Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => General Discussion => Topic started by: chris gadsden on August 18, 2005, 07:57:47 AM
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Please read today's Vancouver Sun as now it has been confirmed what a number of us have been reporting. I should not gloat on such a serious matter but it makes one wonder as several people on web pages and FOC denied this for some time. Maybe the FOC officials had there reason with a criminal investigation underway.Of course all the e -mails and posts on these web pages helped to get the truth out as it could not be hidden forever. FOC reads these pages so keep the posts coming, thanks for the computer age. ;D
I am going fishing somewhat releaved the truth is out and I am sure someone will post the story.
I will leave you with the Headline.
"RCMP probe clash between natives and fisheries officiers".
"Fraser River tensions rise after DFO boat rammed and Cheam band ignores regulations"'.
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thanx chris and good luck while out fishing today. ;D ;D
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RCMP probe clash between natives and fisheries officers
Fraser River tensions rise after DFO boat rammed and Cheam band ignores regulations
Peter O'Neil
Vancouver Sun
Thursday, August 18, 2005
OTTAWA -- RCMP officers have been called in to help patrol the Fraser River and investigate a violent incident involving federal federal fisheries officers and members of the Cheam Indian Band, which for years has refused to comply with federal fishing regulations.
Herb Redekopp, a senior enforcement official with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, said the RCMP was asked to step up its presence to help "keep the peace" while fisheries officers patrol the area near Chilliwack.
The RCMP is also investigating an Aug. 8 incident in which fisheries officers said their boat was swarmed and rammed by Cheam fishing vessels while the officers were trying to conduct a poaching investigation, Redekopp told The Vancouver Sun Wednesday.
"The officers were outnumbered and their vessel was rammed and the officers' safety was in jeopardy -- absolutely," he said.
While the officers immediately left the area, Redekopp refuted suggestions that Fisheries and Oceans Canada has again abandoned enforcement of illegal Cheam fishing.
"We're (not) backing off from the area," he said. "That's the furthest thing from the truth."
RCMP Staff Sgt. John Ward confirmed an investigation is underway into the Aug. 8 incident. He said RCMP officers in Zodiac vessels, have stepped up their presence on the Fraser River.
"We have had that request from DFO and yes, we have been supplying a presence there," Ward said. "We're working hard to ensure peace is being kept on the water."
Redekopp said his department has added officers from as far away as Ontario to help patrol the Lower Fraser, and said compliance among Fraser River first nations is strong with one exception -- the Cheam.
"We continue to see, on a week-to-week basis, fishermen from that community (who) are not complying to the regulations," he said.
"Either they are fishing driftnets during a set-net period, or they're fishing during a closed period. So we have endeavoured to try to deter that activity in every way we can."
He said an "unprecedented" enforcement effort is underway this year despite two reports earlier this year that criticized the fisheries department for allowing excessive poaching on the Fraser River in 2004.
Redekopp, citing department expectations that the summer sockeye return will be far lower than expected this year, is confident excessive poaching won't be a negative factor in continuing efforts to ensure enough sockeye get to spawning areas.
The Cheam, with a population estimated at 300 to 400, failed in its attempt last week to get a B.C. Supreme Court injunction aimed at booting sports anglers off the Fraser River where the Cheam fish.
Cheam band Chief Sid Douglas, who was not available for comment Wednesday, has said he has not received any reports of confrontations between band members and fisheries officers.
Conservative MP John Cummins said the federal government tried to mislead the public Monday about the level of violence, and is now exaggerating its own enforcement efforts.
"The Cheam again openly flout the law. Fish stocks are again under threat. DFO denies there is a problem and makes feeble efforts to end illegal fishing, all the while presiding over the destruction of the fishery resource. Sadly, nothing has changed."
© The Vancouver Sun 2005
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This is just great i say shut down their fishery now and open ours for GOD SAKE!
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SID DOUGLAS IS A LIAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SID DOUGLAS IF YOU WERE IN COURT, YOU WOULD BE CHARGED WITH CONTEMPT and OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE>
MR SID DOUGLAS...hope you sleep well at night...
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I believe Sid is just avoiding the topic. Not receiving any report doesn't mean he has no knowledge of it.
It's just like a doctor telling his patient don't drink more than 1 cup of coffee per day, and the guy says okay no problem and end up drinking coffee out of glass.
It's apparent that some cheam members is just not interested in binding to law.
If their reserve is to be removed, and Indian Acts scrapt, when they do not bind to law. May be they will think twice before breaching law again.
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The RCMP just arrested a person involved in this!
Charges to be laid.
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It's about time ;D ;D. But will the crown actually go threw with it. They usually will not especially if they cry hardship. which this person most likly will as "the white man is preventing them of making a living". Not how I did not say honest living.
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have also seen rcmp zodiacs on the lower river as well cruising back and forth. A federal ministry can't even put enough officers(DFO) on poaching routes.....yeah they will outnumber you everytime.
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Just a curious question. Why do DFO need RCMP officers when their own enforcement officers are also equipped with fire arms? Does it mean RCMP are more inclined to shoot if needs be, whereas DFO are more likely take a run when threatened? ??? ;D
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Just a hunch....
Just like in any field of work, businesses and organizations rely on partners to more effectively "get the job done". The DFO and RCMP have a close partnership so it only makes sense for the RCMP to assist especially when the tensions escalate. When there is reports of boats ramming other boats and altercations occurring on the river the RCMP should be called out to assist and investigate.
It also comes down to a numbers game and the more law enforcement personnel the safer is should be for all parties. The RCMP is not more likely to use their firearms as both departments share the same training facility and I would imagine have similar policies in the use of firearms.
Warlo
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Cheam, fisheries officers spar
Maurice Bridge
Vancouver Sun
Friday, August 19, 2005
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CREDIT: Stuart Davis, Vancouver Sun
ILLEGAL-FISHING STANDOFF ON FRASER RIVER: While federal fisheries field supervisor Doug Clift intercepts and asks for identification from the men at right, who were salmon fishing illegally on the Fraser River Thursday, two Cheam men (top) charged the boat to disrupt Clift's questions.
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CHILLIWACK -- It was another tense day on the Fraser River Thursday as Cheam fishing boats came off the beach in a bid to keep fisheries officers from arresting two men for fishing illegally for salmon with a driftnet.
The confrontation came one day after the revelation by a senior enforcement official with Fisheries and Oceans Canada that RCMP officers have been called in to investigate a similar incident that turned ugly last week.
On Aug. 8, a fisheries patrol boat carrying several enforcement officers was reportedly swarmed by a number of small vessels as it moved in to investigate illegal driftnet fishing. No injuries were reported, and no charges have been laid so far, but the investigation has not been concluded.
For Fisheries and Oceans field supervisor Doug Clift and fishery officer Derek Ray, Thursday's uniformed patrol was nothing out of the ordinary.
Within 20 minutes of putting into the river downstream from Hope, they received a call from another fisheries officer, telling them an illegal driftnet had been put into the water across the river from Cheam Beach, a couple of hundred metres upstream from the Agassiz-Rosedale Bridge.
Driftnet fishing for native food and ceremonial purposes is permitted by fisheries regulations at certain times; this was not one of them. Often done at night, it is a quick and furtive activity, with nets left in the water for only 10 or 15 minutes at a time.
Ray opened the throttle of the 150-horsepower Mercury outboard, and even with a Sun photographer/reporter team aboard, the six-metre rigid-hull inflatable skimmed down the river at 50 km/h, rounding a corner just above the bridge at 8:50 a.m. in time to see a small punt with two men in it beside a row of floats.
As the patrol boat slowed and approached the 3.5-metre khaki-coloured punt, the man in the bow began frantically pulling in the net. Every metre or two of monofilament mesh held another three-to-four-kilo salmon.
As the man on the net struggled with the load, his young companion handled the small outboard engine. In the bow of the patrol boat, Clift identified himself as a fisheries officer, and told the two to keep pulling the net and to identify themselves.
They kept working, but said nothing as the patrol vessel stood alongside, Clift holding onto the gunwale of the punt. In less than two minutes, the two had support when a five-metre black outboard-equipped boat charged off the beach on the south side of the river.
In shadows cast by the morning light, about a dozen trucks and and a couple of trailers were parked along the shore, with coolers and beach chairs scattered around. Several men on the shore got to their feet, and someone shouted "Wake everyone up!"
The black boat raced toward the fisheries vessel, diverting Clift's attention and forcing him to let go of the punt.
"This is a fisheries investigation," he shouted, as it pulled close. "Don't interfere."
The boat operator, a young man with his face partially hidden by a black hoodie, backed off a short distance, but did not leave. His companion pulled off his T-shirt and tied it around his face to hide his own identity, replacing his baseball cap to leave only his eyes visible. He shouted at the fisheries officers, his words unintelligible behind his mask, but his anger clear.
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Cheam, fisheries officers spar
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CREDIT: Photo by Stuart Davis, Vancouver Sun
Department of Fisheries and Oceans employees Doug Clift (left) and Derek Ray look over a camp on Cheam land on the Fraser River at an area known as Peg Leg Bar. Along the river are many boats and there are trucks, trailers, chairs and coolers set up along the shore.
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...Continued
A second boat soon arrived, with one man in it. He did not hide his face, and stayed further away than the black boat. His words carried better: "Food fish only," he called.
With the net holding several dozen pink and sockeye salmon finally pulled in, the operator in the punt gunned the outboard, pulling away from the patrol boat and cutting hard to port, running back toward the beach about 20 metres away.
More than a dozen men now lined the shore, some making obscene gestures and clutching their crotches.
The black boat swung in alongside the punt on the port side, shielding it from the patrol boat.
"Keep your head up for rocks," cautioned Ray, as we approached the beach.
The punt ran up on the sand and several men began quickly taking fish out of the net, throwing them into large plastic coolers. Ray kept the patrol boat about five metres offshore, letting it drift slowly downstream, and Clift recorded potential evidence with a digital camera.
"Yer f----- pathetic," shouted a woman, who emerged near the vehicles higher up the bank.
As the unloading continued, the masked man grabbed a pink salmon and hurled it toward the fisheries boat. It fell short and disappeared into the current with a splash.
As the boat drifted further, Clift spotted the telltale lines of a couple of illegal nets tied to anchor points on the edge of the river, one inadequately disguised by a black rubber mat, the other nearly invisible, knotted close to the muddy water.
Ray pulled back into the main current and let the engine idle, and the patrol boat moved gently downstream away from the beach, emerging into the sunlight.
The two officers took a break to put their observations into their notebooks. With extra passengers and without backup, arrests weren't an option, and they were forced to settle for laying the groundwork for possible charges of illegal driftnet fishing.
Clift had a name the man on the net grudgingly gave him, but, as he admitted, "I don't even know if it's his real name." Ray thought he had identified him, but by a different name.
Their notes will go into a file that will be forwarded to the federal Justice Department. It will join at least a dozen other similar files, as well as some 32 charges already laid this season.
Each can take a year or more to come to trial, but conviction rates are high. Penalties run from fines of $150 to $300 and the loss of nets for first-timers to higher fines and the loss of boats for repeat offenders.
At the Chilliwack fisheries office, a crowded warehouse currently holds four small boats and dozens of seized nets, all tagged for evidence.
The tension between the Cheam and the fisheries department goes back many years, and flares periodically.
Growing fears about drastically reduced numbers of returning salmon in the Fraser this year have heightened concerns about adequate escapement for spawning.
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Cheam, fisheries officers spar
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CREDIT: Photo by Stuart Davis, Vancouver Sun
Men unload an illegally set driftnet and the salmon caught in it at a camp on Cheam land on the Fraser River at an area known as Peg Leg Bar.
CREDIT: Photo by Stuart Davis, Vancouver Sun
Two people pull in a driftnet with salmon on the river.
CREDIT: Photo by Stuart Davis, Vancouver Sun
Other men race from the far bank to aid another those fishing with a driftnet. At this moment the salmon fishery is closed.
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...Continued
Herb Redekopp, a senior enforcement official with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, says compliance among Fraser River first nations who fish the river has been strong, with the exception of the Cheam band, which numbers between 300 and 400 individuals.
Cheam band chief Sid Douglas was on holiday Thursday, and the receptionist at the Cheam band office said no one was available to comment.
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Full Story, with pictures: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=c27054e1-d7d9-44d2-9025-4121dfdf6d3f
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greta story finally some pictures in the media for everyone to see. I just hope for the safty of the DFO and the RCMP. lets hopoe it does not escalate to much.