Concert tour urges action to save fishing industry
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
the Maritime Labour Centre in Vancouver with Arntzen and her band plus a number of speakers representing the fishing industry workers, native and environmental groups.
UFAWU president Jack Nichol told the crowd that the fisheries department fully intended to sell off all public fishing resources. The result would be fishing licences worth half a million dollars, concentrated in the hands of the biggest companies. He said it was "absolutely immoral" to have absentee ownership of fish resources.
Nichol said the whole coast had to get involved fighting the Vision 2000 scheme "or it won't just be a vision, it will be a reality."
Native leader Cliff Atleo said the government plan put self-government and land claims far in the distant future. "It can't be the distant future — these questions must be resolved now." He said that people in the fishing industry must be the ones who determine its future.
Cynthia Patterson, from a group called Rural Dignity, warned of the destruction of small Canadian communities in all parts of Canada. Patterson comes from a small fishing town of 200. Barachois de Malbaie. on the Gaspe peninsula. The town depends on the inshore lobster and cod fishery.
She believes rural Canada is
• CYNTHIA PATTERSON
being decimated by government policies that are designed to shut down services and industries that small towns depend on.
The federal government's privatization policies have been the most devastating, she said. "There are three things that hold this rural Canada together — the post office, the trains and the CBC. All three are in process of being wiped out by the federal government. We're not willing to take it any more."
The Wild Salmon and Clean Water Tour will visit Qualicum. Pender Harbour. Ladner. Nanai-mo. Ucluelet. Bella Coola. Duncan and Victoria before a final concert June 2 at the Vision 2000 conference being organized bv the UFAWU.
HALIBUT LANDINGS
take a beating if we get IQs. It'll be an open season."
The UFAWU has criticized proposed Individual Quota systems because it would mean privatizing the fishery. The union says this inevitably results in the buying and selling fish quotas thereby driving up the price for a quot on the open market, and driving up the cost of fishing. More fish must be caught to cover the inflated cost of the quota, putting more pressure on the resource.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
June opening to avoid bad weather, but it is likely to conflict with the salmon season.
Even worse, he says it may not reduce the fishing effort and may-even increase the pressure on the stocks because with short openings "you put the maximum effort in."
"I think they hoped the whole thing would fail so that Individual Quotas would look more attractive. But the resource will
Vision 2000 conference to target privatization
Fishery privatization in New-Zealand has left the industry in the stranglehold of corporate giant Fletcher Challenge.
UFAWU business agent Dennis Brown says that DFO want to bring the same agenda to Canada through its Vision 2000 game plan. That's why the union, in conjunction with others in the industry, has organized a major conference at U.B.C. June 1, 2 and 3*
Dan McGinnis, sociology professor at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia will give the conference a full report on how Fletcher Challenge used transferable quotas to gain control of the fishing industry in New Zealand. He spent more than a year in New Zealand examining their privatization program and the resulting destruction of fish stocks and concentration of ownership.
McGinnis has done a lot of work on rural development and has been active in the Antigonish movement. He is also an expert on the crisis in the east coast fishing industry.
Also addressing the conference is Simon Fraser University economics professor Marjorie Cohen, who will talk about the impact of free trade on the fishing industry and the Americanization of our federal government policy to create a level playing field with the U.S.
Brown said that environmentalist Colleen McRory has been asked to speak on the effect of
pollution on the survival of wild salmon stocks. "Vision 2000 says nothing about protecting the environment or fish habitat," Brown said. "The federal government would rather close fisheries than stop polluters."
The June conference was sparked by the leaking of a secret document called Vision 2000 earlier this year, outlining plans to sell off fishing rights.
"Vision 2000 will mean a reduced fleet, fewer jobs and an industry completely controlled by big business," Brown said.
"We're hoping this conference can bring together a wide range of people in the industry to discuss Vision 2000 and to start working out a real alternative agenda to what the Tories are trying to shove down our throats."
Special workshops at the conference will discuss topics including:
• licensing and quotas
• future fishing industry development
• survival of the environment and habitat enhancement
• resource allocation.
The conference begins at 7:00 p.m. on June 1 at Hebb Theatre at U.B.C. Conference registration is $15. Accommodation for out-of-town delegates is being arranged on site at U.B.C. at the Gage Towers.
For more information on the conference or to make arrangements for accommodation, contact the UFAWU in Vancouver at 255-1336.
600
500 -
400 -
LU,—.
is
D in
3t
300-
200
100 -
1990 FRASER SOCKEYE
TIMING ABUNDANCE CURVES COMPOSITE
ADAMS/LATE
June 25
HORSEFLY/L STUART
EARLY MISC. EARLY STUART
July 10
July 25
Aug. 24
Sept. 8
Fraser River sockeye will be reasonably good in 1990
It won't be a bonanza salmon year in 1990, but it won't be a disaster either.
That's the assessment by UFAWU salmon advisor Edgar Birch after meetings of the Fraser River Panel of the Pacific Salmon Commission. DFO is predicting a total return of 16.5 million sockeye to the Fraser river system.
Birch says that the Horsefly run will be one of the better runs this year, even after a record year in 1989. The reason is good escapement in 1985.
"We've continued to increase escapement to all the fisheries — it's the way to go." Birch says there is pressure from DFO scientists to double or triple the escapement, but he disagrees.
"Fishermen have to make a living — we should increase when there are large runs and look for the peak effect."
The adult return to the Horsefly is predicted at 1.5 million, with an expected catch of 900,000 sockeye.
Birkenhead may give a "pleasant surprise." There may be up to 2 million, with a good return of jacks indicating a strong return ovrall. The return of jacks to the Adams River was less than expected and predictions have been downgraded. The forecast for adult returns to the Adams and the Lower Shuswap is a total of 10.5 million sockeye. Escapement is set at about 3.1 million with an expected catch of 7,350,000.
Birch says the late runs — the Adams, Weaver, Portage, Cultus and Harrison Rivers — may have some conservation problems. Harrison River chinook will be in the system and steelhead and wild coho will be in the river at the same time.
The answer is earlier openings so gillnetters can get the majority of their catch in August, says Birch. "We'll need to front end load the gillnet allocation so we don't put pressure on the stocks that are in trouble. By September we should be down to one day a week instead of the two days last year. If we don't get in enough fishing before then we'll be down a couple of hundred thousand fish."
For three out of the last four years gillnetters have been short of their allocation.
Under the current salmon treaty with the U.S., all extra salmon returns will go to Canadian fishermen because Canada has consistently allowed more escapement, putting more fish on the spawning beds. The U.S. can only take a total of seven million salmon over the next four years.
VISION 2000 and the
FUTURE OF THE FISHING INDUSTRY
WILL WE SURVIVE TO YEAR 2000?
• Transferable quotas?
• An expanding recreational fishery
• Pollution and salmon habitat loss
• Privatization of fisheries management
• Plant closures and Free Trade
• Landing taxes and fleet reductions
• The native land claim process
IT'S OUR INDUSTRY
IT'S YOUR LIVELIHOOD
THE FISHERY IS OUR COMMON HERITAGE
COME HELP DEVELOP A POSITIVE ALTERNATIVE FOR OUR FUTURE
HEBB THEATRE -University of British Columbia
JUNE 1, 6:00 p.m. REGISTRATION JUNE 2 AND 3, 9:30 a.m. STARTING TIME Registration - $15.00
For Further Information and Accommodations, Call 255-1336
THE FISHERMAN / MAY 14, 1990 • 3