Aug192013
Daily DrakeDean Discards

Dean DiscardsCommercial netters on British Columbia’s north coast have dumped more than 167,000 prohibited salmon and steelhead this season in order to catch millions of pinks. The mostly illegal and often unregulated “release” process includes keeping imperiled species out of the water for extended periods, toe-punting and flinging them off boat decks, and killing steelhead, chinook, chum, and other non-targets in the melee. Snoop the unsavory practice, here.

In addition to other prime arteries, the Dean Channel continues to be hammered with 21 commercial netting openings since June. Having had enough, Dean River lodges, guests, and camping anglers are banding together to fight unsustainable commercial openings in Area 8, which encompasses both the Dean and Burke channels near Bella Coola.

In a letter to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), Lower Dean River Lodge operator Jeff Vermillion writes: “Your decision today to open the fishery on the 19th in Area 8 and efforts to downplay the number of boats on the coast is really disappointing—particularly in light of the serious conservation concerns surrounding chum, Dean River steelhead and other smaller salmon stocks of conservation concern. The effort and impact is double last year’s and far, far more than normal so please don’t insult us by greenwashing it.”

In 2012, during 15 openings the average number of boats was slightly more than 50. In 2013, during 15 openings the average number of boats was around 96, doubling the impact on steelhead.

Area guide April Vokey adds: “This year we have noticed a significant decline in the returns of all species in the Dean and the Dean channel. On a good year, pink and chum salmon flood our waters, spawning in side channels, rolling at our feet and, of course, taking our flies. This year the Dean stays quiet, nearly devoid of life and seemingly empty of both salmon and steelhead. Even the bay in which our lodge rests has few spawning chum salmon in it and there is no mistaking the astronomical difference compared to years past.”

To speak up regarding blatant fisheries mismanagement on B.C.’s north coast, the direct email to the government official in this matter is Danny.Wagner@dfo-mpo.gc.ca. Additional contacts include: Fisheries Minister at min@dfo-mpo.gc.ca; Fisheries Minister West Coast at randy.kamp@parl.gc.ca; and Local Member of Parliament, Jim Pattison Group at admin@jp-group.com 

 

 

Tom Bie
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Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.

Category: Daily Drake
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Author: Tom Bie

Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.

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