BC’S COAST IS DIVERSE AND PRODUCTIVE.
STRATEGIES TO PROTECT IT SHOULD BE, TOO.
CONSERVING OUR SALMON.
SUSTAINING OUR ECONOMY.
RESPECTING OUR HISTORY.
Salmon fishing has been integral to life in British Columbia for millennia. From the sustenance fishing practiced by First Nations through to a rich history of fishing commercially and by recreational anglers, our fish and fishing heritage runs long and deep. Protecting our salmon, our communities, and our shared future in BC relies on respecting and maintaining a sustainable and balanced approach to management of marine and aquatic resources.
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Mark Selective Salmon Fisheries
Hatchery salmon are meant to be caught. Learn how a Hatchery Retention fishery, a Mark Selective Fishing strategy, helps to protect BC’s wild salmon stocks.
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Pinnipeds
A massive growth in the population of pinnipeds, including seals and sea lions, is threatening BC’s wild salmon.
Saving Endangered Salmon Runs. And Endangered Communities.
In 2019 the sport fishing community in southern BC was severely impacted by the implementation of Chinook non-retention for two-thirds of the peak fishing season, to give the appearance of protecting endangered and threatened stocks of Interior Fraser River Chinook. The reality, however, is that sustainable recreational fisheries have been unfairly targeted as the main reason for this decline, while other factors such as habitat degradation, illegal and unreported gill net fisheries, and unchecked predation by artificially elevated seal and sea lion populations have been largely ignored. The apparent inability to implement of a precautionary and sustainable hatchery retention option that would allow for a public fishery and protect stocks of concern has threatened the livelihood of thousands of British Columbians, and the viability of a major part of British Columbia’s economy.
British Columbia Sport Fishing Highlights
British Columbians are Worth Protecting Too.
The Sport Fishing Institute of BC, representing the interest of hundreds of thousands of anglers and working together with community and industry groups across the province, is dedicated to protecting, preserving, and promoting sustainable sport fishing activities on BC’s west coast, and its vital role in our economy and traditional coastal culture. As such we want to bring attention to and support a Hatchery Retention Fishing strategy as the best and most progressive solution to protecting our salmon, our economy, and our way of life.
How to Help Our Salmon NOW
Looking ahead, we hope to see action that reflects discussion and studies that have determined there are proven selective fishing strategies that can be implemented in the short, medium, and long term that will improve and rehabilitate stocks of concern. These adjustments include moving harvest away from stocks of concern and on to hatchery fish. This would be most effective if all hatchery salmon produced in B.C. waters were fin clipped and therefore easily identified, something already in place in Washington State and planned for Alaska. Enhancement of existing, and identification of new hatchery stocks should be considered in a responsible manner, using guidance provided by the Wild Salmon Policy. Addressing area and time specific predator control of seals and sea lions would aid in the survival of millions more Chinook.
British Columbia is BUILT on Fish and fisheries
Understanding the impacts and contributions the public fishery makes to BC and Canada’s Blue Economy must be considered and inform planning and decision making. Fisheries and Oceans Canada is conducting surveys to collect catch and expenditure statistics from the BC tidal recreational sector to build on what is known; that BC’s public fishery contributes 936 million to the B.C. economy, provides 9000 jobs and touches the lives of 300,000 annual licence holders and voters, their families and the businesses that benefit from public fishing activity and tourism related expenditures.
THE PUBLIC FISHERY
The sport fishery in BC is how the public exercises its common law right to access the common property fishery resources that the Government of Canada has the responsibility to manage to the benefit of all Canadians. We encourage all anglers to use that term to remind DFO and others that our fishery is inclusive, sustainable, and beneficial to Canada.
The Sport Fishing Institute of BC
Since 1980 the Sport Fishing Institute of BC (SFI) has represented the interests of over 300,000 tidal water recreational anglers and related businesses to elected officials, management agency staff, other fishery sectors and the non-angling public. We work to raise issues of critical importance to BC’s sport fishing industry with decision makers in Municipal, Provincial, Federal and First Nations governments in Canada.