Recreational sockeye fishery opens June 1 Shayne Morrow, Alberni Valley Times

Published: Friday, May 14, 2010
The announcement isn't official yet, but Alberni Inlet fishermen with a
hankering for sockeye will be hitting the water on June 1.

This week, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) resource manager Paul Preston
confirmed the long-awaited date, in part to counter rumours on social
networking sites that the opening would be delayed until mid-month.

"There's no notice out there yet, but the season will open on June 1, with a
daily catch limit of two fish and a maximum possession of four," Preston
said.


Earlier this spring, DFO issued a preseason forecast of 600,000 sockeye
returning to the Somass River system. The preliminary fishing plan is based
on those numbers, but they are subject to change, Preston said.

"That will serve until the test boat arrives in mid-June and they get a
clearer picture of whether we're going to get that 600,000 fish," he said.
"We're hoping that it will go higher than that. Then the catch limit would
go up [to four per day and possession of eight]."

Bob Cole represents the sport fishing sector on the Area 23 Harvest
Committee, formerly known as the Fisheries Round Table. The committee brings
members from the aboriginal, sport and commercial (gillnet and seine)
sectors and into regular discussions with DFO, to forge agreement on who
gets to fish when, and how many they can keep. Cole said the reduced early
catch limit wasn't a tough sell.

"It really could start at four, but you don't really catch many early ones,
so we decided to set an example," Cole said. "When the run doesn't show up
by mid-June, you know it could be in trouble, but there's plenty of fish in
the river already, and some are already being caught in the nets."

With a run size of 600,000 or better, there will be a fishery in each
sector, including the commercial seiners. Cole said, prior to the Round
Table, there was a great deal of distrust among the various interest groups,
with the large commercial seiners being a particular target.

"The process has been working much better since we all started sitting
around the same table," he said. "It really helps to get an idea of what the
other guy is thinking. Like, he's trying to feed his family. That puts it
into better perspective."

Tseshaht chief councillor Les Sam agreed that the fisheries committee
process beats the inter-sector acrimony of the past. But there is still no
agreement on an aboriginal commercial fishery.

"We will go ahead on the fishing plan we have developed for this season,"
Sam said. "We were signatory to the Nuu-chah-nulth Fisheries action in B.C.
Supreme Court, that affirmed our aboriginal right to sell fish. So we will
exercise our right according to what the court has decided."

Preston said that, unlike the sockeye run, which can be re-forecasted in a
reasonably reliable manner, his office will not be updating the preseason
forecast of 43,000 chinook to the Somass River system.

"Last year, we re-forecasted up, based on a stronger-than-expected chinook
fishery in Nootka Sound. But in the end, it came in at just about exactly
what the preseason estimate was," Preston said. And that was only after a
late surge of chinook showed up, he added.

Interested to see how natives are legally allowed to sell their food fish anywhere now, not that it wasn't happening before but now they can openly do it should be a interesting summer.

Now in the article it says there is already lots of fish in the river do they just mill about in the lower river or is the river still too high to actually see any of them at the pools at the bottom of the fish ladder, I usually walk the dog out that way and stop by for a peak but havn't seen anything except for fry's.

I was in westporte place on a listing appointment, i counted 8 boats gillnetting in the river. Didnt have time to see how many were being hauled in the nets, i was rushing down to the boat to put in the new scotty twist lock electrical connectors

Lance

just saw a piece on A-channel news talking about the size of the run, when its opening and how important it is for port alberni.

Yeah it definitely helps out local businesses and our economy with the amount of tourists and people that stay here in port while the sockeye are rolling threw.

Every campground is packed people buying gas/food/tackle it all adds up and it's great to see this little town booming when it's salmon season.

Hopefully it's a good run like they are predicting and everyone gets a share of the resource (First nation, rec and commercial) while maintaining the conservation of the run.

See the Fisheries Notice today regarding limits, Opens June 1st, going to be 2 per day until run size is reassessed on June 30th.

Great. Glad to see them keeping it down until they get some fish up the river. Not sure about First Nations or Commercial catch limits, but they will both have a season.

I hope they are limiting FN's catch until the run is re-assessed June 30th

Is this true that the natives have already started netting the river? On a couple other forums members have been saying they have seen them netting off the entire lower river and pulling sets in with a decent number of sockeye in it.

Yes indeed it is very true. Ran by the flow on my home from offshore - wall to wall gillnets, and the usual circus of seines and gillnets hovering at the Papermill Pool site. Catches are noted as being "pretty good".

While I don't wish them misfortune personally, methinks it would have been somewhat more polite to show a little restraint on the early component of the run, as was directly requested by both the Sports Sector and The Dino. Good on the former for showing their restraint! It could have opened at 4 per, but the decision was made to run with 2 until there is some good escapement to the lakes. With thee low snow-pack and our usual hot summer here, methinks a fair amount won't be making it home simply do to that. So, best alternative would be to let the lakes "front-end load" to ensure there are adequate spawners on the grounds. Works for me, unfortunately not so well for those hungrily eyeballing the economic incentive...

Cheers,
Nog

Definitely would have been nice to see them ( FN ) hold off during the cooler weather & water temps to let the fish get a head start to the spawning grounds, but I think we all know the driving factor here is money & nothing else. I have no problem with the FN fishing for food fish....what really burns me is when every year they find piles of dumped fish in the local woods that wasn't sold on the side of the road before it went bad Its then back to the river for some fresh ones & it starts all over again. Not painting ALL FN with the same brush, I know it is just a few bad apples that gives all a bad rep... however, the lack of will of DFO to do anything about it is disturbing. Shouldn't really be surprised though, after all, these are the same people who instituted a barbless hook policy in the salt ( referring only to sockeye in the canal as an example here, makes good sense out on the banks to help with coho release ) to help release fish safer & with less stress to them only to see them swim up river into a gill net or beach seine. Doesn't really make a lot of sense to burden one user group with maximum conservation measures & then let another go all out to capture as many as possible in the most harmful & destructive manner possible. Looks like business as usual again..... one group bears all the responsibility for conservation, while another extracts maximum benefit from the resource, whatever the cost to the resource. Hopefully, the weather & water temps stay cool for the next few weeks so at least some of the run can try & get a head start to the spawning grounds.