Fisheries minister favors recreational fisheries

Page 1

Federal Fisheries Minister David Anderson finally said it: the recreational fishery takes priority over the commercial fishing industry.

Despite recent policies and decisions that alluded to the fact, Anderson has avoided adding his voice to department decisions favoring sports fishing.

At a meeting of the Regional Aquatic Management Society in Port Alberni in January, Anderson spelled out the hierarchy of the Canadian salmon fishery.

"We can't have a system of openings and closures in the recreational fishery like we have in the commercial sector," he said. "We can't expect resort owners and guides to tell their guests 'Sorry, but you'll have to sit on your hands until there's an opening.' You can't keep 400,000 licensed sports fishermen in B.C. tied to the docks," he said.

The commercial fishing industry has been accusing Anderson of favoring sports fishermen, even before he hired former Sports Fishing Institute President Velma McColl as his West Coast advisor.

Shortly before Christmas, Anderson announced a new allocation scheme granting 75 per cent of chinook and coho stocks to the sports fishing sector, 25 per cent to First Nations, effectively locking the commercial fishing industry out of the chinook and coho fishery.

"We're getting a rotten deal," said Roy Alexander, commercial fisheries advisor for the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council. "They're trying to starve the fleet out, and we're doing everything we can to keep our fishermen working, doing real things."

"Awarding priorities undermines his idea of stewardship and working together," said Kathy Scarfo, president of the West Coast Trollers Association. "It's going to be frustrating to sit tied to the docks, while watching another fleet capitalize on your conservation efforts. The repercussions are going to be severe."

Admitting that Anderson's announcement was more of a disappointment than a surprise, Scarfo is disturbed at the basis for the decision: sports fishing is worth more to the economy than commercial fishing.

"There will be no changes to the six-year plan to restore coho," said Anderson, admitting the moratorium has had, "a severe and difficult effect on fishermen."

"Expect varied openings in the commercial sector again this year, but even though we have established a priority for sportsfishing, it's not to the exclusion of the commercial fleet," he added.

Previous to Anderson's statement, sports fishing and commercial fishing were understood to have equal rights to the fisheries resources, behind First Nations' food fishing and conservation concerns.

As expected, the recreational sports fishing industry has welcomed Anderson's announcement, with many columnists writing, arguably, the kindest words ever aimed at a politician.

"David Anderson has pretty much called it the way the recreational sector has been calling it for years," writes BC Outdoors Magazine editor Neil Cameron. "It took a man with incredible courage to do what he has done. He has close ties to both the recreational and commercial sectors. Yet, while his heart may have been tugged in two directions, his brain certainly knew what had to be done."

But Native leaders say that, by taking steps to divide the salmon fishery (chinook and coho for sports fishermen; sockeye, pink and chum for commercial), all Anderson has done has sparked a sectoral race towards extinction. With conservation being the penultimate concern for a fisheries minister, they say, user groups are not going to be happy with any decisions restricting access to the West Coast fishery. But when one group comes out so strongly for a decision, while another group comes out so strongly against that same decision, it's obvious that David Anderson needs to find a better balance.

As Premier Glen Clark said during the introduction of B.C.'s now-appreciated Forest Practices Code: "if everyone is mad at you, you've done the right thing."