Nuu-chah-nulth assist trollers' protest

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Nuu-chah-nulth leaders and fishermen took to the waters of the Alberni Inlet last month to support the protests of the Area G Trollers Association.

The trollers were protesting against a Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) decision to prevent them from accessing valuable Somass River sockeye salmon runs because of a "bureaucratic accounting error."

According to Area G Trollers Association president Wilf Caron, DFO has eliminated the trollers from the Alberni Inlet sockeye allocation because they over-estimated the winter Chinook salmon troll fishery that ended months ago.

DFO maintains that Area G trollers harvested enough "sockeye equivalent" to use up their allocation, but Caron says otherwise.

"What they've done is wrongly estimate the catch value by overestimating the weight of the fish," said Caron.

"They've assigned an average weight of 15.5 lb per fish, which is the historic summertime average for northern fish, but our real average was 9.2 lb," he said.

Trollers would have received 15 per cent of the sockeye allocation if it weren't for the department's miscalculation.

That share has since been given to the seine fleet, and despite an admission of accounting errors from DFO, the misplaced allocation will remain with the large, corporate seiners instead of with the small, independent trollers.

"We're being pushed out of our local fishery," said Nuu-chah-nulth Area G troll fisherman Andy Amos, who participated in the protest with his boat Melynsa Rae. "DFO miscalculated and now their surmise is our demise," he said.

"The government has been talking about offering us commercial licences through the treaty process," said Northern Region co-chair Archie Little, who took his small boat out in the inlet to add his support. "Is this what we have to look forward to once we have licences? What's the point of paying to be tied to the docks while people from Vancouver fish our stocks?"

Ten trollers were involved in the protest, and were almost outnumbered by DFO personnel on five zodiacs and in the command boat Atlin Post.

"Four individuals on four separate vessels were charged with fishing during a closed time in a closed area," said DFO Conservation and Protection supervisor Ron Kehl.

Amos was not charged because he possessed an Aboriginal fishing permit. Caron, on the other hand, was charged and issued a court summons.

According to Amos, trollers are now facing the possibility of being left out of the Fraser River sockeye fishery as the fish come down along the west coast of Vancouver Island on their journey back to their natal streams. If this happens, more protests are likely.