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[obie1fish]

I was reading FN0929- the Fraser River Update, and saw something that was pretty interesting- that so far, the Early Stuart spawners are, "generally in good condition, although there has been an increase in pre-spawn mortalities in the most recent observation period". The increase makes sense for a lot of reasons. The report also talked about water temps being pretty good lately. In general, although the overall numbers are low, at least this is a spot of encouraging news.

My question is this: for those people fishing the Fraser (sturgeon) during the salmon closure, have you noticed a change in the number of dead sockeye drifting by? I fish the Rosedale to Maple Ridge areas myself, and haven't sturgeon fished this year.

I know the numbers of sockeye are lower this year to start with, that the information is far from complete, and that this question might start WW III , but there is no agenda behind it, as I am a flosser who enjoys a few trips out with my sons. I just wanted to ask a simple question with no analysis attached.

[obie1fish]

You are right- we need to be responsible, but not be the scapegoats. And by the way, you missed one other doomsday scenario- Global COOLING. Yup, that's right... Another ice age. Suzuki & co. were huge proponents of this in the 70s. CO2 levels would create clouds which block out the sun. 
And who talks about acid rain anymore?

[Troutman]

better to be safe than sorry

[4x4]

I have been on the river a lot this year (not in the last 10 days though). I have noticed way less Sockeye floaters than in the past but many more Spring.

[living_blind]

Down here on the middle arm I've seen two dead so far. I am definitely an 'err on the side of caution' kind of guy myself as well though. Sox definitely seem scarce overall, between the lack of jumpers and the very few reports of incidentally hooked sockeye that I've heard tell of.

[StillAqua]

I was reading FN0929- the Fraser River Update, and saw something that was pretty interesting- that so far, the Early Stuart spawners are, "generally in good condition, although there has been an increase in pre-spawn mortalities in the most recent observation period". The increase makes sense for a lot of reasons. The report also talked about water temps being pretty good lately. In general, although the overall numbers are low, at least this is a spot of encouraging news.

My question is this: for those people fishing the Fraser (sturgeon) during the salmon closure, have you noticed a change in the number of dead sockeye drifting by?

If I'm not mistaken, I think "Dave" on this website is an expert in dead sockeye floaters having co-authored a study into whether or not dead floaters were a good indicator of sockeye abundance or pre-spawning mortality on the Fraser when he worked for DFO.

[StillAqua]

You are right- we need to be responsible, but not be the scapegoats. And by the way, you missed one other doomsday scenario- Global COOLING. Yup, that's right... Another ice age. Suzuki & co. were huge proponents of this in the 70s. CO2 levels would create clouds which block out the sun. 
And who talks about acid rain anymore?

That wasn't CO2 they were talking about. It was industrial-produced particulate pollutants (mostly sulphur and nitrogen oxides) that screen out sunlight. Big contributors to non-smoking related lung cancer. Their effect on global warming, because they scatter sunlight, actually helped counter some of the heating effects of increasing CO2 levels.

[obie1fish]

Aqua: I stand corrected; definitely particulates as the trigger for global cooling. I'm just happy to have remembered something from the 70s! Still curious about the floaters, though. Thanks for the input so far, guys.

[Flytech]

There are "Ups & Downs" to fish stocks and these are important to be acted upon.  But the "Crash" has not occurred.

Of course there's up and downs with fish stocks, this being a drought year they took extra caution.


Here's a question for you, would you rather the "crash" happen before they react? Or let it go as a little bit of preventative Maintainence.


It appals me that fishermen get so bent out of shape, because someone told they can't fish when they want to. It's not about you.

[doja]

I've always wondered what would happen if they shut down the salmon and others for 4 years to all fishing (or some sort of time line that's fitting)...  Would the stocks strengthen? I don't know enough about the dynamics but I would gladly give up fishing salmon (lots of other stuff to do and fish if you want) just to boost the numbers up then reopen with a much healthier run numbers.

Our government appears to have absolutely no desire to increase the numbers and simply manage them just enough to maintain  a commercial harvest that can be relied on for....  Economic reason...

Again,  I'd gladly give up fishing AND eating from commercial harvest  to help the natural runs out.. Would you?

[RalphH]

It's off topic but since it was brought up - technically we are currently still in an Ice Age since there are still ice caps at both poles, Greenland is most covered in glacial ice and most of our tall mountain ranges have glaciers. The current ice age is called the Quaternary Glaciation and we are in a phase of it called an inter-stadial when the glacial sheets that spread off the poles and from mountains such as the Rockies an Coast ranges have melted off most of the continents and retreated back. From the geological record evidence is it takes a very long period of time (like over 100,000 years) for an ice advance to re-establish itself spread out from the poles etc.

Now back to your regular programming

[dennyman]

Fisherries has done a poor job of managing this resource. Drought, pine beetle infestation, overfishing, and pollution are just some of the obstacles this fishery has to contend with. At the end of the day, it is a miracle there are still salmon to fish for. This is a big wish, but hopefully for the salmon's sake, this resource becomes better managed but I am not going to hold my breath expecting this to happen.

[chris gadsden]

Fisherries has done a poor job of managing this resource. Drought, pine beetle infestation, overfishing, and pollution are just some of the obstacles this fishery has to contend with. At the end of the day, it is a miracle there are still salmon to fish for. This is a big wish, but hopefully for the salmon's sake, this resource becomes better managed but I am not going to hold my breath expecting this to happen.

Yes so true, those in charge have, in most cases have done a poor job of looking after our fish stocks and the environment as they have put money and economic growth above our fish's welfare.

Thankfully we have many environmental groups working to try and save our fish, a lot of it being volunteer time, given so freely.

I wish we could say we have a choice of a party that really cares and will say so.

[Magz]

I have been sturgeon fishing fri sat and most sundays for the last 2 months and honestly i have not seen one floater go by us.and were looking all the time for them as they can be good sturgeon bait.

[Dave]

If I'm not mistaken, I think "Dave" on this website is an expert in dead sockeye floaters having co-authored a study into whether or not dead floaters were a good indicator of sockeye abundance or pre-spawning mortality on the Fraser when he worked for DFO.

The expert is the lead author, David Patterson.  Here is the abstract to that report.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1577/M06-098.1?journalCode=ujfm20