THE FISHERMAN, OCTOBER 19, 1998
Compensation is needed now, says Peckford
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
not a political broadside as many had expected."
Entitled A Question of Balance, Peckford's report outlines six recommendations for immediate action. It also promises a more detailed final report this fall which will follow more public hearings and meetings with affected groups.
At the heart of the problems this year, Peckford said, was DFO's hard-line conservationist approach and its refusal to consult with fishermen and communities in designing fishing plans that would balance conservation with fishing opportunities..
"The issue is balance, which means consultation and accountability—and they weren't followed in the 1998 sockeye fishery," Peckford said. "DFO went from managing a system to a preservationist approach."
In his report, Peckford noted: "The vast majority of people who spoke at the inquiry are of the view that an overzealous "preservation' policy replaced a prudent manage-
ment system with reasonable conservation and harvest factors in the conduct of the 1998 Fraser River sockeye fishery and that this caused a disastrous fishery for many fishermen and their families and oth-
PECKFORD REPORT
ers who worked on fishing boats or in other aspects of the fishery on shore; that this was the result of DFO trying to achieve in one year conservation goals that take a number of years to accomplish, and that there were two different escape-
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In setting escapement goals at the highest level on this cycle "since they took over management control in 1985," DFO threw fisheries out of balance.
"DFO had a choice," Peckford noted. "If they reduced the Late sockeye escapement goal by 200,000, Summers could have been harvested by fishermen in the South Coast. This would have allowed an additional opening. An escapement target of 73 per cent, rather than 79 per cent of the estimated run clearly would not have
placed the Lates under any conservation risk. Good management is always a question of finding the right balance."
The former Newfoundland premier also singled out the agreements signed by Fisheries Minister David Anderson with Washington State (see opposite page) and the Aboriginal Fisheries Strategy as key problems this year.
"The Aboriginal Fisheries Strategy (AFS) — the pilot sales program in particular — is a highly divisive policy," the report states. "It has divided not only natives and non-natives in the fishery but also has set natives on the
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Escapement targets were also lower for both the American fisheries and for in-river Native food and commercial fisheries, and that "exacerbated the frustration felt by many this year," Peckford said.
Streifel noted that in the past a run size similar to the 10.9 million sockeye return in 1998 "had supported many more fisheries. People have a right to an answer as to why it didn't this year and they haven't got that answer," he said.
Asked by reporters why there should be compensation, Peckford emphasized that it was "fundamental to Confederation that people in B.C. be treated the same as those in another part of Canada.
"The government has said time and again that when policy changes are made and people are negatively affected to the point that they can't put food on the table, then there is a responsibility on the part of the government to provide compensation."
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