20 million pink run forecast for the Fraser
BELLINGHAM - Pink sal-Uon returns to the Fraser River should total 20 million fish in 1983, says the International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission, with 15 million available for harvest.
In its annual meeting Dec. 10, the commission forecast total Fraser sockeye returns of 6.5 million. Five million will be available for harvest and the commission has reserved the remainder for escapement.
The commission is recommending fishing in Area 20 open Aug. 7 for one day that week and for two days a week thereafter until Sept. 20. In the Fraser area, fishing would begin July 20 with one day a week until Aug. 6 and then two days the following Week. One day a week would be allowed thereafter.
But the commission warns it will seek high seas controls on the troll fishery to curb that section's share of the harvest.
The unprecedented size of this year's offshore harvest by Canadian trollers was a continuing theme of the commission report. Thanks to the heavy harvest outside convention waters, the commission controlled only 39.4 Percent of this year's catch.
The total sockeye return this year was 14.3 million fish, the largest for any year since 1958, but the IPSFC complained that "the actual catch outside convention waters was not determined until early November" because of the fisheries department's inability to monitor troll catches.
The commission now believes that 3.7 million sockeye were harvested outside convention waters in Johnstone Strait and off the west coast.
"Of the 10.6 million sockeye entering the convention area, 6.1 million fish were caught by the commercial fleets and Fraser River Indian fishermen caught 400,000 sockeye."
The commission places the west coast Vancouver Island troll fishery at 2.5 million sockeye or 25.4 percent of the total catch, more than double the 11 percent landed in 1974 and 1978.
In the convention catch division, Canada harvested 3.27 million sockeye or 53.2 percent of the total, beating the U.S. total
of 2.867 million. But both countries more than doubled the catches they made in the brood year of 1978.
According to the commission, the gillnet fleet was the chief victim of the troll onslaught offshore. The seine fleet took more than 1.5 million sockeye in Canadian waters, for a 46.6 percent share, the highest in any year since 1958.
The troll catch in convention waters was 825,000 sockeye, or about 25 percent of the Canadian total.
"While the troll and purse seine catches and percentage share of the Canadian catch were high," the commission said, "the gillnet catch at 925,000 sockeye was only slightly above the average of the previous three cycles (870,000). Furthermore, the gillnet percentage catch of 28.2 percent was a record low figure for any year."
The commission concluded that trollers "removed about 1.4 million more sockeye than their catch would have been had the 1974 or 1978 exploitation rates prevailed. (This amounts to about $7.5 million worth offish.)
Total Adams escapement was four million sockeye, a record.
The major disappointment was the Early Stuart run, in which only 4,600 spawners made it to the spawning beds of 90,000 that passed Mission.
At least 70,000 made it through Hell's Gate, but water temperatures were high when the fish reached Nechako.
The commission surveyed the river by helicopter but did not find straying or delaying Early Stuart sockeye.
"Evidence suggests that a combination of high discharge, turbidity and water temperature weakened the fish." Then disease struck in the form of an organism called Columnaris.
At least part of the responsibility must lie at the feet of Alcan, although the IPSFC does not say so. In a separate section of the report, the commission notes that Alcan's failure to install a cold water spillway for the Nechako in 1947, as requested by the commission, has made it difficult to cool the Nechako in hot weather.
This proved a factor this year.
Contact: Marcus Bowcott at 253-5058
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PEARSE FIGHTBACK
• Meetings continue to be held In coastal communities to discuss the Pearse report and set up committees to propose alternatives. In the picture above, Don Taylor (left) discusses the Delta meeting with Lome Iverson. Below, a shot of the full house in Delta on Dec. 5. Meetings will continue to be held with the next one slated for Dec. 16 at the Fishermen's Hall on Cordova St. beginning at 7:30 p.m. jm Sinclair photos
Fisheries roe licence plan would slash seine crew jobs
The fisheries department once again is pushing to allow seine boats in the herring fishery to carry more than one area license, a move strongly opposed by the UFAWU because it could radically reduce the number of crewmen able to fish.
This renewed pressure was revealed in the Dec. 7 meeting of the Herring Industry Advisory Board where industry representatives met with department officials to examine proposals for the 1983 roe herring fishery.
Among other changes proposed by the department are a reduction in roe count from the traditional 10 percent in the gulf to 9 percent.
This year's quota is set at 30,900 tons for the coast, with the west coast allocated 5,000, the Strait of Georgia and Johnstone Strait 12,900, and North of Cape Caution 13,000.
A 55 percent, 45 percent catch division will apply coastwide for seines and gillnetters.
Last year a decision to allow
seines to hold more than one license was turned around after strong lobbying by the UFAWU convinced the government hundreds of jobs would be lost because of the fleet reduction involved.
A questionnairre last herring season showed a slim majority of gillnetters and only 45 percent
of the seines favored the carrying of more than one license.
"That's not even the majority and the survey only covered 71 seines out of more than 200 so only a tiny portion of the fleet has spoken on this issue." said Bruce Stevens UFAWU delegate to the meeting.
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THE FISHERMAN — DECEMBER 10, 1982/3