A former fisheries ombudsman predicts fishing at the mouth of the Capilano River won't be allowed next year if a closure is enacted to conserve steelhead. sh p Sport fishermen say ‘rights’ ignored by Fisheries Canada Martin Millerchip : News Reporter mamillerchip@nsnews.com THERP’S a pickle jar on the counter of the North Shore’s well-known mecca for sports fishermen, Highwater Tackle. - It’s collected over $400 since the beginning of the year from those of Dave Steele’s customers who've bothered to ask what he’s collecting for. It’s not for charity, although ic is a fundraiser -— a drive to - finance a legal challenge to the way Fisheries and Oceans Canada (FOC) administers the salmon resource. Highwater Tackle is one of many sporting goods stores across the province that have just waded into B.C’s annual fish war: ‘benwveen First Nation, sport and commercial fishermen for the _ tight catch to salmon. Steele was already primed to fight, but oth- ers attending the annual convention of the B.C. Wildlife Federation (BCWF) in Prince. George a month ago were told the continuing erosion of sport fishing opportunites in B.C. will end with their fishing tackle in a museum. . > Steele is furious that news of sports closures continue to make front page hews every year, driving down the value of a resource chat, if properly managed, should be worth $1 billion a year ($1.5 _ billion if you add in freshwater angling) to the B.C. economy. Despite the coho closures, says Steele, there are lozs of bright spots ‘in the recreational resource but nobody is hearing thar message when they’re concenuating on jurisdictional wrangles or upset about FOC pelicy. | : ; _“Super, Natural B.C.’ What goes hand in hand with that image? Camping, hiking and fishing — it’s a no-brainer. You'd think government would want to capitalize on the opportunity they have.” wv Anstead, says Steele, he doesn’t even know how much of his ‘capital to invest in certzin types of tackle because he doesn’t yet know what the sport fishing restrictions will be this year. “There are £0- and 15-room fishing lodges up and down the West Coast whose owners have no idea what the regulations are " going to be this year. Are they going to be open or closed? The - government has absolutely dropped the ball and ignored these ple.” : . Re Peter Lloyd Jones is the sales director for Pacific King Lodge, a floating resort anchored off Princess Royal island near Prince - Rupert and whose business office is located in North Vancouver. » He says the lack of published regulations doesn’t seem to have had “an impact on his sales this year. He pauses, and slowly adds, “But then we're conditioned to it and I’m not saying it’s a good thing >for the industry. One never knows what one could have got. Most of the package bookers are buying in March, and when they phone or write, we are saying we don‘: know what the situation will be.” . Says Steele, “People come from all over the world to fish in” : B.C. A single visitor can spend $1,000 for a trip to Skeena and it’s all catch and release — that’s big money when you total it all up * being spent on a resource that is being minimally impacted. So you have in this province a ow-impact, high revenue-generating ilus- try being neglected to protect a high-impact, low-dollar fishery.” The rallying cry to those upset in the industry was sounded by Bill Orway, who for 15 years was the Recreational Fisheries Advisor Ombudsman to the FOC until he resigned 18 months ago. Before that he was a director of the BCWF. He has always been a fisher- aM ™ Onway is one of the organizers behind the Sportfishing Defence Alliance, a new lobby group of recreational anglers who, according ro their mission statement, “will use every means, including polit- ical and legal at. the highest level, to ensure that our sportfishing, ~ social and economic rights are understood, established, delivered and preserved.” . ; <2 At issue, according to Onway, are FOC policies relating to abo- riginal catch allocations that derive from the department’s inter- SUNDAY FOCUS ra share of the f Sunday, May 14, 2000 - North Shore Mew's ~ 3 EWS photo Terry Peters Rio Sere . t ; NEWS photo Mike Wakefield HIGHWATER Tackle owner Dave Steele wants sports fishermen to get involved with the Sportfishing Defence Alliance and its push to get the recreational salmon jishery protected in the same way that the netive fishery is. pretation of the 1990 Regina v. Sparrow Supreme Court of Canada decision. “The department is viewing the judgment in the broadest pos- sible sense and will only interfere in matters of conservation. They are operating on some legal advice which, in my view, is bad,” Qoway told the News. “Department enforcement says there is no ‘right’ other than native to fish, so the alliance’s primary concern is to get the government to recognize our (the recreational fishery) right to fish. . Otway says B.C.’s Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks (MOELP) is following the federal lead and points to last year’s clo- sure of Vancouver Island’s Cowichan River as an example. Otway agrees that it was necessary to stop a native net fishery anf gain control of their harvest of steelhead, but questions why a complet: closure was necessary at the expense of sport fishermen further up the river who were quite happy to comply with catch-and-release requirements. 2 “Te’s the same mistaken argument every time: ‘If you are fish- ing we can’t stop the natives, so we have to close you so we can close the natives’; or the reverse ‘If you are fishing, even seiective- lv, we have to let the natives fish with any gear they want.’ ” Claims Otway: “This policy and statement has no basis in ei fact or law.” And he predicts the fallout could come closer to home than Vancouver Island: “The Cowichan is not and will not be an isolat- ed incident. The word now is that the Squamish stocks are in ter- rible shape and yet the native fishery is ongoing there and you can expect that closure in the near future. “The Capilano will not be far behind — mind you at current rates it really won’t matter. The return to the Capilano hatchery of summer steelhead was one female and four or five males. Now I don’t know about you, but I consider that a real conservation problem, and isn’t there some kind of policy, federal and provin- cial that says conservation comes before natives? But what we now have is not only are the agencies misinterpreting the law, they are not even enforcing it or their policy. ! . “We in the alliance believe that it is ime for some honesty and clarity in the way that holders of fishing rights are treated in this . country. It is time for governments to step misconstruing the law as it relates to aboriginal fishing rights and time.to respect the .” ws rights ofall other Canadians who have access to the public fishery.” Besides tackle industry representation and. the BCWF, the alliance includes. the B.C. Federation of Dzift Fishers, the Fraser Valley Salmon Society, and the Georgia Strait Guides Association. The group has developed a long-term plan intended to “provide a. stable social and economic environment for all sectors associated | with sports angling in British Columbia.” This plan is being circu-.- lated to organizations and individuals throughout British Columbia for endorsement and active sup) ue According to the allianc : ; @ recreational anglers in British Columbia’ have been subject to ever-increasing fishing closures and restrictions brought about by interpretations of Supreme Court decisions, actions of politicians, Fisheries and Oceans Canada policy and the pressure tactics of * some aboriginal groups; : , Mover the past few years recreational anglers have seen an increas- See Alliance page Ni Coming in Sunday Focus NEXT week in Sunday Focus reporter Deana Lancaster looks at why local First Nation students have such a difficult time in our education system. To suggest a feature story that deserves to be “in Focus”: write to Martin Millerchip, North Shore News, 1139 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver, V7M 2H4, fax 985-2104 or e-mail . 6 : Ns