MM and MSF, yes to wild salmon policy

Near the end of June this year, the Sport Fishery Advisory Board sent a letter to DFO urging that agency to move forward with mass marking (MM) of hatchery chinook to enable mark selective fisheries (MSF) along our BC coast.

DFO’s response is lengthy and includes a full range of issues and topics to discuss, but basically comes down to: no to mass marking – it’s too hard and we can’t afford it, and those hatchery fish may out-compete the wild fish; no to marked selective fishery for areas such as south Vancouver Island – there may be an at risk chinook group that suffers some mortality.

The ACS has concerns regarding DFO’s approach to salmon conservation and its impact on the recreational fishers of BC. The consultations that DFO schedules with recreational groups – generally represented by SFAB – appear to carry little weight with regard to the fishery management measures put in place.

DFO Requests Feedback on 2020 Southern Resident Killer Whale Management Measures

Feliksas Markevicius, Recreational Fisheries Program Manager at DFO, has written to request feedback from recreational anglers regarding measures that DFO put in place to protect Southern Resident Killer Whales.

This information will help us to understand more about how the measures are working on the water and to help inform future management measures. Please note, the response to this survey will be collected anonymously and none of the information will be used to pursue enforcement action.

DFO email of August 26, 2020

This link (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XT6RXC3) takes you to a short survey regarding the 2020 suite of Southern Resident Killer Whale management measures.

You may read here about the Southern Resident Killer Whale management measures. Questions should be sent using email to the Marine Mammal Team – DFO.SRKW-ERS.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca

Public Fishery Alliance: Call to Action

A House of Commons e-petition has been launched by a local public fisher and supported by Member of Parliament Mel Arnold. This petition requires a minimum of 500 signatures. If this minimum is reached it will be read in the House of Commons within 45 days.

Go here to sign the petition now => https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-2725

Please sign and share with others.

You may also read MP Mel Arnold’s recent statement on the BC public fishery.

What is the point of this, when the chinook fishery is upon us and will be nearly gone in 45 days? It adds to the record of the BC public’s dissatisfaction with the measures the DFO has taken in their attempts to manage BC’s chinook stocks.

DFO Fishery Monitoring Policy

DFO has announced…

the national Fishery Monitoring Policy and Introduction to the Procedural Steps for Implementing the Fishery Monitoring Policy are now posted live on the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) website. This policy aims to bring consistency in the development, delivery, and evaluation of monitoring programs for all federally-managed wild capture fisheries in Canada.

Letter from Andrew Thomson, Regional Director for DFO Pacific Region Fisheries Management

The Fishery Monitoring Policy can be viewed here, while the introduction to procedural steps to implementing this policy may be viewed here.

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