yeah the run is not nearly as big as 2013 and you have to remember in 2013 the USA took 3 million pnks in the ocean. Then there was our ocean fisheries ect.. Definitely not close to 2013 but seems like its comparable to 2015 and 2015 was open for recs in the fraser.
The Fraser river is not open because of the optics of us having a rec fishery while some FN nations on the Upper Faser have not had a fishery. If the department continues down this management regime then future recreational opportunities will be diminished.
https://aptnnews.ca/2019/09/11/salmon-swimming-past-b-c-landslide-on-their-own-but-is-it-enough/Salmon swimming past B.C. landslide on their own – but is it enough?
This is the first year Esk’etemc doesn’t have salmon for its community and although Robbins is happy with the recent salmon success at the landslide, he says more could have been done.
“I like what I see happening now, but when the landslide first happened I think a state of emergency should have been declared,” says Robbins.
“And I strongly believe they should have been transporting fish earlier, and there should have been a complete closure for all fisheries along the coast.”
The Tsilhqot’in Nation also believes closures are needed.
At the beginning of August, they declared a local state of emergency because of the salmon crisis from the landslide and issued a salmon closure last week, prohibiting sockeye, chinook, and coho retention on the Chilcotin, Chilko, and Taseko rivers and tributaries.
(Kukpi7 (Chief) Fred Robbins of Esk’etemc First Nation held a ceremony for the salmon by the Big Bar Landslide. Photo courtesy: Jonathan Hand)
Chief Jimmy Lulua of Xeni Gwet’in First Nation says the Tsilhqot’in have never had to put restrictions on their members.
“The only people that have had restrictions are Indigenous people,” says Lulua. “DFO’s mandate is if First Nations’ needs are not being met than they have to shut down sport fishing. We’ve tested that theory and it doesn’t work. We shut down our fishing, other First Nations along the river have shut down their fishing, but yet sport fishing is still happening.“Governments have done nothing. They say they want to work with us, but at the end of the day actions speak louder than words.”The landslide also prompted four Tsilhqot’in communities to buy fish from Ahousaht First Nation on Vancouver Island.
Hundreds of coho arrived on a flatbed trailer last week.
“This is the first time in our history that we have had to buy fish and to me that is unacceptable,” says Lulua.
“There was expected a million fish to make it back to our spawning beds so a couple thousand fish making it over the slide to me is unacceptable. Something has to change.
“When you threaten our fish, you threaten our livelihoods and that means we go to war.”