“We need to strive for responsible fishing for the sake of salmon and the people who fish, but to do that we need to overcome issues preventing the full implementation of responsible fishing practices,” says Paul Leblond, Chair of the PFRCC (www.fish.bc.ca). “As the report identifies, we must address the issues of mixed-stock fisheries both in ocean and in river fisheries, the competitive style of the commercial fishery, the need to create better markets for high quality wild salmon and inadequate compliance and enforcement.”
Responsible fishing means that a fishery is conducted to fairly benefit all the people involved in the fishery without causing unacceptable changes in fish populations and their ecosystems. Key elements of a responsible fishery include using strong conservation measures, protecting ecosystems for both species and their habitats, and providing harvesters with incentives to fish in a way that helps to conserve the resource. The fishery must be managed in a way where decision-making includes all participants and interest groups, is transparent and open, and where fisheries management includes current scientific information, enforcement of policies and legislation, and regular evaluation of performance.
“While there have been gains in making the B.C. salmon fishery a more responsible fishery, but there is increasing recognition that more needs to be done,” adds Mark Angelo, Vice Chair of the PFRCC. “Government, First Nations and industry need to take concrete steps to further advance current fishing practices to ensure the development of a fully responsible fishery for B.C. salmon.”
The report makes several key recommendations of ways to move to a more responsible fishery for B.C .salmon. These include adopting more conservation measures that transfer the harvest of allowable catch to terminal areas in rivers to help to reduce mixed-stock fisheries, and increasing funding for research into new fishing methods that reduce impact to non-targeted stocks. Other recommendations are that all salmon harvesters receive training in fish handling techniques and selective fishing methods, that stock assessment programs be increased to monitor populations of both target and non-target fish and to improve management and lessen impact of existing and new fisheries, and that incentives should be created for processors to add value to salmon products and reward harvesters with a higher price.
A full copy of “Responsible Fishing In Canada’s Pacific Region Salmon Fisheries“ by Elmar Plate, Robert C. Bocking and Karl K. English can be downloaded at www.fish.bc.ca. A Synopsis of the report by the same name is also available at www.fish.bc.ca.
The Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council (www.fish.bc.ca) was created in 1998 and is an independent advisory body whose mandate is to alert and inform the federal and provincial governments and the public on issues that threaten Pacific salmon and their habitat.
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Download full report here.
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