DFO to Go                                          

This week’s Sunday Herald front page has the headline “Canso to lose DFO office – Mayor issues appeal to federal government”. It seems that DFO needs to be reminded that any fishery it manages needs two things – fish, and the people who fish. It infuriates me that our federal government fails rural communities like Canso, first by failing to manage sustainable fisheries, and second by treating our people with arrogance and indifference.

Why do we continue to allow DFO, an agency of our federal government, to get away with being irresponsible and unresponsive? I think an independent public inquiry is long overdue.

I’ve complained before about DFO’s handling of our Atlantic salmon sport fishery, how they have closed salmon hatcheries when they are needed as never before, and how they have, through mismanagement of the fishery, crippled rural communities. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

DFO continues to manage aquaculture of fin-fish in a manner that has been shown to decimate wild salmon stocks on both sides of the Atlantic and more recently, Pacific salmon as well. And still, 25 years after the collapse of our Bay of Fundy salmon stocks, DFO refuses to acknowledge the Bay’s aquaculture as the culprit.

Native fishing rights are still mostly on paper because DFO keeps playing their conservation card, effectively preventing natives from fishing salmon while limiting sport fisheries to 6 week impromptu live-release seasons. It now looks like sport fishers may suffer further limitations (like a complete shut-down) in 2010, so it seems to me that natives and non-natives should join forces against the true enemy – DFO. Why take our frustration out on each other when DFO should be held responsible?

So, what can we do? I ask Peter MacKay, our MP, for his help in this matter. I also suggest that our new NDP provincial government step in and seize this opportunity to help their rural constituents. Finally, let’s hear from you – what do you think?

Please stay on the line …