The following Quote was cut and pasted
"The sad fact is, to my knowledge, DFO does not have the authority to prohibit certain types of sport fishing (i.e. flossing or the use of 'long' leaders). That is not to say DFO might try to regulate. You would be surprised how many times the Dept has exceeded their authority in implementing restrictions. Unfortunately, these only come to light in court. Forget about 'voluntary compliance' also. That term was developed by a bureaucrat in a cubicle. It never worked for commercial or native fisheries and would never work for sport either. In any gear group, there are too many who don't give a rats my friend and of course their behavior wrecks it for all the law abiding folk. The only advantage to 'voluntary compliance' is that DFO can wash their hands of enforcement and when the poop hits the proverbial fan, they can just sit back with a smug grin and say 'I told you so'.
DFO created the sockeye monster years ago and I know they are desperate to find ways of curtailing it. How do I know? I worked for DFO for years. You only have to look at how the sockeye fishery was prosecuted this year. Despite a supposed mandate of treating commercial and recreational as 'equals', nothing could be further from the truth. By DFO's own admission, a million Fraser River sockeye were scooped up by our welfare commercial fleet. How many socks were caught by sporties? DFO doesn't know and neither do I. But... I keep hearing that the Fraser fishery supports 5,000 anglers. Hell, lets say 10,000. How many sockeye did you catch this year? 10, 20, 30? Even using an unrealistic 10,000 anglers with an equally unrealistic catch of 30 socks each, that is not even a third of the commercial catch. It sure is nice to be 'equal' huh?
As far as the reason for the closure go (low flows and warm water), this is not something DFO recently determined. They knew prior to any sockeye fishery that these factors would negatively influence sockeye migration. So, what did they do about it? They catered to the commercial boys by stacking opening upon opening so that they could achieve their allocation. Now, when it comes to the recreational sector to catch up (we all know how bad the fishing is when the commercial fleet is working), DFO comes out as the authoritarian voice of conservation. Good for them. Too bad they don't have the balls to stand up to CANFISCO or our native brothers.
In a lot of ways, we are our own worst enemies. The sockeye fishery has turned into pure greed. People aren't content to fish with rod length leaders. No, they have to fling 25-30 footers. I won't even continue with the flossing argument. It has been beaten to death here.
DFO has to be more accountable to the public. In 35 years of fishing, I have been checked by a fishery officer twice. Yes twice. Where is all the enforcement? Where are the creel survey people? I never saw one at any launch ramp. If there is no enforcement or management presence, how in the hay does DFO know whats going on? Well, ok..that was a joke. They are clueless in that regard. The only DFO presence I saw the entire fishery was that goofy white Cessna flying up and down the Fraser counting anglers (one, two, three, and anuder one and anuder...). I wonder what they do with that info? Chances are nothing. Just more useless stats. Well, enough for this rant."
I found this interesting "Rant" on another site.
CJ.
Author
Topic: Interesting points about DFO and the fraser fishery (Read 2372 times)