[Jeremy Floyd]

https://www.terracestandard.com/news/complete-fishing-ban-on-sockeye-chinook-a-possibility/

 

[Chris Johnson]

How much steelhead by catch do these fisheries encounter?

 

[Jeremy Floyd]

The historical runs that coincide, historically speaking, are very much affected today.

 

[Robert Engleheart]

According to Bob Hortons blog the bycatch is significant. Jeremy, I’ve been looking but not able to find how the return numbers were for 2017. Any idea; I know it started low but did it ever gain?

 

[mbowers]

According to Bob Hortons blog the bycatch is significant. Jeremy, I've been looking but not able to find how the return numbers were for 2017. Any idea; I know it started low but did it ever gain?

Do you have Tim Horton's on the brain? It's Bob Hooton.

It's something like 10 to 25% of the steelhead run goes to bycatch.

 

[Graham McFadyen Hill]

This has been known for decades, much to our disgrace. I watched an interview news program decades ago..1974... hosted by Jack Webster and the featured guest was Romeo LeBlanc, the then Federal Fisheries Minister. Webster was interested in the British Columbia fishery, and pressed LeBlanc for facts. Webster asked LeBlanc how long it would take for the BC commercial fleet to harvest its quota. Leblanc mumbled "twenty". Webster said "days?" and LeBlanc replied "No, hours". Webster then went on to question the Minister about the value of the catch. LeBlanc had said that the total catch was 91% commercial, 6% First Nations food fishery and 3% recreational. Value? The 91% commercial catch brought in 93 million dollars, and the 3% recreational brought in 91 million dollars. I had worked for BC Packers in the '60s and I had seen the steelhead bycatch from the Skeena. Heart-breaking. So having no commercial catch on the Skeena would be a huge win for the fish.

 

[Chris Johnson]

Do you have Tim Horton's on the brain? It's Bob Hooton.

It's something like 10 to 25% of the steelhead run goes to bycatch.

25% is a huge number, I sure hope that is not the case.

 

[Deceased]

Do you have Tim Horton's on the brain? It's Bob Hooton.

It's something like 10 to 25% of the steelhead run goes to bycatch.

Still, Tom Hortons has publicly denied and wild steelhead in their Tim bits recipe. I don't believe them.

 

[Deceased]

25% is a huge number, I sure hope that is not the case.

I wouldn't be shocked to have it be higher. Commercial fishing bycatch figures are often reported optimistically.

 

[Chris Johnson]

I looked up some old stats a while back and in 1977 the RECORDED steelhead by catch in the Skeena system for the salmon fisheries was 10,000 fish, 38% of which were Bulkley fish.

 

[Klickrolf]

Seems like this is intractable. Who thinks many other steelhead stocks (wild stocks) aren't bycatch all over the North Pacific. Steelhead don't school like salmon but they use the same environment and utilize many of the same resources.

 

[Salmo_g]

Skeena steelhead bycatch could only be avoided by not fishing for salmon. Skeena steelhead use the same approach routes to the river as commercially targeted sockeye runs. And once in the Skeena, they are subjected to the same fleet of hundreds of gillnet and purse seine boats that are after sockeye. Which is why I am in favor of chlorinating the Fulton River spawning channel on Babine Lake. It would lend to conserving natural wild sockeye populations and native steelhead populations at the same time. Win-win, unless you're a Skeena commercial fisherman.

 

[Jeremy Floyd]

Commercial season opened for 24 hours, and steelhead numbers halved.