Last year Tom Cole gave me a disk of
Victoria area sport fishing history going back to the 1950s. One big file has the
50 year history of the Sport Fish Advisory Board as a Powerpoint presentation
along with a lot of historical images of our sport; the other big file is text
documents stretching over the horizon, including Alec Merriman columns from the
1960s, and so on.
Since I came to be the keeper of the
Ring, I pondered, Frodo-Baggins-like, what to do with it. And I had an interest
in seeing the history of the Saanich Inlet fishing being brought together as an
e-book before we lose the people who made the history, or those who knew those
who made the history. Of course, it was far more work for me to do than I
anticipated.
And the CD languished in the piles I
keep in lieu of proper filing cabinet stuff.
It has only taken me almost two years to have a bolt-of-lightning moment
(and refind the CD among the heaps and ruins of good intentions). It dawned on
me today that putting up a blog, which can be done for free on Google, and then
slowly filling it with the information I have and hope to receive from everyone,
so everyone can go take a read.
I’ll put up a ‘blogspot.com’ blog and
everything I receive can go there, along with an index, so available instantly
when stuff comes my way, and all Tom Coles stuff can be put up there, too.
Images include a young Bob Wright with a ‘busty’ award from Western Speedway, an
equally young Bing Crosby and the never-forgotten-once-you-met-him, crusty,
vituperative, bites-like-a-Pitbull Bill Otway and etc. The history of the SFAB
from its inception is worthy of being preserved for everyone interested in
such things. If anyone has a good name, let me know.
And, for God’s sake, if anyone knows how
to change a photo of a text document into a text document that can be copied
and pasted, please let me know. I had to print a ‘photo’ and then enter it all
by hand, rather than copy and paste.
Here is an interesting, historical, 1981
letter to the then DFO Minister, Romeo Leblanc (using the writer’s various text
methods):
THE
ROYAL CANADIAN NAVY ANGLERS ASSOCIATION
The
Honourable Romeo LEBLANC
Minister
of Fisheries & Oceans
House
of Commons
Ottawa,
Ontario.
Re:
Sportfishing Restrictions announced by C. WAYNE SHINNERS – 11 February, 1981
Dear
Mr. Minister:
This Association is comprised of 546
active members in our current membership year, which is the approximate average
for the last 25 years. The membership is
comprised of persons having two common basic similarities and they are:
(1) A
direct association with the Canadian Armed Forces, and
(2) An
interest in Sportfishing.
We believe that as CANADIANS we have “paid our dues” and our loyalty is
beyond question. You can take your united word for it, that sportfishing
restriction as announced are unworthy and basically dishonest. These
observation are made as a straight-forward assessment back by a great deal of
history and practical knowledge.
In 1963 this club wrote to the then
area Director Me. W.R., (Rod) HOURSTON and expressed our concern over the
declining stocks – which we attributed to the Juan de Fuca gauntlet net
fishery. We received rebuke for our expression of concern.
In 1964 as a member/club of the
Amalgamated Conservation Society, we were party to a brief presented to J. Angus McLEAN, the then Fisheries
Minister, again expressing our concern over declining stocks and our belief
that the Juan de Fuca gauntlet net fishery was the main contributor to the
decline of the hook and line fishery. To
show our sincerity we voluntarily recommended a cut in our daily bag limit down
to four salmon per day. The Department
gladly accepted our voluntary limit cut but continued on the path of fostering
the net fishery and actively assisted in the increase of the Seine fleet.
In 1967, with our sportfishing
success still on the decline and again in conjunction with the Amalgamated
Conservation Society, we protested so effectively as to finally obtain a public
meeting in Victoria with Dr. NEEDLER,
the then Deputy Minister of Fisheries.
He conceded that the gauntlet net fishery did in fact impact on the
Victoria-Sooke water front fishery. His
solution was to implement a sportfishing reserve in the easterly portion of Area
20. We expressed out considerable doubt
that this was the solution to our problem, and we have been proven right – it was
not the answer. Along about the same
time we had commenced advocacy of salmon enhancement, and one of the tools we
proposed was fish hatcheries. We were
told by the Department that salmon could not be effectively produced in
hatcheries. How wrong could they be?
Under the same Dr. NEEDLER,
statements were made regarding herring, one being that herring could be fished
in every known fashion and because their numbers were so large and they were so
prolific, the herring could never be fished out. We hasten to call your
recollection to the complete closure of
the herring net fishery that was required to afford the recovery of the stocks.
Another Department gem was that herring was not a major part of the Salmon’s
diet.
As proof that we were not insincere
about our concern over declining stocks, we commenced voluntary work assisting
fish guardians in stream work and fry salvage.
As early as the 1960’s we commenced ground works and negotiation to be
allowed to enhance salmonids in
The
Goldstream River. Ever since the
Amalgamated Conservation society has had an approved Salmonid Enhancement
Program on the Goldstream, the R.C.N. Anglers’ Association members have
actively and physically participated in the program which predates S.E.P by two
years.
You may wonder, Mr. Minister, why
the foregoing history lesson; well, we simply wish once and for all to establish
our credibility and to point out how the Fisheries Department alienated us as a
user group through their insistence on being wrong. The drastic restrictions imposed on the sport
fishery is again a demonstration of this propensity for being wrong.
We insist that a major influence on
chinook escapement is the incidental catch of chinooks in the gauntlet seine
fishery in Johnstone and Juan de Fuca Straits, just as it was 20 years
ago. The Department still fails to
recognize this fact; this fishery takes place so far from the rivers of origin
that stock management is impossible.
The effect of the gauntlet net fishery was
recognized by a former Minister of Fisheries, The Honourable Jack DAVIS. In a meeting with sportsfishermen in Victoria’s
Empress Hotel when he was still Minister, he actively advocated the return of
the net fishery to the river mouths, as a cleanup fishery where a finite stock
management would be possible – he had our agreement in this policy even though
it had little support by members of the Fisheries Department.
These regulation changes have “reached
in” and changed our our quality of life;
some measure of the importance of these regulations to our life style can be
taken from the observation that it was the very first item of news on the front
page of the TIMES-COLONIST News paper of
12 Februarry 1981, and was the lead
story on CHEK Television News on 11 February 1981. It is a topic of conversation throughout the
whole city and disbelief and indignation are the emotions being expressed. With
the Department’s past track record for making the wrong decision to resolve
problems, you can hardly wonder at our lack of faith in them.
If these regulations are
implemented, which will result in the mostly innocent sportsfisherman being
punished, and if the gauntlet net
continues the wild chinook stocks will NEVER recover – mark our words… The name of LEBLANC and the Liberal
government will never be forgotten by many thousands of Westcoast residents who
have lost a jewel out of the joy of living.
Shame, Mr. Minister, shame! Bloody
shame! You can, and must, do better than
this.
Yours
truly,
R.J.
ROGERSON
Secretary
c.c.
Mr.
Alan McKinnon, M.P. The Honourable
Stephen Rogers
(Victoria,
- Oak Bay) Minister
of the Environment B.C.
House
of Commons Parliament
Buildings
Ottawa,
Ont. Victoria, B.C.
Mr.
Donald Munroe, M.P. The Honourable Pat
Jordan
(Esquimalt
Saanich) Minister
of Tourism
House
of Commons Parliament
Buildings
Ottawa, Ont. Victoria, B.C.
Mr.
Ed Broadbent, M.P. Mr. Dave Barrett, MLA
House
of Commons Leaders
of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition
Ottawa,
Ontario Parliament
Buildings
Victoria, B.C.
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