Canada Trust Realtor UH 1
The Canada Trust Company
Al Douglas
Buying • Selling Relocating Phone 273-3161 (24 hour) Res. 277-6164 or drop in
6740 No. 3 Road, Richmond, B.C.
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VICTORIA 383-9731 VANCOUVER 270-1244
FISH FARMERS VS FISHERItf
THE COAST END
As finfish farms spread coastwise, wild stock fishermen are finding traditional fishing grounds closed
IN two of his last four crab trips to Knight I Inlet, fisherman Dune Shields, operator of the Hermosa, found salmon farm pens moored on top of his traps.
"I was fishing one week and the next I found pens with 400-pound anchors set over the gear," he said. "The farmer was running down the floats shouting, I've got $3 million worth of spring salmon in there, clear the area.'
"I had to pull my gear out from one side of the pen, cut the lines and drag the rest out from the other side," Shields recalls. "With those anchors out, I can't set there again."
Shields' experience is typical of the growing conflict between the runaway growth of salmon farming and long-standing commercial fishing operations.
As salmon farming sets its roots on the B.C. coast, fishermen are facing direct conflict with the new industry as it forces them off traditional fishing grounds.
With more than 700 foreshore leases approved or applied for, some areas of the coast are so saturated that no more finfish operations are possible under the minimum three-kilometre spacing now required by provincial regulation.
When Sechelt-area fishermen went to pick their prawn gear in Hotham Sound in January, they had to drag the traps out from under anchor lines set by an arriving farm operation.
And when Sunshine Coast fishermen attended a Sechelt open house April 6 with provincial Lands Branch officials to outline where commercial fishing could be impacted by salmon farming, they found virtually every Sechelt Inlet fishing spot already occupied by farms.
Shields sees even more disturbing long-term implications. "I know there are spots on those inlets where seines and gillnets fished when we had a salmon fishery. We've conserved for 20 years to rebuild those runs. But now we'll never be able to fish on those tie-up spots again, even if the runs rebuild.
"The question is do they properly investigate what body that body of water is used for — logging, fishing, recreation or whatever. I think all they investigate is the suitability for fish farming."
The result is increasing pressure on the incomes of fishermen. Shields estimates that the Mainland Inlets provide employment for 70 to 100 prawn and crab fishermen who face displacement if the farm rush continues.
Sechelt fisherman Sonny Reid was one of those displaced from a traditional Hotham Sound prawn fishing area by the arrival of new pens in mid-January.
"We've made ends meet by adding the prawn fishery and the crab fishery to our salmon production," he told officials at the open house. "Now we've completely lost that fishing area."
In a heated discussion with Lands Branch officials, union organizer Dennis Brown won a commitment that further information gathered up to two weeks later by union members would be considered by planners now seeking to determine where commercial fishing and fish farming will conflict.
But the officials ; study must be comp' fii date Agriculture an" John Savage hf&fc moratorium on tin" area
The crash study t0 fishing occurs lastjj^
lasted and took place dun* Only the UEA.WU.gi
Association and the ^ ers
Association were < information about i Mainland Inlets area-In a letter to Savage-
president Jack Nk*^ sion to the morato' ; ment of a proper rev ^ will be lifted. "T,hat made by cabinet. , This new consult^ major advance on tn« j public involvement , most interest groUp,i(,,v; days to make their ^
Even then, they ""p with a process setup i public and dedicate"^,. are accommodated fish aquaculture opP" ^ For B.C. fisherrne* ,i tive process amount* ^ assault on the W»° Brown. jv "Until now we've s'^V he says. "Because oi a moratorium and °^L$ Gillespie Inquiry, «*,ici' sideration of the P"%> still have not got a^f. the fishery or cornp^yt location that has f
-a1,
MAJOR fish progrf investors are ta14,^ mon farming1",^ study, but disease a" fuflj threaten the industry A
A special report■ Department of Fis" Group Inc., a cons"' JJ that the explosion 0 ^ creating an industry1 cof "mom and pop" l°ca JgC^ tions promised by a°. years ago. < The report repeats » by fishermen and D' may be impossible ve salmon, farmers will n ^ demand for wild stocK* jt| ing serious problems ^ The report discloses ,* ers have already enc°^rti»\ lems with disease and > tfj price decline" in the n M The report was con^ ber, 1986, based on a
12 • THE FISHERMAN / APRIL 16,1987