Fishing News
The Really Bad News
Nova Scotia’s Atlantic salmon recreational fishery has been delayed “until further notice”, a result of
the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ (DFO) failure to deal effectively with Nova Scotia’s First Nations.
This is a far bigger issue than a delay in fishing on a few Cape Breton streams. It could easily spell the
end of ALL recreational fishing in ALL of Nova Scotia’s salmon streams. Consider the
restrictions imposed by DFO by closing to all fishing many sections of the St. Mary’s, LaHave, and Medway Rivers in
2011, for example. It may also spell the end of Nova Scotia’s important fall salmon angling fishery on Northumberland
Strait streams and the Margaree salmon hatchery.
Anglers frequenting the internet fishing forums express anger,
shock and disbelief, predicting big trouble in 2012 angling.
This is the last straw for many of us, no
longer willing to stand for betrayal by our governments.
Here’s more information from the Chronicle-Herald.
Start to salmon fishing
season delayed
May 26, 2012 - 6:16pm
By MICHAEL LIGHTSTONE Staff Reporter
Atlantic salmon season in Nova Scotia has been delayed indefinitely, says a group representing anglers in the province.
Nova Scotia Salmon
Association members were told by Department of Fisheries and Oceans officials Friday that the scheduled June 1 opening has
been postponed, association member Larry Shortt said Saturday.
In an email message, he said the delay will affect recreational salmon fishing in Cape Breton.
The postponement comes at a time when Atlantic
salmon are rebounding by up to 500 per cent in some Nova Scotia rivers, according to the Margaree Salmon Association.
“This (delay) will impact salmon angling
on the Margaree, North and North Aspey rivers, which normally open on June 1,” Shortt said. “DFO is unable to
provide a date when salmon angling will be permitted for recreational anglers.”
Two spokesmen for the department declined comment because they
weren’t up to speed on the issue. One staffer told The Chronicle Herald the department will probably make its decision
public, through a release and advertising, this week.
Bedford resident Mike Bardsley, former Nova Scotia Salmon Association director, acknowledged in an
interview the fishing season’s delay is disappointing.
He said he’s been fishing for Atlantic salmon for about 12 years.“On June 1, I will fish illegally because I know that keeping conservation-minded anglers on every
river where salmon swim is their only hope for survival. We are their guardians against government, politics, poaching, pollution
and harvest,” Bardsley said.
He said the department needs to work closer with his group for the good of the salmon stock.
The association, Bardsley said, “is
not allowed to sit at the same table as the native groups and say, ‘Let’s work together to figure out how we can
achieve our common goal,’ which is restoring these fish populations.”
A report on recreational salmon fishing in Eastern Canada claims the activity is worth about $130 million
annually, supporting the equivalent of almost 4,000 full-time jobs.
(mlightstone@herald.ca)
Aquaculture Press Conference and Rally
Show your opposition to open net pen salmon
aquaculture!
Monday, June 4, 2012 – 10 am to Noon, Lord Nelson Hotel, Halifax
Please make plans to attend the Atlantic
Coalition for Aquaculture Reform’s big Aquaculture Press Conference & Rally on Monday June 4th, 10am to Noon at
the Lord Nelson Hotel, Halifax. The Hotel is located on South Park Street near the corner of Spring Garden Road, across from
the Public Gardens. The event will be held in the grand ballroom. We will need everyone’s attendance and help to fill
the room, so spread the word and bring your like minded members and friends.
The purpose of this event is to come together
to show our collective opposition to open net-pen salmon feedlots in Nova Scotia’s coastal waters and communities and
to again call for a moratorium and a redirection of provincial support towards sustainable closed-containment systems. Groups
and individuals will be coming from across the province to make a unified show of force. The coalition is growing as are the
calls by the public for a moratorium. But the Nova Scotia government is not listening to the legitimate concerns of lobster
fishers, salmon and trout anglers, tourism operators and local communities who will be affected most. Meanwhile, the salmon
aquaculture industry is making a big push to expand the number of open-net salmon feedlots (so-called “farms”)
throughout coastal Nova Scotia.
The negative impacts of open net pen salmon aquaculture are well known and well documented. Wherever
this industry has been allowed to set up, big problems have followed. These include major disease and parasite outbreaks,
massive amounts of fecal pollution (essentially raw sewage), large numbers of escaped aquaculture fish leading to genetic
“swamping” of local wild salmon populations, precipitous declines in wild salmon and sea trout populations in
nearby rivers, chemical releases into coastal waters leading to harm to other wild species including lobster, and the list
goes on.
Hundreds of letters and e-mails have been sent to the Dexter government pleading with them not to allow
the same mistakes to be made in Nova Scotia’s coastal waters. But all to no avail. The government is stubbornly brushing
off concerns and is welcoming open-net pen salmon feedlots into our waters with open arms. If we hope to stop this environmentally
damaging industry we need to stand together and speak up now. We need to show our government, in a tangible way, that Nova
Scotians refuse to allow salmon feedlots to shoved down our throats and into our precious bays and harbors against our will.
Please, come join us to stand and be counted on Monday, June 4th at 10 am at the Lord Nelson Hotel, Halifax.
A special sneak preview of the upcoming documentary film “Salmon Wars” will also be shown.
For more information contact Ray Plourde – 442-5008, wilderness@ecologyaction.ca
Sign the online petition at: http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-open-net-pen-salmonid-aquaculture-in-nova-scotia
The photograph of a sign protesting salmon farming, posted all along the Nova Scotia’s Eastern
Shore, is truly “a sign of the times”.
DFO Atlantic Salmon Meeting
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) invites
public participation at their annual Atlantic salmon management meeting. The meeting of DFO’s ZMAC 20 Advisory Committee
has been scheduled for Wednesday, June 6, 2012 at the St. Mary’s River Salmon Association, Sherbrooke,
NS. The meeting will begin at 10:30 AM.
Refreshments will be provided.
