Fish fight spurred by government cuts

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An attempt at a class-action lawsuit againt Ottawa's Aboriginal fishing

strategy is just another futile attempt by British Columbia's non-Native

commercial fishmen, said a Vancouver chief.

"It's just the same old crap," says Musqueam chief Joe Becker, who is

also the band's fisheries advisor.

"They've intervened in every lawsuit over the years and they've never

won one of them."

Faced with having their fleets cut by 50 per cent this year, West coast

fishermen are fighting back with a writ filed in the province's Supreme

court, accusing the federal government of causing the salmon shortage by

cutting a deal with native commercial fishermen in 1991.

The Aboriginal fishing Strategy guarantees Native people a fixed number

of fish--last season it was 500,000--for food, ceremonial and social

purposes, based on a 1990 Supreme Court of Canada ruling.

A couple of years later, the deal was expanded to allow three Vancouver

area bands, including the Musqueam, to legally sell their catch.

The court ruled First Nations' fishing rights cannot be interfered with

except for conservation reasons and that they are to be allocated their

fish first, before commercial and sports fishermen. (The priority list

for catches is: Aboriginal food fisher, native commercial fisher,

commercial fleet and sports fishermen.)

But non-Native fishermen call the deal unconstitutional. They say it

deprives them of the right to make a living.

In a writ filed earlier this month, they say the special provisions for

Aboriginal fleets have devastated salmon and herring stocks and closed

the roe-on-kelp harvesting of the Queen Charlotte Islands.

The 24 page writ says: The federal government "knowingly and without

statutory or constitutional authority, and in collusion and conspiracy

with themselves and various Aboriginal organizations, have caused wilful

damage and loss to the plaintiffs by unlawfuly, reducing the resource

bases which the plaintiffs are entitled to harvest."

It singles out the Aboriginal fishing strategy as one of the main

reasons fish stocks on the West Coast have dropped. Last year saw one

of the worst years on record -- down to under 5 million-- because of a

disastrous decline in the number of adult salmon returning from the

pacific ocean to spawn in the river.

The class-action suit was filed by three fishermen on behalf of the

estimated 25,000 commercial boat owners and crew members under a new

B.C. law that allows plaintiffs to sue in a group, but it still has to

be approved. There's no dollar amount in estimated damages, and the

federal government has yet to file its defence.

The suit is the latest salvo in a continuing war over dwindling salmon

stocks.

The week before, non-Native fishermen learned Ottawa offered an $80

million plan to buy back fishing licenses to cut the number of the

province's 4,400 commercial salmon fishing vessels in half.

The cuts won't affect Native fishermen, whose industry is governed

separately under the Aboriginal fishing strategy.

"We actually suppport the fleet rationalization," said Becker. "The

(commercial fishing) fleet is just too efficeient to allow the salmon to

reproduce itself."

And Native fishermen would like a bigger slice of the pie.

"Historically, the Aboriginals have been getting three to five per cent

of the catch, and since the introduction of the Aboriginal fishing

strategy, that percentage hasn't changed," said Becker.

He said B.C. Natives favor the Washington state model, where the

Aboriginal catch is split 50-50 with non-Natives.

Alan Dixon, exectuive director of the native Brotherhod of B.C., said

he's like to see Native praticipation in the salmon fishing industry

rise to 30 per cent from 15 per cent.

Instead of having fish licenses lost permanently through the federal

buy-back program, he said they should be held in a license pool for

native fishermen.

"As money and people become availabe to buy those, they'd be

available," he said.

And Ernie Crey of the Stolo Fisheries Authority said he most important

thing to remember is the cuts are necessary to replenish the fish

stocks.