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NorthCoast's Regional Information
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NATURESea, land, river ECONOMYRegional PLACEBooks+ PEOPLESCommunity
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Pacific
Fisheries Resource Conservation Council (PFRCC) Many
‘oldtimers’ there --- thus ‘character actors’ rather than ‘information’ was
what was served up to the PFRCC |
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The Entertainment value was top notch
--- meeting lasted hour later than scheduled ‘by popular demand’ While PFRCC
wanted to talk about streams and health of stocks --- the local participants
had another agenda Complain at
length about allocation, ‘predators’, and show general disapproval of for DFO |
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Role as independent
science review |
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Around
the walls were pasted posters with current ‘topics’ like climate change and
habitat losses etc --- Doing ‘Reports’ appears their role – though many on
web site are 2+ years old – and little recent material seen --- even the
North Coast survey dated from 2004 (see this page for download of PDF) And
this page for 3 reports
one each on Commercial Native and Sport Salmon fishery |
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Visit PFRCC
web site Lots of info
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Concerns |
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At
first it was a typical ‘gripe session’ with DFO taking most the complaints –
these varied from allocation – sporties getting too much to not enough – and
last years coho salmon derby still angered most everyone there—sport or
commercial Some
old timers believed predators like Orcas and sea lions were at all time
maximum and needed DFO to cull them --- another worried that Humpbacks were
feeding on valuable feed that would otherwise go to salmon – etc |
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Development
concerns – all the Skeena River juveniles ‘hang out’ on Skeena estuary –
limited habitat --- off PR most intertidal steep rock – few shallow areas in
area where juveniles ‘hang out’ |
Oldtimers
and local knowledge/ concerns |
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Foster
Husoy was there --- ‘I used to sit on all those commissions’ etc Clarence
Nelson: 50 years fishing Heber
Clifton--- Native Brotherhood – when microphone did not work and PFRCC wanted
to adjust ‘Your as fussy as my wife’ --- which got most laughs of nite Ken
Innis ---concerned about whales etc And those were only a few of the participants – most were sitting at the same table – a chance to renew old acquaintances – Others Linda
Hawkshaw drove in from Terrace to advocate for tangled nets as conservation
step Des
Nobles worried that globalization was going to remove control of local stocks
to foreign multinationals Bart
Proctor agreed that local control and monitoring was crucial to long term
survival of both stocks and communities I
think most participants were ‘worried’ that DFO was no longer monitoring
local stocks – some saw this as opportunity to increase local involvement |
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Joy
Thorkelson had 3 stories that all highlighted how habitat modification
(logging etc) had crashed local stocks (Kitwanga & Lake Else etc) – and
that it wasnot commercial fishers period Leslie
Rollins agreed that the invasive Elodea was changing habitat was ‘caused’ by
silt from logging draining into Lake Else Bill
White pointed out that some (coho?) stocks survived only because they ran in
Fall while the early runs all devastated by Skeena commercial fisheries |
Map exercise? Hell no
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As
PFRCC had control of agenda – they did cut off the gripe session and move to
‘map exercise’ where participants were supposed to put local knowledge down
on maps – especially where local stocks were at risk – most the local
participants seemed to pretty well ignore this – and when asked to report on
what they had written – most went back to the ‘gripes session’ – great fun Bruce
from DFO was one of few who had a real ‘map’ concern – he pointed out
discussion so far was with adults – but juveniles were just as critical – and
habitat up the Skeena was falling to logging – still those salmon needed the
lower Skeena eelgrass and shallow areas to survive – and the port expansion
was potentially threatening those habitats Plus
the vast areas of clear cut logging was having ‘unintended effects’ thus old
growth evergreens were replaced by deciduous forests (rainfall not retained
on site etc) – Alders attracted beavers – which dammed up streams --- which
not only blocked migration paths but created ‘swamps’ |
Created by LG on
March 12, 2007
Last updated on Monday, March 12, 2007