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West Vancouver songwriter and commercial fisherman Terry Jacks, who is spearheading a move to close the area to commercial prawn, crab and shrimp fishermen, said Monday no decision was made on his proposal to restrict the Horseshoe’ Bay harbor limits, bounded roughly by Newman Creek and Point Atkinson, to rec- reationa! fishing.

“They say it’s a political deci- sion now. But the issue remains, who is the best user-group for the area: a couple of thousand recre- ational fishermen and their fami- lies or two or three commercial boats? | mean, this is such a valuable recreational fishing area, and it's in danger of being wiped out by a couple of commercial boats.””

Jacks, who has owned a com- mercial fishing licence for the past 11 years and, until last year, was co-owner of a Lower Mainland shellfish company, said he could fish the Horseshoe Bay area com- mercially if he wanted, ‘‘but I just don’t think it’s right. The area has to be set.aside for recreational use or a few years from now the kids

’ around here won’t even know what

_@ prawn or a crab fooks like.”

But United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union spokesman Guy Johnston said Tuesday coastal

fish resources remain a common.

property resource in Canada, ‘‘and what we have here is people trying to extend their property rights to the foreshore.”’

He said the boats that fish Horseshoe Bay deliver their catch

Weather: Friday and Saturday, cloudy with showers. Highs near 10° €.

an

rm INDEX

. Busiiiess..........-13 -Classified Ads.......33 Doug Collins.........9 Editorial Page........6 ’ Entertainment....... 16 Home & Garden’... .21 Horoscopes......... 18 Bob Hunter.........-4 Lifestyles .......... 18 _Mailbox...........-.7 Movie Listings......17 TV Listings.........19

What's Going On....32 fe

By TIMOTIEY RENSHAW “s Meporter

fresh to areca fish buyers and are not outfitted with freezers,

“To say that we can just move somewhere clse is not true,” Johnston said. ‘We are tightly controlled and the whole coast is fished right now. If we moved to the next bay we would be moving into an area fished by somebody else.”

But said Jacks, ‘‘This is not a livelihood issue. They (the com- mercial fishermen) don’t have to fish there. They can go anywhere. And this is such a small area.’*

With two openings in 1986 totalling [1 weeks, 20 commiercial fish boats harvested 60,000 pounds of prawns from Howe Sound.

Jacks said ccommercial boats drop as many as 1,000 traps at a time compared with the three or four per boat from a recreational fish boat.

Four years ago, a trap dropped in Horseshoe Bay would yield about 25 prawns, he said, but that number has since dropped to nothing.

But fisheries spokesman Bob Humphreys, who met with prawn fishermen March 4, crab fishermen March 5 and shrimp fishermen March 6 to discuss issues facing the Howe Sound area, said his department can make no decision on Horseshoe Bay until biological studies have properly evaluated the impact of fishing on area shellfish populations,

3 - Friday, March 13, 1987 - North Share News

Horseshoe Bay she fishery issue unresolved

THREE meetings between commercial fishermen and Fish- eries and Oceans Canada last week failed to resolve the issue of commercial shellfishing within Horseshoe Bay harbor

itish

NEWS ohoto ¥ Mike Waketietd

WEST VANCOUVER fisherman and songwriter Terry Jacks stands beside empty crab and prawn traps outside his home near Horseshoe Bay. Jacks claims Horseshoe Bay harbor shellfish stocks are being threatened by commercial fishermen and wants the area preserved for recreational fishing only.

‘Really the question we face is one of allocation not conserva- tion,’? Humphreys said. ‘‘Our data right now is pretty poor.’’ :

A department of fisheries study of prawn populations in Howe Sound has shown a 37 per cent decrease in the number of two-and three-year-old prawns in the area from 1985 to 1986.

. He said the department is now two years into a five-year biologi- cal study of Howe Sound.

Sports Fishery Advisory Board

executive Lee Straight said Florse- shoe Bay is a small, congested area whose most sensible use would be recreational only.

He added that chinook salmon eat prawns. Destruction of the area’s prawn population, he said, would also destroy its chinook population.

Johnston said if commercial fishermen lIcst the right to fish Horseshoe Bay, area closures could snowball. The result, he said, would not only affect the

BOARD SPENDING LESS THAN IN 1982

School budget approved in NV

NORTH Vancouver School Board unanimously accepted a

status quo draft budget for the 1987/88 school year ai

Monday’s meeting.

“IT have a feeling it may not please anyone,’’ chairman Roy Dungey told the board. He said the budget is far less than the board was spending on the district in 1982.

“At worst we’re not going to catch up enough to stop the dam-

age (to the school district through |

Jack of maintenance) that is immi- nent,’’ Dungey said.

6% INCREASE

The draft budget totals $59,920,350 after a board meeting amendment, for a six per cent in- crease over 1986/87. The educa- tion ministry must still pass the budget.

Superintendent Leo Marshall said the budget’s only major change over 1986/87’s budget is that eight teaching positions will be eliminated at the secondary level and eight positions will be added at the elementary level, because elementary attendance is increasing while secondary attendance is decreasing.

FRENCH IMMERSION

Spending on the French immer- sion program will also increase as the number of students in it in- crease, Marshall said.

The board unanimously ac- cepted an amendment by trustee Richard Walton. to increase the

By ROBERT BEYNON

draft budget by $950,000. Walton said:the funds would be spent in three areas — $350,000 for building repairs and maintenance, $300,000 for supplies and library improvements and $300,000 to replace equipment.

Walton said if the education ministry says it will pay a low pro-

NORTH VANCOUVER chairman Roy Dungey...‘‘I have a feeling it (the budget) may not please anyone.”’

portion of the budget when the ministry accepts the budget, the board can reduce costs in these areas; but if the ministry pays a high proportion of the school district’s costs, the board can spend this money.

EDUCATION MINISTRY

School boards do not know what proportion of their budgets the education ministry will pay un- til after the ministry passes the budgets. Once the budget is pass- ed, boards cannot increase their budgets. Approximately 40 per cent of school district expenses is borne by local taxpayers.

Walton said the district needed this money because ‘twe have a series of assets which are getting run down.”

Chairman Dungey said some board members worry that if the provincial government does not provide more money for educa-

Trustees

ability of local fishermen to earn a living, but dry up a major source of fresh prawns for Lower Mainland restaurants.

Fisheries spokesman. Scotty Roxburgh said the concerns of Horseshoe Bay recreational fish- ermen have been forwarded to the federal fisheries minister.

He added that there was little chance for:a commercial fishing closure in the Horseshoe Bay area this year.

tion, the school district will not catch up to 1982 levels of service for years to come,

NORTH VANCOUVER School Board trustee Richard Walton...‘‘we have a series of assets which are getting run down.”’

get raise

NORTH VANCOUVER School District trustees unanimously raised their indemnities $1,000 per year at their Tuesday meeting.

The trustees previously received an indemnity of $4,000 per year, which was the maximum the provincial cabinet allowed since 1981. The provin- cial cabinet released an order in council last January allowing school boards to vote themselves a maximum indemnity of $5,000 per year.

School superintendent Leo Marshall said the indemnity as it stands is a pittance and the trustees deserve the money.

When questioned, board secretary-treasurer

Leonard Berg said

aldermen around B.C. receive between $10,000 and $20,000 per year for

similar work loads.